For Jewish Questioner, Debate Settled It

Susan Katz Image by youtube

Nathan Guttman October 17, 2012

Jews aren’t known to be swing voters. Most, in fact, hold strong political convictions and are not easily swayed.

Still, as Gal Beckerman noted, there were a whole lot of folks with Jewish names asking questions at the Tuesday night presidential debate — and all were undecided voters.

Well, not any more.

At least one, Susan Katz, was so convinced with President Obama’s showing at the debate, that she decided to give him her vote on November 6. “I saw in President Obama someone who has ripened with time. He deserves another four years to see his vision through,” Katz told Politico.

Katz asked Mitt Romney how he would be different from former president George W. Bush, a question that could give away at least a little of her political tendencies.

Going down the list of Jewish names, Adelphi University junior Jeremy Epstein, who got to ask the first question in the debate, remains undecided. He told Newsday that he liked Romney’s answer to his question about the chances of a college student like himself to find a job after graduation. He did not, however, like Romney’s style and thought Obama was more “personable.”

In the informal chat with both candidates after the debate was over, Epstein, 20, challenged the president to a pickup basketball game.

And Politico reports that another Jewish sounding name, Kerry Ladke (the name that sounded to many like Latke) is also still undecided after hearing Obama and Romney’s responses to his question about the attack on U.S. diplomats in Benghazi, Libya.

Nathan Guttman, staff writer, was the Forward’s Washington bureau chief. He joined the staff in 2006 after serving for five years as Washington correspondent for the Israeli dailies Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post. In Israel, he was the features editor for Ha’aretz and chief editor of Channel 1 TV evening news. He was born in Canada and grew up in Israel. He is a graduate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Forward. Discover more perspectives in Opinion. To contact Opinion authors, email [email protected].

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