Music to my ears - "But Hispanic voters absolutely hate the GOP field"

[Hawaii Hiker]

http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2011/09/obama-and-hispanics.html

No wonder all republicans focus on is disenfranchising voters and rigging the electoral system, they pretty much can't win an election unless they cheat, because, well, alot of people fucking hate the GOP....

"There's been a lot of discussion in the last week about the role of the Hispanic vote in next year's election. Here's the bottom line on our polling: Obama's approval numbers with Hispanics are down. But Hispanic voters absolutely hate the GOP field. And because of that Obama's winning margins with Hispanics would be as large or even larger than they were in 2008 if the election was today and they'd be one of the key groups propelling him to reelection.

On our weekly national poll for Daily Kos this week Obama's approval with Hispanics came in at only 50%. Yet on our last national horse race poll Obama led Mitt Romney by 38 points (67-29) with that group and against Rick Perry his advantage went all the way up to 43 points at 70-27. Obama won the Hispanic vote by 36 points nationally in 2008 so his margins over both Romney and Perry represent an improvement. Hispanics may not be enamored with Obama but they're a whole lot bigger on him than they are Romney (29/52 favorability) and Perry (16/61 favorability).

It's a similar story in Florida and Colorado, the two most pivotal swing states where Hispanics play an important role. In Florida Obama's approval with Hispanics is a decent +20 spread at 59/39. But his actual lead over both Perry and Romney nearly doubles his approval numbers- he's up 39 points on each at 66-27 and 65-26 respectively. Exit polls showed Obama winning Florida Hispanics by only 15 points in 2008".

[leftynyc]

1. Numbers look good

but unless they come out to vote, it'll be meaningless.

[Vogon_Glory]

3. All Too True

"But unless they come out to vote, it'll be meaningless." Texas Hispanic voters, had they turned out, could have not only stopped the Texas Tea-publicans dead in their tracks, but they could have ended statewide Republican dominance.

But did they? No, they stayed home, the Republicans once again made a clean sweep of statewide elected offices, and the Tea-publicans blew the slow Democratic slog back to electoral parity to Kingdom Come.

This has little to do with Republican efforts to block the vote. It doesn't have anything to do with being "illegal aliens" (a commonplace right-wing fantasy),; most Hispanics in Texas are native-born American citizens as Constitutionally-eligible to become President as any of the nut-cases running for the GOP presidential nomination. It's that Texas Hispanics. Just. Don't. Vote.

Even when they're given opportunities and voter registration forms.

Let me tell you, I'm discouraged. Unlike their counterparts in Spain and in Latin America, IMO Texas Hispanics are as politically inert as square block of granite.

And choosing to be dumber than a rock, the non-voters are allowing the rest of us to get Phillips-headed along with them.

[leftynyc]

4. What's the reason?

Do they think their vote wont count in such a red state or is it just laziness which would be even worse?

[Vogon_Glory]

9. Don't Know

I don't know. I'm a white "Anglo." I've got a bunch of theories, but since I'm on the outside looking in, I suspect my theories are crap.

The ones particularly disinclined to vote are younger Hispanics. THAT really stumps me. Even in Texas, I think that there have been efforts made to try and incorporate the story of Mexican-Americans into Texas history schoolbooks, not just post-World War II stuff, but also some of the better parts of an often somber story, like the Texicans at the Alamo, Juan Seguin, that cowboy culture owes most of its start to Mexican vaqueros.

I like to think that bits and pieces of this resistance might break down as they get older and they intermarry with some of the Anglos and find that they have family ties by marriage with Texas as a place and Texas history, but then again, I don't understand people under 35, so I'm STILL stumped.

[leftynyc]

17. I will never understand

not voting. I couldn't wait to vote and still remember mom and dad taking me into the voting booths to pull the lever. To not vote is one of the most unpatriotic things one can do in my eyes.

[Tarheel_Dem]

2. You're right, this is the reason for the attempts at disenfranchisement.

:kick:

[LynneSin]

5. Anyone who is working class and a triple digit IQ can't stand the GOP

nuff said.

