10.10.2011                      13.Cheschwan. 5772

Feature:

Israel Factor: Only Romney better than Obama

See what our panel thinks of the candidates one year before the November 2012 US presidential election.

It’s been a while since our last Israel Factor survey, and it is time to revisit our panel and see what it thinks. The bottom line: exactly one year before the 2012 election day our experts think that US-Israel relations have not much improved, that the Democratic Jewish vote might be in some danger, that Obama is not the best candidate for Israel, but is still better than most Republican candidates, that congressional Republicans might not be as good for Israel as some people believe. And they like the idea of President Mitt Romney. Really like it.
Romney – on top of the list of favorable candidates last time – is still on top and keeps climbing. So much so that – surprise – he does even better than all-time-favorite Rudy Giuliani (Romney with 7.9, Giuliani, not a candidate but was still on the Israel Factor list for the sake of making comparisons, with 7.17). Both do better than Obama (with 7), but they are the only Republican prospective candidates to do better than the President. This makes this survey much different than the previous one, in which Obama lagged behind Gingrich, Perry and Santorum and was tied with Huntsman….