Obama and McCain face Latino challenge
USA,_ Marcelo Ballve of New America Media has written an interesting and thought provoking look at the Latino jump ball in this fall’s general election.
Hillary Clinton commanded Latino attention, support and loyalty throughout the contest, they kept her in the game for much of the year and were keys to most of her biggest victories. Now to where poses Ballve. If Latinos supported her more than 2:1, McCain has a track record of high Latino support in his home state elections but has back pedaled on long time immigration positions and is now floating a “divide and conquer” proposal among citizens and immigrants and Obama struggled to barely win the Latino vote in his home state, then everything and everyone is still up for grabs.
What is now referred to as the old “tamale politics” is looked back at with some skepticism today. Did it ever work? Of course it did in several ways. One was that it forecasted things to come and set some cultural tones as marketing does in any field. After Kennedy whipped him with the Viva Kennedy Clubs even Richard Nixon came back with “ahora es cuando” in his campaigns.
It was the best they could do in their times but fortunately many things have changed and advanced presenting the opportunities this year that are dramatically different and good. A good guess is that with several states hanging in the balance of Latino voting both camps will find their range and put their best foot forward in courting and investing (a la super delegate Steven Ybarra) in the Latino market future. The only dumb idea surfaced so far is the one highlighted by Pilar Marrero in La Opinion, “Speaking in Arizona on May 5 (the “Cinco de Mayo” festivities), McCain tried out what seems to be a new angle: blue-collar Latinos, he said, are harmed by the inflow of undocumented immigrants, and should be sympathetic toward securing the border before demanding an integral solution.
Marrero concludes: If this divide-and-conquer approach is McCain’s Latino strategy, “I wish him luck.” McCain will need to straddle the line between his would be Latino supporters and his highly anti Latino/immigrant party core.
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