Off the Kuff: Obama's Latino outreach

July 24, 2008

Obama's Latino outreach

Julia Pippert was on a conference call yesterday with the Obama campaign, which had to do with their Latino outreach strategy. The good news is that they have one:

Congressman Xavier Becerra (D-CA) [hosted the call and] unveiled the new Spanish language radio ad entitled Bootstraps.

The ad will be rolled out in Colorado, Florida, New Mexico, and Nevada, key battleground states with Hispanic populations.

The bad news, as you can tell from that list, is that neither Texas nor California, the two states with the largest numbers of Latinos in them, will not be part of the initial ad buy. Julie wanted to know what was up with that:

I called the Obama campaign to ask about it.

Shannon Gilson, who is in charge of communication and coordination for the Southwest states in the Obama 50 state reach out program, immediately replied to me with information about the Obama campaign strategy for Hispanic voters, "The Spanish-language ad is currently running in key battleground states. Our advertising buy will evolve in the coming weeks as we continue to aggressively reach out to Hispanic communities across the country."

That sounds promising.

Mmm. I'll feel better when they actually make the buy. Now I'm concerned that we're just going to get more of the same hands-off "strategy" we've gotten in recent years. I hope all that talk about understanding the importance of Texas isn't just smoke. And I hope we get real campaigning, by real people, and not just media buys. Our votes matter too, you know.

I'm not one who cares much about the National Popular Vote reform. I can take or leave the Electoral College idea, but there's maybe a hundred things I want to see done before that becomes a priority to me. On the other hand, if "winning" Texas were no longer a necessity, I bet we'd start to see some actual Presidential campaigns here every four years. It was great to have them in March. It'd be even better to have them in November. I hope I don't have to take on another cause to see that happen.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on July 24, 2008 to The making of the President

Comments

Could it possibly be because Obama and his crew don't have the collective brains to blow their noses with? That Obama HAS NO PLAN beyond lofting empty platitudes and populist tripe?

Smoke exactly describes Obama.

Posted by: Rorschach on July 24, 2008 9:36 AM

The Hispanic community for the most part has voted Republican because of the emphasis on family values and work ethics both of which are very traditional values among Hispanics but through the years the Hispanic community has seen very little returned to them by the Republicans and feel "short-changed" in the end. They have been included in the "political" process but not the policy process. And the policies of the Republican Party have done little to help the Hispanic community and in some ways have hindered it.

I suspect the Hispanic vote is going to be overwhelmingly Democratic in November. The sudden "criminalization" of illegal immigrants, of course, will be the primary reason. The Republicans may have garnered favor among a few but have lost one of their traditional bases in the process.

Posted by: Baby Snooks on July 24, 2008 11:54 AM

** It was great to have them in March. It'd be even better to have them in November. I hope I don't have to take on another cause to see that happen. **

What the heck -- ring up the campaign and get 'em on the ball Charles. I mean, if the weight of the Netroots Nation falls on your shoulders, what are ya gonna do but lift?

Sometimes duty calls on the Chosen Ones.

Posted by: Kevin Whited on July 27, 2008 7:14 AM

How delightful to have you back after your week away, Kevin. We're all at loose ends without a regular dose of your insightful comments. And as always, I'm glad to see you didn't find any typos. I'd have hated to ruin your return engagement like that.

Posted by: Charles Kuffner on July 27, 2008 12:28 PM