http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/oct/13/uselection-vote-florida-obamaThis year Kenny Furst came close to breaking the habit of a lifetime. Brought up in a Jewish neighbourhood in the Bronx, New York, under Roosevelt's New Deal, he is and always has been a Democrat. But this year, for the first time, the 90-year-old was veering towards voting Republican or not at all.
The problem was Barack Obama. "He's the first Democratic candidate I haven't been sure about. As far as I was concerned he was connected with the Arabs," Furst said, speaking in Tamarac, Florida, where he retired to 18 years ago.
For his wife Selma, 87, as for many Jewish Americans, the ties to the Democratic party were also umbilical. Yet she did not like the idea of an African American president, and was worried about rumours that Obama was a secret Muslim. Then something happened.
Their grandson announced he was flying from Los Angeles, 2,500 miles away, to visit. Mike Bender had learned of an internet-driven initiative to get young Jewish voters to make a "great schlep" to Florida to persuade their wavering grandparents to vote for Obama.
(snip)
From most schleppers' experiences, the unbending hostility of Lenny was the exception. Many reported a warm reception from most Jewish Americans in Florida who are already in the Obama camp. Others notched up success stories, including Bender's grandparents.
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