Hispanic community leader Adelfa Callejo, 84, said yesterday that Barack Obama would have trouble gaining Latino support because Black politicians have done little for Hispanics and Obama "simply has a problem that he happens to be Black" (KTVT-TV).
GOTCHA!
Hillary Clinton expressed outrage and - stealing a line from Obama - said she "denounces and rejects" such words.
What a load of balderdash. No one is telling the obvious truth in this campaign.
Shock, Shock, Shock: Blacks are voting for Obama because he is Black (when Bill hints at that, it's considered outrageous and racist).
Newsflash: Women are voting for Hillary ... because she is a woman. Wow!
If Obama were White, he wouldn't be where he is today. There would be no magical story of a multi-racial background that we all applaud. That's OK. We all gotta use what we got. McCain is a war hero; Bush was the silver spoon son of a President.
Question of the Day: Will the Woman's Card trump the Race Card?
Being Black has made Obama bulletproof in the media, which bodes well for the Democrats in the fall. There are also three million bigots out there who will never vote for a Black man. And many other White voters who will vote for a Black, especially because he is such a historical breakthrough. I don't think Callejo is a bigot; merely repeating time-honored political voting truths and patterns doesn't deserve such abuse.
Sergio Bendixen, one of Clinton's pollsters, who specializes in the Hispanic vote, told The New Yorker, "In all honesty, the Hispanic vote is extremely important to the Clinton campaign, and the polls have shown that even though she was slipping with women in Iowa and blacks in South Carolina, she was not slipping with Hispanics."
But what world are we living in when we sanctimoniously try to deny the most obvious political truths?
Latinos and Blacks have not always had the same interests or goals.
Mrs. Callejo - who gets a little pass at saying such palpable truths because she is so old, like the Jester in Shakespearian plays - told The Dallas Morning News that she was trying to convey feelings expressed to her by some Hispanic voters about long-running Black-Latino tensions in the Dallas area.
"I have been told by a lot of people that they did not trust him because he is black," she said. "They don't trust him because of the local people. But that is minor, compared to his [Mr. Obama's] lack of experience. The most important thing is that there is no track record with him with Hispanics. I don't think it is fair that that feeling exists."
Sometimes Latinos have supported Blacks - Mayor David Dinkins and Mayor Tom Bradley - ..... and sometimes they have not.
What do you expect? In many cases, Blacks and Latinos are each struggling to make their way up the economic ladder and fighting for a piece of the political pie.
jfleetwood@aol.com
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As people got to both candidates they shifted towards Obama.
America lets show them who we really are!!!!!
One Nation under GOD
America with Americans for a change!!!!
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Shock, Shock, Shock: Blacks are voting for Obama because he is Black (when Bill hints at that, it's considered outrageous and racist).
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African-American support for Obama did not surge until AFTER Bill Clinton's remarks made race an issue prior to the South Carolina primary. Clinton's remarks also helped cause Ted Kennedy to throw his support behind Obama. Isn't it possible that African-Americans started voting for Obama in record numbers because there were pissed that the Clintons were trying to make race an issue?
JFK had the same support from Catholics when he ran for president in 1960.
Obama is an inspiring figure and Blacks should feel good about supporting him.
Hillary Clinton's problem is that she's a woman. Many women will vote for her because she's a woman and many people (men and women) will not vote for her for the same reason.
Come on people, surely you can see that this holds true for many voters.
One has to delve very deeply into parsed polling numbers to make the case for racial divides. And even then, it's arguable whether or not a particular finely selected segment is inspired by racism or conscience.
I'm willing to give my fellow Americans the benefit of the doubt, willing to respect that their collective judgment is driven by policy rather than prejudice.
How about you?
If Barak Obama were a white man as you suggested above, then he would most likely be praised for his community organizing in say, Appalachia, and then he would be looking a lot like John Edwards. Nice try on the playing that "race card".
In places like NYC Black and Latino interests have ALWAYS been aligned. If you are talking about "new comers" or illegals, then perhaps that is not so. In that case their needs are not going to reflect those of African-Americans or Whites who have been here forever (sic) and face different issues. Heated relations between newly arrived Hispanics and Whites can be found, especially in VA and Long Island, Ny. The Civil Rights Movement was about inclusion, and those who were active were those who were interested. Guess what, everyone benefitted from the results including Latinos.
You ask what we expect form Blacks and Latinos-a little more then the animalistic picture you paint of them clawing at eachother on the bottom of what we must assume by your description, is a White economic latter. I don't that there is any merrit in your assertions.
This is a ridiculous question, considering Obama is both dusting her with the Black vote, and, tied with her on the woman vote. To take it further, he is virtually even with her on the "WHITE WOMAN" vote.
This is not an ordinary primary season, so the conventional wisdom of past campaigns aren't applicable to 2008.
And yes Mr. feetwood, you are right: "Latinos and Blacks have not always had the same interests or goals." But both groups have more in common than they do individually. And isn't that what Obama's candidacy is about? The fact that despite the race- and ethnic-specific differences that make us unique, it is imcumbent upon us to transcend those differences to build on the color- and ethinic-neutral commonalities that bring us together.
And one more thing, YOUNG LATINOS are voting for Obama in huge numbers. So as Obama has won 11 straight contests, the younger latinos have gravitated to Obama, much in the same way younger Asian-Americans have. So don't be quick to apply the conventional rules of race and ethinic politics to a primary season that is anything but conventional.
Obama '08!