Politics Mary Mata September 29, 2011

Obama Enunciates Spanish, Latino Voter Outreach Strategy

So my favorite part of President Barack Obama’s Latino roundtable yesterday was how wonderfully he pronounced “Puerto Rico” and “Calderón” when answering questions that came from the readers and viewers of several different Latino media outlets. Of course I’m being a bit facetious, but if you bear with me, you will see my point. Just as Obama made the concerted effort to correctly pronounce these words, I think it’s fair to say that he just as concertedly made the effort to pitch his policies and plans to Latinos in the U.S. — at least on this platform.

These policies included his health care plan, jobs bill, focus on education and, of course, immigration policies. I, like most people in the country right now, am not 100% satisfied with the president, but hey, I don’t expect presidents to fulfill every one of my needs. I just expect them to try. Obama’s performance as president hasn’t been perfect as far a I’m concerned — glaring problems include the DREAM Act and a broken promise of immigration reform — but at least we’ve got healthcare now, and lots of other reforms.

On the panel, which seemed to consist of Latin American journalists, one of whom — Gabriel Lerner — seemed to have a dissatisfied look on his face during the president’s immigration answers. I know for a fact that he wasn’t the only one. The first question asked Obama about immigration reform; his response was:  look, I want immigration reform, too, but I can’t do it by myself — and until then I have to enforce the law.

Then he hit the “pathway to citizenship for those already here” spot, talked about awesome immigrants starting businesses, how his jobs plan would put Latino construction workers hit hard by the recession back to work, talked about the importance of education for Latino students and how he’s worked to make monies available to increase their higher ed enrollment. Latinos are the workforce of the future, Obama added for flavor. There were questions about Mexico, Cuba and Puerto Rico, as well as more talk about the president’s health care plan, which he pointed out will benefit Latinos, who are likely to not be insured.

The point is, we’ve heard this speech before. Then there was this, the overall message, which I would argue is a bit too little a bit too late, is that now that 2012 is rolling around Obama is trying to focus his policy — or at least his articulation of that policy — on Latinos:

Because, as you can see from his words above, he ostensibly gets this whole 54 million Latinos thing. I would argue that he hasn’t done enough on some things, even in the appointment of Latinos with actual power, and now that he’s focusing on Latino voters, we have to ask ourselves: What do we want from the president? Because if we want something, we’d better start asking for it now, we’re just about a year out in this election y’all.

And for me, as an American and a journalist, that means we can stop talking about “Latino” issues like they’re not everyone’s issues. And like everyone else, I want to see some action — both from the presidents and the Latino electorate. It’s convenient to say, now, that you need bipartisan support, but when you couldn’t pass the DREAM Act when you controlled the Senate, it hurts your credibility. Just as it’s easy for us to whine about what’s not happening when we don’t vote.

I’m sure this is the first of many more Latino outreach efforts, and what I hope to see from the president is more inclusion of Latinos on his team (like, people with real power and influence) and an understanding on his part that Latinos are not only an integral part of his electorate, but of this country. ‘Cause what it comes down to is, if Latinos are doing well, that means 1 in 6 Americans are doing well. But, for our part, that means we need to act like it. So what do you want from your president?

[Photo By Facebook]

Subscribe today!

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Must Read