Jews support Democratic candidates…less than before

The AP is carrying a story headlined as “U.S. Jews back Democratic Candidates”:

NEW YORK - U.S. Jews would overwhelmingly support any major Democratic candidate over President Bush if the election were held today, according to the 2004 Annual Survey of American Jewish Opinion.

But David Bernstein on the Volokh Conspiracy looks deeper into the numbers and titles his post “Bad News for the Dems”:

In one-on-one matchups with the president, Howard Dean, Wesley Clark, John Kerry and Richard Gephardt would each receive about 60 percent of the Jewish vote, compared to about 30 percent for Bush, according to the survey conducted for the American Jewish Committee and released Monday.
30% would be about double Bush's total in 2000 among Jews….

Also, the article notes a "slight" increase in Jewish identification as Republicans from 9 to 16%. That's not slight, that's almost double!

Another example of “liberal cocooning” or just sloppy reporting? You decide.