Obama Surge Stalls with Latinos
New America Media, Commentary, Earl Ofari Hutchinson , Posted: Dec 17, 2007
Editor's Note: Regardless of the campaigning Barack Obama does in places like San Antonio, his ranking among Latinos is barely over 5 percent -- according to a recent poll. New America Media associate editor Earl Ofari Hutchinson argues that he may never be able to cross the divide that separates blacks and Latinos. Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His new book is The Latino Challenge to Black America: Towards a Conversation between African-Americans and Hispanics (Middle Passage Press).
A local Latino rhythm-and-dance troupe gyrated on a stage emblazoned with brown plastic cacti and colorful piñatas. The group was a warm-up act for the main event: A speech by Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on a campaign stop in heavily Hispanic San Antonio, TX., last July.
Mercifully, Obama didn’t pander -- as some candidates have done -- and toss out a Berlitz-sounding punch line or two in Spanish. But the crowd listened respectfully to Obama’s stock pitch that he’s the best candidate to make change and to address the needs of Latino voters. He even brashly attempted to wrap himself in the mantle of Cesar Chavez, the beloved and revered 1960s Latino labor leader and civil rights icon.
It didn’t do much for him. Polls still showed that he wallowed at the bottom in Latino voter support. Six months later, even while the apparent Obama surge sets tongues wagging, he still wallows near the bottom with Latino voters. A new poll by Impremedia for Spanish-language newspapers found that Hillary Clinton is still the runaway choice over Obama among Latino voters in California, Illinois, New York, Florida and Texas. These are the five states with the biggest number and percentage of Latino voters. California and New York are solidly Democratic and not in play for the GOP. Texas is solidly Republican and not in play for the Democrats. Florida and Illinois are in play. Both will be hotly contested, and Latino numbers and voters have soared in both states. But it’s Florida where the Latino vote can make or break the Democratic nominee.
The Clinton edge over Obama is huge there, and the task and worry for Obama is what to do about it. It’s daunting, but it also tells why the apparent Obama surge has ground to a clunk among Latino voters. One explanation for the stall is explainable and understandable. It’s a matter of politics and comfortability. The other explanation for his stall is ugly and uncomfortable. Latino voters overwhelmingly back Democrats. And as the GOP candidates continue to shoot themselves in the foot with Latino voters on immigration, the defections from the GOP have gone from a trickle to a flood. That helps Clinton. She’s the top and best-known Democrat. Latinos cheer her stance on health care, and education, and they like Bill. They backed him in big numbers for president in 1992 and in even big numbers for his reelection in 1996.
It’s just the opposite with Obama. He’s still too new, too untested, and with virtually no widely known track record on bi-lingual education, immigration reform, and family and values issues. He remains too much of an unknown quantity to engender much support, let alone enthusiasm, at least at this point among a significant percent of Latino voters.
But Obama also bucks up against another problem; a problem that’s not of his making, yet he’s an unintended victim of. That’s the latent and sometimes open tensions and hostilities that flare between blacks and Latinos. They exploded to the surface in some cities such as Los Angeles over jobs, and immigration, and at times have exploded in gang and prison violence. That could severely damage Obama’s court of Latino voters in the nation’s biggest delegate state, California. In Los Angeles County, Latinos make up nearly one-third of the voters.
The contentiousness leaped off the page in a recent poll by the ethnic media consortium New America Media. It found much mistrust and fear among a big percent of blacks and Latinos toward each other. That animosity has been badly marred by vicious and vile stereotypes about each other. In the poll, a slight majority of blacks finger pointed Latinos for taking jobs from blacks and eroding their political power. A near majority of Latinos finger-pointed blacks as crime prone and were fearful of them. A majority of Latinos said that they preferred to do business with whites. Few Latinos they preferred to do business with blacks.
Obama will do everything he can to whittle a point or two off the colossal gap that Clinton holds over him among Latinos. He will show up at every major Latino political event and gathering, will air a torrent of Spanish language ads in suddenly turned swing states such as Nevada, and will try to corral endorsements from the few top gun Latino elected officials that haven’t committed to Clinton. He will talk about his early days as a community organizer in Southside Chicago, in which he worked to combat poverty among blacks and Latino.
That won’t be enough to trump the lingering and troubling fear and mistrust that make a black candidate, no matter how seemingly appealing and attractive to other voters, too much of a risk factor for far too many Latino voters to back.
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User Comments
Cherubim on Jan 13, 2008 at 05:24:29 said:
Please consider what I am about to say.
I am a black American female from the state of California.
I will be voting for John Edwards in the California Primary.
He is the strongest candidate the Democratic Party can put forward
to defeat and win against the Republicans.
Please do not drink the Kool-Aid being served by the owners of the
media and their paid on air broadcast whores, no matter how
many times they bring it around.
John Edwards has spent his life fighting the entrenched
corporate powers. Hillary Clinton is one of the corporate elites,
and my dear brother, Barack Obama, he is very naive. He is
being used by the same corporate elites as those Hillary Clinton
is a part of.
At this time in our history, it is crucial for the, American poor and
American middle class, white and black, to have a candidate
whose allegiance is to the American people, and not
some unknown foreign interests.
