POLITCS: Obama's Next Problem: Jewish Voters

That same poll showing lots of Americans think President Obama is Muslim has another troubling nugget for the White House, writes Charles Blow: A sizable number of Jewish voters seem to be abandoning President Obama. In the Pew poll, 33% of Jews describe themselves as Republican or independent—up by more than half since Obama's election—and the ratio of Democratic Jews to Republican Jews has gone from 3:1 to 2:1.

What's going on? "Criticisms are crystallizing into a shared belief among many: Obama is burning bridges with the Jewish community in order to build bridges to the Muslim world," writes Blow in the New York Times. It may not be fair, but it's becoming political truth. The upcoming Israeli-Palestinian talks provide a test: "The administration has to decide how heavy its hand will be in guiding these discussions and what its tone will be with the two parties—who gets the tough love and who gets the free love."