Posted on 06/07/2012 6:54:33 AM PDT by Kaslin
No wonder Republicans can't even get 40 percent of Latino votes in a presidential election.
When Mitt Romney made his first big push to appeal to Latinos earlier this week in Texas, he hammered the "Obama economy" for being "particularly hard on Hispanic businesses and Hispanic Americans."
He pointed out the grim statistics -- an unemployment rate for Latinos of 11 percent and a poverty rate of 30 percent. And he stressed that the Obama regime's economic policies are hostile to the small businesses and entrepreneurs that traditionally provide many of the jobs in the Hispanic community.
Everything Romney said was true. But he delivered the wrong message in the wrong place. Texas is a Republican stronghold. Romney couldn't lose the Lone Star State this fall if he promised on Day One of his presidency to outlaw cattle, oil and gas.
Where Mitt should be stumping for Latino votes is in the contested states of Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Florida. That's where the election is going to be won or lost. That's where the Latinos he needs to persuade are concentrated.
Unfortunately for Romney, he's in serious trouble with Latinos. According to a poll last month, he trails Obama 61 to 27 percent among Latinos. It's nothing new. Latinos generally vote 2-1 Democrat.
In 2004, Republicans thought they went to heaven when President Bush got 44 percent of the Latino vote. But in 2008 it was back to the usual slaughter. Obama and Biden out-pointed McCain and Palin among Latinos by a margin of 67-31.
It's hard to blame Latinos for not liking Republicans. The GOP only pays attention to them in election years. And when it courts the Latino community, the GOP doesn't shape its message to fit their needs or appeal to their conservative family values; it delivers tired economic boilerplate about the benefits of lower taxes.
Romney needs to customize and personalize his message to Latinos voters. He also badly needs someone in his party to help him deliver it. If that sounds like a job for Super Marco Rubio, it's not. Everyone's favorite VP pick isn't the only Latino kid on the Republican block.
Have you heard of Gov. Susana Martinez of New Mexico and Gov. Brian Sandoval of Nevada? Didn't think so. Don't feel bad. Apparently no one in the GOP has either.
In 2010 Martinez and Sandoval -- young, smart, popular and Latino -- won easily in heavily Latino states. As Republicans. Both obviously figured out how to appeal to the independent and Democrat voters.
Sandoval beat Harry Reid's son in a state that's 26 percent Latino. Martinez was elected in a state that's half Latino and has three times as many Democrats as Republicans. How did she win the New Mexico governor's office?
Not by talking about the differences between Democrats and Republicans. Not about talking about taxes. She won by appealing to the values that Republicans and Latinos share: Who are we as a country? Where are we going?
Today Martinez has a 70 percent approval rating and is the unsung hero of the Republican Party. She's the first elected Latina governor in the history of the United States, and the GOP can't seem to find her even though she is right there in plain view.
Romney shouldn't necessarily pick Martinez as his VP, as some have suggested. But he should pick her brain. And when Mitt goes courting Latino votes in tough toss-up states like Colorado or Florida, the GOP should make sure Martinez or Sandoval is attached to his hip.
That’s why we need Marco Rubio in the VP slot.
It's also hard to blame Republicans for not liking Latinos.
Except for Cubans, Latinos overwhelmingly reject the basic principles of Conservatism.
For the last 20 years, non-Cuban Latinos have voted 70%-75% for Democrat congressmen and senators.
As a political group, they are European Socialists, heart and soul.
You’re out of your mind.
Let's not forget or dismiss the cheese-head vote that was just cast from Madison, Wis on Tues. A modest 119% Turnout! Not even old man Daley and the Chicago Machine of the 60's could pull that off.
So Gov Walker needs to grab the reins like FL did and get the dead, illegal and 'students' -- who are registered three or four times, off the voter rolls. Now Walker will have a harder time as the SOS was a Geo Soros hand-picked and funded candidate. But Walker needs to give it a go anyway. And if when Holder sticks his nose in, shove a Cow Pie in his face.
BTW, I think I found 'my problem' - it's my Firefox ver 11 'upgrade'. 100's of complaints on the Mozilla website about it and the newer ver 13 for Win 7.
THIS MADE ME LAUGH OUT LOUD Ohaha and his braindead campaign team stayed out of the WI recall-—stupidly believing all the union propaganda——b/c they are using the same strategy. “Dems CANNOT possibly lose—after all they have BIG Unions behind them.”
The Ohahas have no clue WRT Fla——that Americans are watching and deploring his self-serving tactics to undermine the voting process by forcing FLA to keep
illegals on the voter rolls.
You’re out of your mind.
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Can you back up your accusation with something substantive?