I wish I knew what else to say to convince you to vote for
Senator John Edwards. Here is a little known reported fact:
Edwards beats all Republicans in Ohio and NC when matched up,
and Clinton and Obama do not.
Allow me to quote something I read written by another person from California:
"I am a Edwards supporter and I will be with him to the convention and the end. I'm a liberal Democrat and I'm tired of Democratic Party leaders pushing Clinton and Obama down our throat. They know longer represent our interest. They're in the pocket of corporate America. We in California watched as a oil company raised our heating prices. Health care, just look at the medicare mess. Move on criticize a general, a Democratic leader went after Bush and what did our congressional leaders do, they censored them. Pelosi complains about anti-war demonstrators at her home but the Iraqi War was the reason she became majority leader. Feinstein supports an attorney general that can't figure out that water boarding is torture. When some want to censor her, we're told by California leadership that the left who question her don't matter. Hillary moves to the center. She is no longer a liberal Democrat. She's a progressive. We had NAFTA from her husband's administration. She supported the latest trade agreement. Obama wants to compromise with these people. We who are liberal have compromised enough. Just look at our country. No one wants to raise taxes, so our schools, our roads and our state parks will take a hit and the rich will get richer and more of the young men from the middle class and lower class will go to war, a war that our present President wants to continue for another ten years. We need Edwards in this race. He represents us and he is ready to fight for us."
In closing let me say: if you are from one of the early primary states like South Carolina, we in California are counting on you to allow us to have our chance to still have a choice
to vote for John Edwards for President of the United States.
God Help Us All.
denise on Dec 26, 2007 at 20:18:08 said:
I think that obama is fair in what he is saying because it is true . And in that do you think that you would be here if it wasn't for black people making a change that you and your people claim to . Because I don't see it so get it right and give thanks to where it is well deserved. we have been working way before yall have hard at that. And its been given to yall for free simply because the claim its that your culture is the new minority.so take that
Super Mex on Dec 18, 2007 at 19:47:30 said:
Ken Burns (The War)endorses Obama
So Obama is greatful to receive the endorsement of \"ken burns\". Well let me tell you I am a Latino Vietnam veteran who served our country proudly and I can also tell you that the greatful Obama just lost my vote be it in the primary or general election. This guy \"ken burns\" as shown the millions of American Latino veterans no respect. This creature (ken burns) would not give an American Latino serving in Iraq the time of day much less a drop of water. In fact he would rather give Osama bin Laden that drop water.
Obama the ground swell is just getting started.
I am sure that ever Latino veteran and his family will be thinking of \"ken burns\" when they walk or wheel chair into the voting booth.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson, I really enjoy reading your articles and basically agree with your social agenda views. Pease do not forget to mention Presidential canidate Bill Richardson when when analyzing Latino voter interest.
Please keep in mind that Latino veterans are anything but enamored with "ken burns" (The War).
joshua martin on Dec 18, 2007 at 17:42:17 said:
thats so real
Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar on Dec 18, 2007 at 08:21:40 said:
Thanks for helping spread the word about the importance of the Latino vote. But I think it's also important to spread the word about what Senator Obama's done to move us ahead on some of the issues that matter most to Latino voters across the country.
during the recent debate over immigration policy, he emphasized preserving family unity as a touchstone of our immigration policy. He has unambiguously supported state policies that provide access to driver's licenses because of public health and public safety imperatives. Furthermore, he has established a high-level working group within his campaign to analyze more complex issues in immigration policy, such as improving how the federal government is organized to implement effective migration policy, and combining improved training and education opportunities for U.S. workers with immigration reforms that attract skilled workers. In his policy proposals and public pronouncements, he has shown an uncommon recognition of the connections between immigration policy and other critical issues that our country faces, such as trust in government and security.
In fact, Barack Obama has spent his career helping to address major policy challenges facing Latinos, including immigration, health care, criminal justice, and the role of the military. He was an architect of efforts in Illinois to better integrate new permanent residents and citizens into the web of communities and professional opportunities that can foster a productive role in society. To help immigrants attain their full measure of promise as educated citizens in a democratic society, he passed the Illinois version of the DREAM Act and has supported the DREAM Act in the U.S. Senate. He called national attention to an unacceptably high Latino dropout rate, and called on Congress and the American people to reconsider harsh mandatory minimum sentences of dubious value that often disproportionately impact African Americans and Latinos. And perhaps most important, he has focused attention on these issues during a campaign that might have otherwise neglected them.
Sincerely,
Mariano-Florentino Cuellar
Professor, Stanford Law School
Mr. Unite Us on Dec 17, 2007 at 19:59:46 said:
Please capitalize when referring to Blacks the same as you do when referring to Latinos.
-->From APA STYLE GUIDE
"Racial/ethnic groups are designated by proper nouns and are capitalized. When names of colors are used to refer to human groups, they are capitalized (e.g., Blacks instead of blacks; Whites instead of whites). Hyphens are not used in multiword labels (e.g., Mexican Americans instead of Mexican-Americans)"
apastyle.apa.org/race.html
Excellent Article on the subject
by Aly Colon
Black, black, or African American?
www.poynter.org/dg.lts/id.58/aid.51320/column.htm