President Obama Leads Republican Rivals By Wide Margins Among Latino Voters

[Scurrilous]

<snip>

"President Obama's 2008 victory was fueled in no small part by Latino voters. He pulled off a major 36 point victory over John McCain in the Latino vote, and new poll numbers suggest he's poised to pull off a major Latino landslide against his top Republican challengers. Assuming of course Latino voters actually show up.

Public Policy Polling, a Democratic aligned polling firm, released the numbers. Here's how Obama does among Latino voters against the top Republican contenders for their parties nomination. The numbers for the entire electorate are indicated in parentheses.

* Barack Obama vs Michele Bachmann: 74-26 (50-42)

* Barack Obama vs Sarah Palin: 74-25 (53-40)

* Barack Obama vs Rick Perry: 72-26 (49-43)

* Barack Obama vs Mitt Romney: 66-29 (45-45)

It's no surprise then that many Republicans are hot on hope that the possibility of Marco Rubio joining a potential GOP ticket as the Vice Presidential candidate could help the party among Latino voters."

http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/2011/08/president_obama_leads_republic.php

[Booster]

1. I'm literally shocked that it's not 100%. What are those people

thinking; that Republicans are on their side? Jeeeesh.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

3. I think that religion has something to do with it

A lot of Hispanics are Catholic and tend to be somewhat socially conservative. Of course, most of them realize how bad the GOP is in just about every other aspect that matters to their well being and livelihood.

[Pirate Smile]

10. Obama won Catholics. He lost Protestants. The church is ridiculously RW on social issues but on

economic issues is decidedly to the left. So ... I don't know, it can be a wash.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

11. I don't think Obama is in any danger with Hispanics

The only concern I would have is if the GOP candidate decides to be cynical and puts Rubio on the ticket but even then people aren't going to vote for a party whose base and policy prescriptions are so anti-Hispanic/anti-immigrant. I mean, people didn't flock to McCain in 2008 just because they stuck Palin on the ballot. I'd say that, if anything, she helped ruin his chances because of her dangerous ignorance and it's not like most women whom were upset that Hillary didn't win the nomination would run straight into the groping arms of the anti-women GOP crowd and the GOP was stupid for thinking it would work like that.

[boxman15]

23. Well, there are different schools of thought within the Catholic community:

-There's the "official" Church stance on things, which is usually solidly liberal economically, but conservative socially (with exceptions, of course)
- Then you have certain priests who are both liberal economically and socially, like the priest at my parish for 12 years.
- There's also the evangelical wing, which is RW on all issues, like the previous priest at my parish.

I'm in the solidly liberal wing, no doubt. I assume many Catholic Latinos are as well.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

25. I was just speaking generally (from what I've heard elsewhere)

I recognize that there are all kinds of variations in any religion, which, frankly, is the best argument for having a separation of church and state. I say, let religions (and denominations) fight over things like abortion, homosexuality, etc. and leave the government (and the rest of us) out of it. Bringing government power in to support one side or another of the religious-based debate over some of the aforementioned topics is one of the reasons our government has gotten so off course IMHO in recent years.

[Enrique]

19. a lot of non-hispanics mistakenly think the GOP is on their side

why can't hispanics be freepers?

[Z_California]

20. "Shocked that it's not 100%"

My best friend is hispanic. He's a wonderful and compassionate family man. And he's very religious. He votes Republican because that's what the church tells him he should do (according to him). I guarantee you that 99% of those hispanics who don't support Obama think they are voting their religion.

I'm not religious but I have been learning about lessons from the Bible that clearly demonstrate that Jesus would be a Democrat. (Perhaps I'll compile in a future post so we can all discuss with our religious Republican friends.) I think I'll have him won over by November of next year. The battle will be won one heart at a time.

[Booster]

22. Good for you. Keep at him and welcome to DU.

[rfranklin]

2. Que bueno!

Republicans think they can fool people with their tokens. Of course, they don't have to fool too many to be successful. That's the sad part.

[Inuca]

4. And that's why they keep talking about Rubio

being the de facto VP nominee, irrespective of who will get the first spot. Rubio is slick and dangerous because I think he is that combination that I cannot truly understand of somebody who is both smart and very extreme in his right-wing views. That's why I kept all my fingers crossed for Charlie Christ to win last year :-(.

