Election Coverage: Al Jazeera vs Jerusalem Post

Reading Al-Jazeera's editorials relating to the 2012 presidential election, a distinct Anti-Romney theme starts to emerge. Al-Jazeera US 2012 homepage

If Americans paid any attention to the foreign press, Mitt Romney might be in trouble. But as long as the Republican nominee for president keeps blurting needlessly provocative statements overseas in the dog days of summer, he will probably be fine. All that mud-slinging can wait until the weather cools off.

From "The Truth about Mitt Romney."

While no one has a monopoly on ego defence mechanisms, the post-Bush Republican Party has an awful lot more to be defensive about. Beyond that, the recently-published book, The Republican Brain, presents an overview of wide-ranging scientific evidence that conservatives are more inclined to ideologically reject science and empirical evidence than liberals are.

From "How the Republican Brain Plays defense."

While articles are majority pro-Obama, some are pretty centrist and others are opposed to both parties.

Now to examine Jerusalem Post's coverage: www.jpost.com...

I was, perhaps unfairly, expecting a more pro-Romney take on things. Romney has emphasized the American-Israeli alliance at every opportunity.

Tracking from June 1 - June 26 found that Jewish registered voters favored Obama over his Republican challenger by 68 percent to 25%. This represents similar support levels as the last Gallup poll, taken in April-June 2012, which found that 64% of Jews supported Obama while 29% supported Romney.

The battle for Jewish votes is likely to be more intense than ever in this election campaign, given the closeness of the race, the importance of the Jewish vote in key swing states such as Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio and even Nevada, and the perception among some American Jews that Obama’s polices have been detrimental to Israel.

I hadn't realized the Jewish vote was this far in Obama's favor, and it makes sense that Romney visited Israel about a month ago.

Romney’s visit to Israel – his fourth – is widely considered an effort to woo pro-Israel voters in the US, both Jews and Evangelical Christians, many of whom are discontent with the Middle East policies of President Barack Obama.

All in all, Jerusalem Post covers the election in an essentially non-aligned fashion. The obvious explanation being that they expect US support regardless of the outcome.

While the paper itself gives little bias, an article from 8/16 shows results in line with my expectations.

The day after the National Jewish Democratic Council uploaded a video of Sderot residents singing US President Barack Obama’s praises, a poll released Thursday shows Israeli Jews – by a 2:1 ratio – believe Republican hopeful Mitt Romney is more concerned about Israel’s interests than Obama.

A bit of a paradox, American Jews favor Obama where Israelis are with Romney or at best even.


At this point, despite disagreeing with most of Obama's domestic policy, I am leaning toward voting for him because of international implications. Given the enhanced freedom of a second term, Obama may have an opportunity to broker a Palestinian treaty. I see Romney as more likely to maintain the status quo in Israel. Also, Obama is more favored in East Asia and could build the foundation for a cooperative US-Chinese relationship in the 21st century.

America can avoid fiscal collapse in the next four years with Democrats, and maybe even make slow progress on debt. We can not, however, afford increasing hostilities from Arab countries and China that may come with a Republican administration.

So in short, my argument is in favor of Obama based on his potential to be a great diplomat and this despite my views with regard to federal spending being much more in line with Republicans.

And a more important argument is to read some international news sources.

It's a shame that you disagree with him in domestic matters, as they too are very human.
Not only is he concerned about the misery in the world, he also wants his own people to live under decent circumstances. It is strange that the American mentality goes against the well-being of their own people.
Of course everyone should have to right to prosper, and when you do, isn't it just fair to thank the country for the opportunity, pay taxes so that America can once more give as good chances as it possibly can to the next person who wants to make it?

Taking it to an extreme as in "every man for himself" evidently leads to the fact that you have people working for slave-like conditions - no salary, only tips, and if you get ill, tough luck. Yet these people serve the richer well.

Sorry, slightly off topic.

Subtle Endorsements as world leaders weigh in on Romney-Obama

Although not endorsing Obama, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad criticized Romney for visiting Israel, saying he was "kissing the foot" of the Jewish state in order to "get some pennies for (his) campaign."

In March, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei remarked on Obama, saying, "Two days ago, we heard the president of America say: 'We are not thinking of war with Iran.' This is good. Very good. It is a wise word. This is an exit from illusion."

Obama's not the only one who may have support from other national leaders, however. "The taboo of commenting on a fellow world leaders' election chances does seem a little silly at times," Joshua Keating wrote at Foreign Policy. "For instance, it seems pretty obvious that Benjamin Netanyahu would prefer to see his old friend Mitt Romney in the White House next year." Israel's prime minister Benj

Article also notes that Obama has received subtle endorsements from Cameron(UK), Sarkozy (France), but Angela Merkel (Germany) may be more in line with Romney, the two are expected to meet before election.

reply to post by Consequence


No, good reply.

I agree with Obama's ideals of helping the poor and struggling, but I lean more toward these issues being handled at a more local level.

reply to post by PatrickGarrow17


This is very off-topic, but I wouldn't mind hearing your suggestions on how to do this on a local level. Wouldn't mind if you told more about that, in a new thread or a PM.