Why Don’t Latinos Vote for Barack? A Comment…
A good friend of mine commented on a recent post asking, “Why Don’t Latinos Vote for Obama? Ask Racism,” and I could not help but pull her comment up above the fold:
You can’t be surprised – Americans have a long history of voting on the “like” ticket. They vote for candidates they feel are “like” them – color, background, gender with a glancing consideration of the candidate’s issues. It’s the main reason we’re in the socio-economic cesspool we’re in now.
We can piss and moan about the obvious racial divide or the Obama camp can realize that running the creds up the flagpole isn’t going to cut it. You can cry all you want about politicking as usual, but if we want to have a unified party with a shot of sitting in the White House, we need to put a smorgasbord of food on the political table so everyone gets to eat.
There’s a great article in the New York Times (In Obama’s Pursuit of Latinos, Race Plays Role) that lists a few key things that I believe are key.
1. Hillary has a track record. Whether you think it’s contrived, or derived (from being First Lady), it doesn’t matter to the masses. Obama needs to do a better job of tooting his horn in the trenches of the Hispanic community.
2. ¿dónde está Michelle? – Michelle Obama is equally as poised, educated and personable as Hillary and her presence would go a long way towards the family/maternal image of the Obamas and she is more than qualified to spread his message. She is also a key adviser as to how to spread his message in private, grass-roots channels and I hope he takes her advice in the weeks to come to build that momentum and a few bridges as well.
3. Person(a) versus politics – Barack Obama’s message, politics and ideas are about as honest as I’ve seen in a long time (and I’m no newbie cynic to be snowed). But often, the persona is bigger than the politics. Does any Republican honestly remember the first thing they can recall about Dubya other than his Texas drawl and his promises? We need an image to wrap our brains around, a persona to grab our attention. The trick is for Obama to balance that refreshing honesty with something that grabs our attention. It doesn’t matter if the speech is great – it’s like a direct mail piece, you have 10 seconds to make me want to open the envelope.
4. Hillary as a running mate – it’s gotta be on the table. While I believe there may be more “golden” ticket candidates, I believe this is the more party unifying one, no matter what the staunchest Hillary delgates say.
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Truth…It’s What’s for Dinner
Thank you SportBabe for a very insightful comment.
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