[Tarheel_Dem]

5. K&R. Although my "R" didn't make a bit of difference.

:kick:

[oviedodem]

6. This is why if Rubio is picked... Obama is almost toast. You can essentially

write of Florida if Rubes is VP.

I used a map at 270towin.com.

Obama can still win (barely) if all he takes: WA,OR,CA,NV,IL,IN,OH,NC,PA,NY,VT,NH,ME,MA,CT,RI,NJ,DE,MD,DC,HI and either MO or MN OR WI

[totodeinhere]

7. We need to give Latino voters more credit than that. Just because

the GOP puts an ultra right wing Latino candidate like Rubio who wants to destroy Social Security on the ticket that doesn't mean that most Latinos will support that ticket. They are not stupid.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

9. Of Course Not

But Rubio will help in the Hispanic community. All he needs to do is mitigate the losses among Latinos to more manageable numbers. His help will be limited by the fact that he is Cuban and there is social distance between Cuban and other Latino groups.

[CakeGrrl]

8. Why?

I wonder how many Latino voters would agree with Rubio's attitude on SS and Medicare:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=433x754126

Do you think they'd mind if Rubio helped gut these programs so that everyone can go back to "saving" and "taking care of each other"?

"Hey, he helped yank SS and Medicare right out from under me and my family, but at least he's one of us!"

[Proud Liberal Dem]

12. The GOP is certainly cynical enough to try it

which almost guarantees that they will try it. They were, after all, stupid enough to think that Democratic primary voters whom supported Hillary in 2008 would run straight into their women-hating arms just because Obama beat her in the primaries and the GOP stuck a woman on the ballot (which, of course, the Dems did first- over two whole decades earlier). :banghead:

[lumpy]

13. I have a hunch most Latinos come from different backgrounds

from the Cuban exiles.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

16. Reminds me of a Chris Rock routine.

In the runup to the 2008 election, he said pundits viewed potential white Obama voters as people who really studied the issues, but for black voters they thought, "He's black, they're black, like our ballots have scratch-and-sniff colors."

:rofl:

[oviedodem]

17. I live in FL, south florida cubans flocked to him in droves

[Starbucks Anarchist]

15. The same way black people flocked to Alan Keyes and Lynn Swann.

Oh, wait... :rofl:

[oviedodem]

18. I am not saying the whole country, just florida

[Starbucks Anarchist]

21. Cubans tend to be more conservative than other Latinos.

And whatever gains the Cubans in Florida give him will be wiped out by the huge elderly population who will see Rubio's stance on Medicare and SS.

[oviedodem]

26. You have no idea how dumb people are down here. He won a senate

seat with those same elderly folks that voted for him. Why you may ask? He wraps up his anti-entitlement message in the blanket of supposed American exceptional-ism that has been eroded by the left. Listen to his latest comment. All these people will hear is how America is somehow weakened by SS/MedC NOT that he wants to take it away and the left is the cause of Americas weakened state. He is as sly and as slick as they come. He would be the Riddler to Perry's Harvey Two-Face character if you have ever watched Batman.

Rubio really is a sly one.

[totodeinhere]

27. His stance on Medicare and SS didn't seem to hurt him with the elderly population in the 2010

election in Florida. I think we are talking about a scenario where there is a close election and the electoral votes of one large state like Florida could make a big difference. If that happened then having Rubio on the ticket in Florida might be enough to get the GOP over the top.

Actually, the percentage of Cuban Americans voting GOP in Florida has been going down in recent elections. The GOP might decide to try to reverse that trend by putting Rubio on the ticket. Plus since Rubio is a right wing extremist he would be popular with the GOP base. I think they might overlook their anti-Latino bigotry in favor of his extreme ideology.

[Vattel]

14. More worrisome:

However, the real challenge for the Obama campaign seems to be making sure Hispanics get out to vote.

As Univision points out: "An impreMedia/Latino Decisions poll released last week showed that only 38 percent of Latinos are certain to vote for Obama again and that only 50 percent said they are "very enthusiastic" about voting in 2012."

[CakeGrrl]

24. It needs to be driven home what the GOP is putting on the chopping block.

If the DNC/Obama campaign can't do that, then that would be a big failing on their part.