Obama Can't Count on Hispanic Vote

Friday, 17 Jun 2011 04:00 PM
By James Walsh

The Hispanic vote could cost President Barack Obama a second term in the White House. Perceptions by the Hispanic community that the president has been less than truthful in his dealings with them could keep them home on Election Day.

While voter polls vary on many points, they agree that as of June 2011 Obama is losing the support of 15 to 26 percent of the Hispanic vote. The major concerns of these voters are economic paralysis, unemployment malaise, and mounting national debt.

In polls of non-economic concerns, a single issue prevails, and that is immigration, on which the president faces a credibility challenge in his re-election bid.

His 2008 presidential campaign focused on getting out the minority vote, and he received 96 percent of the black vote and 67 percent of the Hispanic vote. Among his supporters were young first-time voters, college students, immigrants, and voters unhappy with what they viewed as a wrong direction in the nation’s course.

The black pride vote was understandable. The Hispanic vote was based on Obama’s support of comprehensive immigration reform with a path to citizenship for illegal aliens and their families.

Many of Obama’s young supporters are now college graduates who find themselves unemployed and living with their parents. Along with the underemployed, they cannot be counted as sure Obama votes this time around.

For the most part, Black voters remain loyal to the president and will give him at least 80 percent of their vote.

Young Hispanics, except for radical activists, complain that the president “liedâ€