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Ruben Navarrette: Latinos should keep voting options open
San Diego Times-Union via SacBee ^ | 6/9/8 | Ruben Navarrette

Posted on 06/09/2008 7:47:40 AM PDT by SmithL

Some suggest that Barack Obama should pick Hillary Clinton as his running mate because she can help him do something he has trouble doing on his own: winning Latino votes.

I think an Obama-Clinton ticket is a disastrous idea. Even if that combination made it easier for Democrats to win, it would make it impossible for them to govern. There's a certain meddlesome former president who comes with the deal. And how uncomfortable do you suppose it would be to tap as your vice president the person who invoked the assassination of Robert Kennedy to explain why she was staying in the race?

Still, if Obama wants to make the biggest mistake of his so-far charmed political life, that's his prerogative. But he shouldn't do so on our account. Latinos have enough problems these days without being blamed for how this soap opera turns out.

It is true that Obama has struggled with the Hispanic demographic.

Just look at Hispanic women, an important subset of that group.

According to a recent Gallup poll, 62 percent of them who vote Democratic support Clinton; only 32 percent support Obama. The Clinton brand still holds a lot of appeal for Latinos. Besides, Obama was slow to reach out to those voters, giving his opponent a sizable head start. Hillary took advantage, working that population long and hard to get out the vote.

But it's nothing more sinister than that. Some pundits have implied that Latinos are racist and thus resistant to the idea of supporting a black man for president. That's preposterous, not to mention slanderous. And, curiously, it's a charge you don't often hear leveled at the white women and senior citizens who also preferred Clinton to Obama by wide margins.

(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: dreamticket; pandering

1 posted on 06/09/2008 7:47:41 AM PDT by SmithL
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To: SmithL

what trouble does he have doing on his own, standing up to pee?


2 posted on 06/09/2008 7:52:37 AM PDT by Piquaboy (22 year veteran of the Army, Air Force and Navy, Pray for all our military .)
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To: SmithL

The racist Navarette spews again. Juan Hernandez and his merry band of illegals remain the winners, regardless.


3 posted on 06/09/2008 7:56:19 AM PDT by TADSLOS (The GOP death march to the gravesite is underway.)
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To: SmithL

Navarette may be a jerk, but believe me, most Hispanics realize that Obama hates them almost as much as he hates non-Hispanic whites. (For one thing, many Hispanics actually do start businesses, get ahead, and prosper without the government.)

Obama is going to be making a big play for Hispanics, but I think he has a lot of work to do.


4 posted on 06/09/2008 8:28:52 AM PDT by livius
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To: livius
I agree. I think McCain is going to take a large percentage of the Hispanic vote. Many of us are in the fixed income tax brackets that Obama wants to punish.
5 posted on 06/09/2008 8:51:56 AM PDT by californio (Coast Guard Vet/ 211 Dick)
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To: SmithL

Latinos are racist? “La Raza.” Who would have thought?


6 posted on 06/09/2008 9:19:13 AM PDT by doug from upland (Stopping Hillary should be a FreeRepublic Manhattan Project)
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To: doug from upland
"La Raza" only applies to Mexicans. Basically, it is understood in the Mexican context to mean "the people."

It does, however, have rather nefarious roots. "La Raza Cosmica" was developed by the neo-Hegelian philosopher Jose Vasconcelos as a means to form a common cultural identity, and to assert this identity in the face of the white supremacist doctrines coming out of European positivism at the time. The main thesis of La Raza Cosmica (per Vasconcelos) is that Mexicans combine the rationality of the European with the spiritual values of the Indian (this is a simplified version of the thesis, but says alot toward understanding it).

Keep in mind this was developed at a time when social Darwinism was the order of the day, and "survival of the fittest" through evolution and racial superiority were of common currency throughout the world.

7 posted on 06/09/2008 11:41:37 AM PDT by Clemenza (No Comment)
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To: doug from upland

In the immortal words of Gen. George Patton, “Show me a commander who says he does not have a race problem in his unit, and I will show you one dumb sonuvabitch.” There is extensive brown-on-black racism, and the votes this November will bear that out. Obama has a problem with racists IN THE DEMOCRAT PARTY.


8 posted on 06/09/2008 2:13:06 PM PDT by darth
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To: SmithL
Obama was slow to reach out to those voters

what is that supposed to mean, Mr. Navarrette? Can't you call them something more human that "those voters"?

9 posted on 06/09/2008 3:35:31 PM PDT by san pancho
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