Answer: not in Puerto Rico.
Over the past several months I have grown to have great respect for the campaign skills of the Obama team. They have run what will probably be remembered by historians as the Presidential primary campaign that changed Presidential primary campaigns forever. Timely messaging, rapid response, social networking and internet fund-raising have been the hallmarks of their successful effort against a candidate with 100% name recognition and years of hard-won goodwill.
For this reason I was taken aback by the perfunctory efforts in West Virginia and Kentucky. Admittedly these states presented overwhelming demographic challenges for the Obama team, but as a candidate who prides himself on his ability to change voters' minds once they get to know him I was surprised that Obama made no serious effort to introduce himself to their voters.
More...
David Axelrod explained the poor performance by Obama in an interview with National Public Radio by asserting that "the white working class has gone to the Republican nominee for many elections, going back even to the Clinton years." While this is historically accurate, in order to win a general election a Democrat must be able to win a minimum of 44-45% of these voters. Axelrod of course knows this. I surmised that he would rather Obama not campaign in these states and lose by 35% or 40% than campaign and lose by 20% or 25%. While I didn't agree with this philosophy, I'm not the one who had run successful campaigns, so I assumed that there was a larger strategy at play - one which would manifest itself at a later time.
Puerto Rico, in contrast to West Virginia and Kentucky, is not known for its high concentration of white working class voters. I am baffled that Barack Obama did another drive-by in this almost exclusively Hispanic territory. There have been no recent primaries in which Hispanic voters exceeded the low single digits, but Obama consistently lost the Hispanic vote to Hillary Clinton in the Super Tuesday states, in many cases by huge margins. I had assumed that Obama's camp, flush with money, good press and delegates, would make a massive effort to come as close as they could in this admittedly Clinton-favored region. A successful effort could have removed many of the doubts that undeclared superdelegates harbor about Obama's ability to win in the fall.
Donna Brazille, in her infinite wisdom, has stated that "A new democratic coalition is younger. It is more urban, as well as suburban, and we don't have to rely on white blue-collar voters and Hispanics." Say what? Do Donna Brazille and David Axelrod believe that a Democrat can win a general election without downscale whites and Hispanics? Against a relatively Hispanic-friendly Republican? George Bush's 2004 victory over John Kerry was, in large part, attributed to his 44% support among Latino voters, a substantial upward deviation from the usual Republican share of about 30%.
So I repeat: Where in the world is Barack Obama? And why is he phoning it in in Puerto Rico?
|
|
|
Permalink :: 44 Comments :: Post a Comment
|
In order to post a comment, you must be logged in. If you have a member account, please log in to comment.
If not, you can make an account right here. It's quick and free.