[secondwind]

6. I think the GOP will have Rubio as VP, in the hopes of siphoning off Hispanic votes. Will it work?

[RedSpartan]

7. It will absolutely be a Romney/Rubio ticket. You can take that to the bank.

[Jim Lane]

13. That ticket would have a religion problem with the Republicans' ignoramus base.

They're already deeply suspicious of Romney's Mormonism. In 2008, they were calling it a "nominally Christian religion" and even a "cult" (both terms I saw from the FReepers).

If Romney is the nominee, the party will have to address that problem by, at a minimum, giving him a running mate from a mainstream Protestant denomination. Rubio, as a Catholic, is probably out of the running.

If Perry is the nominee, then Rubio has more of a shot at making the ticket. There would be the issue of two Southerners, but it worked out for Clinton-Gore and for Bush-Cheney (two Texans, one fraudulently claiming Wyoming residence).

[Whats_Happening]

18. Well, Mormonism IS a cult --

it was basically the 19th-century equivalent of Scientology. But give them time, and cults mellow out. Plus, who will the hard-core evangelicals vote for? The Mormon or the "secret Muslim?" Seems to me, religion-wise, it will be kind of a wash.

[Jim Lane]

20. It's no more of a cult than any other religion.

Of course, it's also no less of a cult than any other religion. In practice, "cult" is used only to refer to a fairly small group. The LDS church is now large enough that it's rarely referred to as a cult.

As for the electoral prospects, I agree that most of the bigots I'm talking about, who wouldn't vote for Romney, also wouldn't vote for Obama. They might stay home or vote for the Constitution Party candidate. I'm just guessing that even more of them would disdain Romney if his running mate were Catholic. Pair him with a Pawlenty type, or better yet a Southern Baptist minister like Huckabee, and some of those bigots will grudgingly support the ticket.

Rubio is not a plausible running mate for Romney, Huntsman, or the Catholic Santorum.

[GoCubsGo]

8. I don't think it's going to work.

It will be "We picked Sarah Palin to get the women's vote" all over again, and the Hispanics will see right through it. Sticking Rubio in the VP slot isn't going to make up for all their anti-immigrant legislation and rhetoric, or their opposition to things like The Dream Act.

[sammytko]

10. no, he's cuban -

latinos, hispanics, whatever are very "country" particular - mexicans don't like puerto ricans, puerto ricans get mad if they are mistaken for a mexican blah, blah, blah,

its crazu

[totodeinhere]

11. Why in the world wouldn't Mexicans like Puerto Ricans? That's crazy.

Puerto Ricans are a fine people and there is no reason why any group should not like them.

[sammytko]

16. I don't know -

its crazy. so don't expect that just because the last name is Hispanic, that they are united.

[totodeinhere]

12. With Rubio on the ticket Obama would continue to lead among Hispanic voters. But...

if it's a close election even a slight dip in Hispanic support because Rubio is on the ticket might hurt Obama. Plus Rubio should have a larger impact in his home state of Florida, which is a key state that Obama needs to win. So contrary to the conventional wisdom in this thread, I do think that Rubio could be a threat.

The same logic might apply if they try to put Cain on the ticket. If Cain could make Obama's support among African Americans dip from say 95% to 90%, again in a close election that could make a difference.

[4lbs]

19. About as well as having Sarah Palin in 2008 did with women. (N/T)

.

[Robbins]

14. Hispanics

Obama will win them in 2012.They may have Issues with Obama but they don't like the Republican field.They helped keep Harry reid and Michael Bennet In In the senate In 2010.Rubio won't be on ticket.He will be running In 2016.Republicans almost never nominate a losing VP candiate.The only
exception was Bob Dole who was Ford's Running mate.

[Hawaii Hiker]

15. And Obama needs to bring the point home when campaign season starts that

he appointed the first Latina to the SCOTUS in Sonia Sotomayor....