Tell you what - you provide substantiation that the republican party is ‘mean-spirited, uncompromising, and harbors non-compassionate hatred of anyone, or anything, that looks or sounds Latino’ and I’ll apologize for calling you nuts.
Go back and look at the Primary Process we just went through; especially the Debates. And see how they tried to “one-up” each other by showing how anti-immigrant they were by not being willing to consider a viable road to citizenship for young immigrants brought here by, or born here to, parents who came here illegally. They have grown up here, been educated here, served here in our Military, etc. But, the GOP seems to not even be willing to try to work out a sensible solution. You had meat-heads like Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum wanting to put 11 million people on buses and take them back to Mexico. They all just wanted to prove that they were anti-Amnesty. Well, aren’t we all? But, there has to be a sensible solution. You don’t just throw the baby out with the bath water. Are we not smart enough to come up with a workable solution to the immigrant problem.
As a High School teacher, I see many bright, good kids who have grown up here, the offsprings of Illegal Immigrants. They do not deserve to be severly punished and separated from their families. Rick Perry tried to explain why it was only right to let them attend State Colleges with the same rights and privileges of the white kids they grew up with and went to school with their entire life. He was excoriated by his GOP opponents and many Conservatives.
All Republicans would have to do is show that they don’t hate Latinos and are willing to work out a solution to the Immigrant problem; but they won’t. They would rather try to be the John Wayne of the GOP. Even Marco Rubio told them they’d best get their act together or the Hispanic vote would put Barack Obama back in the White House for 4 more years. And they have the numbers to do it.
It’s late and I could go on and on. But, I’m tired of trying to explain. Ask any political pundit what kind of rapport the GOP has with the Hispanic community. You’ll find that I am NOT nuts. I just want to see Obama out of the White House. We need to get, at least, some of the Hispanic vote to accomplish that.
Go back and look at the Primary Process we just went through; especially the Debates. And see how they tried to “one-up” each other by showing how anti-immigrant they were by not being willing to consider a viable road to citizenship for young immigrants brought here by, or born here to, parents who came here illegally. They have grown up here, been educated here, served here in our Military, etc. But, the GOP seems to not even be willing to try to work out a sensible solution. You had meat-heads like Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum wanting to put 11 million people on buses and take them back to Mexico. They all just wanted to prove that they were anti-Amnesty. Well, aren’t we all? But, there has to be a sensible solution. You don’t just throw the baby out with the bath water. Are we not smart enough to come up with a workable solution to the immigrant problem.
As a High School teacher, I see many bright, good kids who have grown up here, the offsprings of Illegal Immigrants. They do not deserve to be severly punished and separated from their families. Rick Perry tried to explain why it was only right to let them attend State Colleges with the same rights and privileges of the white kids they grew up with and went to school with their entire life. He was excoriated by his GOP opponents and many Conservatives.
All Republicans would have to do is show that they don’t hate Latinos and are willing to work out a solution to the Immigrant problem; but they won’t. They would rather try to be the John Wayne of the GOP. Even Marco Rubio told them they’d best get their act together or the Hispanic vote would put Barack Obama back in the White House for 4 more years. And they have the numbers to do it.
It’s late and I could go on and on. But, I’m tired of trying to explain. Ask any political pundit what kind of rapport the GOP has with the Hispanic community. You’ll find that I am NOT nuts. I just want to see Obama out of the White House. We need to get, at least, some of the Hispanic vote to accomplish that.
Don't bother claiming to be anti-amnesty, you are clearly not. We've had your kind around here for years and have heard the argument & cliches you're tossing around dozens of times. Its sounds more ridiculous each time.
First, it doesn't matter how many nice kids you personally know, it is beyond debate that illegal immigration is costing all of us dearly - financially, politically and socially. Second, I'm surprised a person in your position believes the only way to reach Americans of hispanics heritage is by granting an amnesty to illegals. Strikes me as an insulting stereotype. Americans of all heritages know there already is a path to citizenship. Why should illegals be exempt simply because they successfully slipped over the border?
We've tried the amnesty route before - we were promised it would be the 'last time'. And it was a disaster. We will not allow political cowards and panderers to sucker us again. We just want our leaders to do the right thing and enforce our laws. In factthe truth is exactly opposite of what you believe - if the GOP refuses to do the right thing the party will cease to exist.
I’m not for Amnesty and I want our leaders to enforce the laws. This might surprise you but I drove 5.5 hours round trip to Houston a few years ago to protest Sheila Jackson Lee and other left-wing loonies on the Immigration issue. I wore my T-Shirt that said: “Mr. President, put up that wall.”
But, I see that you missed my point completely. So, this discussion is over. Have a nice day and I truly do wish you well.
But thanks for the good wishes.
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