Mitt Romney greets the audience at a campaign
Mitt Romney greets the audience at a campaignReuters

President Barack Obama’s support among Jews continues to drop although most polls show his standing is n the rise among the general population.

A survey by TIPP, which says it was the most accurate presidential pollster in the 2004 and 2008 elections, show that only 59 percent of likely Jewish voters will vote for the president, down from 68 percent in Gallup polls in June and July and far from the 78 percent in the final results in 2008.

The TIPP poll, carried to for The Investors Business Daily/Christian Science Monitor, shows Obama leading Mitt Romney by a 59-35 percent margin among Jews.

Overall, the survey gave Obama a two percent lead, while a CNN survey shows the president ahead of Romney by 6 percentage points. Romney and Obama were running nearly neck-and-neck in previous polls, with leads of 1-2 percent.

Obama’s overall support still is less than his 53 percent victory in the last presidential elections.

The importance of the Jewish vote was magnified earlier this year when Republican Bob Turner surprised Democrats with a stinging victory in a special election in Ney York’s 9th district, where there is a large Jewish population. Dissatisfaction of Jews with Obama was largely attributed to his policies towards Israel.

Florida’s large Jewish population is viewed as critical for Romney because all polls show that the state’s Electoral College votes could go to either candidate.

The 35 percent Jewish support for Romney is not far from the 40 percent number in support of Dwight Eisenhower in 1956, the highest backing be Jews for a Republican in nearly a century.

The Democrats still are reeling from the fiasco at last week’s Democratic National Convention, when the party platform omitted any reference to Jerusalem and to G-d. President Obama intervened and restored both topics to the platform, which still did not declare that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.