What the “Other Hispanics” Say About Our Elections

In his “ Gallup: Hispanic Voters Overwhelmingly Support Obama,” Joe Gandelman points to a new Gallup Poll that shows very strong support among Hispanic voters for Barack Obama.

The poll itself:

Hispanic registered voters’ support for Barack Obama for president remained consistent and strong in June, with Obama leading John McCain by 59% to 29% among this group.

And, Gandelman adds (from the Gallup piece):

Gallup has interviewed more than 4,000 Hispanic registered voters during this time period. An analysis of candidate support by subgroup within the U.S. Hispanic electorate reveals that many of the well-established divisions in this year’s campaign — such as the gender gap and the marriage gap — are weak or nonexistent among Hispanic voters.

Rather, Hispanics of differing demographic backgrounds all tend to solidly support Obama. It thus appears that there isn’t much beyond a shared Hispanic ethnicity or identity that explains Hispanic voting patterns.

Being part Hispanic-Latino myself, I am naturally interested in the political leanings and aspirations of Hispanics in America. By “Hispanics in America” I mean persons of Spanish (the country, Spain), Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin residing in the United States. And, since we are talking about elections and voting, I should hastily add to my “Hispanics in America” definition: “and who are registered voters.“

All this is very interesting, but equally interesting, I believe, is what the Hispanics and/or Latinos who are citizens/residents of Spain, Central or Latin American, etc., feel about our elections and about the candidates.

But, unless one is ready to do a myriad of personal interviews–and spend a fortune on travel, or telephone calls, which I guess is doable–one has to pretty much rely on what the “Hispanic” media reports on the matter.

An excellent source for such information is the site “Watching America,“ watchingamerica.com. For example in the last couple of weeks, there have been several translated articles from Spain, Mexico and other Latin American countries discussing the subject:

In “The Enormous Fight for the Latino Vote,” in El Diario Exterior, Spain, June 23, we read:

One of the biggest challenges that awaits Democratic candidate Barack Obama is winning the Hispanic vote, because, during the primary elections, he was not very good with Latinos and he will not make it to the White House without their massive support. It will not be easy. Though Latinos have historically voted for the Democrats and they did in even greater numbers during the recent primary elections of the party (in part due to increasing anti-immigration rhetoric from the Republicans), a large fraction of the Latino vote was for Hillary Clinton.

In “Europe’s Obama Distraction” in ABC, Spain, on the same date, one might be somewhat surprised to read:

If Europeans could vote for the next U.S. President today, we would elect Barack Obama, with a noticeable majority over his Republican rival, John McCain. At least that is what some recently published surveys assert. What is even more noteworthy is that the Democratic candidate also exacts a victory among the right-wing European electorate. Surprises will never cease.

But then the author quickly dampens such prospects, and even manages to deliver a slap in the face of the American voter by concluding:

However, it is in foreign policy that the European electorate needs to know with whom it is dealing. John McCain has spent many years forging alliances with European personalities, while the Democratic candidate is absolutely new at foreign policy matters and is only interested in the domestic agenda. When he speaks about international conflicts, the slips of Barack Obama are memorable, but they are beyond the grasp of an electorate that, largely, would not be able to locate Spain on a map.

Finally, a more recent, June 29, article, “Obama and McCain Go After the Hispanic Vote,” in El Universal, Mexico, reports on the convention of the Education Fund of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO), which both McCain and Obama attended and where they made speeches. The following excerpt summarizes what both the Convention and “El Universal” focused on:

Immigration is the theme that captures the audience’s attention. The Democrat accused his Republican rival of turning his back on immigration reform under pressure from his party. McCain promised that a change in the immigration laws was, is, and will be his priority.

I will post some more excerpts in future columns, but focusing more on what the Hispanic people, rather than the Hispanic press, have to say about our elections and our candidates.