http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080201/ap_on_el_pr/democrats_hispanics;_ylt=AmIe4ufOaYOOu7fznoU19DOyFz4D Barack Obama's campaign ditched its familiar Motown tunes this week, warming up California crowds with Ricky Martin's bilingual soccer anthem, "The Cup of Life."
ADVERTISEMENT
Obama also hosted a "Latino Town Hall" in Los Angeles, said he should learn Spanish, and dispatched his top surrogate, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, to Hispanic centers in New Mexico.
The Illinois senator's scramble for Latino votes is an acknowledgment that his rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, Hillary Rodham Clinton, enjoys a major head start in wooing a minority group that could prove crucial in Tuesday's 22-state showdown.
"We have been aggressively advertising in the Latino community," Obama told reporters Friday. "I was at a disadvantage relative to Senator Clinton because she's universally known."
"But I think we are going to do much better than people anticipate," he said.
Obama is trying to close the gap, matching Clinton's Spanish-language ads and sending Kennedy to places where many older Latinos revere that family's name and legacy. As for younger Latinos, Obama hopes his proven ability to energize college-age blacks and whites will apply equally to Hispanics in California and other states voting next week.
But Obama concedes that the Super Tuesday calendar gives him far less time to engage and charm voters than he had in Iowa and South Carolina, where he scored two big victories.
Many Clinton supporters, meanwhile, feel her years-long outreach to Hispanics, and her husband's popularity, will serve her well among the nation's largest and fastest-growing minority. They note she won the popular vote in the Jan. 19 Nevada caucus after taking 64 percent of the Hispanic vote to Obama's 26 percent. If she rolls up similar margins among Hispanics next week, Obama is in for a long night".
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
