Happy Rosh Hashanah, Rick Perry! Poll Finds One Florida Jew Who'd Pick Perry Over Obama

By Matthew Hendley Thu., Sep. 29 2011 at 1:50 PM

Categories: Election

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Texas Gov. Rick Perry

Rosh Hashanah probably isn't Texas Gov. Rick Perry's favorite holiday. Aside from the fact that he's not Jewish, he'll also find out today that Florida Jews don't want him to be president.

Public Policy Polling released the second part of its survey of Florida voters today, finding that President Obama wouldn't have that tough of a time winning the state over Perry in the presidential race, especially after the pollsters found just a single Jew out of the 476 voters surveyed who'd pick Perry over Obama.

"Florida makes it pretty clear that out of the two Republican frontrunners, there's one who can beat Barack Obama and one who can't," Public Policy Polling President Dean Debnam says. "There's no way the GOP wins next year without Florida, and it doesn't look like Rick Perry can do that."

The Republican frontrunner who could beat Obama, the pollsters found, is former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

Obama beat Romney in the poll 46-45, much closer than Perry, who trailed Obama 50-43.

Texas Rep. Ron Paul also came close to Obama -- which PPP calls a "surprise" -- with the president leading Paul 45-44. Of the 11 percent undecided in the Obama/Paul matchup, 27 percent identified themselves as "somewhat" or "very" conservative.

In every hypothetical election matchup between Obama and a Republican candidate, moderates preferred Obama by at least a 25-point margin.

The moral of the story, though, is that Perry has a Florida Jew problem.

Just 5 percent of the Jews surveyed said they had a favorable view of Perry, compared to 14 percent for former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, 15 percent for Paul, 16 percent for Romney, 17 percent for Rep. Michele Bachmann, and 76 for President Obama.

Sixty-one percent of Jews said they approved of Obama's leadership on Israel, compared to 31 percent disapproving. Out of all religious preferences, just 42 percent approve of how the president is handling Israel, compared to 49 percent who disapprove.

PPP says 43 percent of the poll's respondents identified themselves as conservative, 24 percent said they were liberal, and 32 percent said moderate.

Click here for the full survey results.

Follow The Pulp on Facebook and on Twitter: @ThePulpBPB. Follow Matthew Hendley on Facebook and on Twitter: @MatthewHendley.

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