Sunday, February 03, 2008

Latino Vote

I only have a few minutes here but can anyone tell me why, with 38% of the population here in California, that Sen. Obamas campaign has not pointed out that Latino leaders were not exactly enamored with President Bill Clintons policies on immigration during the period of his administration. I remember speaking to a very high level Hispanic member of the Catholic clergy who, in his support for President G.W Bush, explained in great detail how President Clinton's legislation during that time did a lot to hurt immigrants and their families.
This kind of information would seem to counter-balance what is being portrayed as a given that Latino voters will vote for Sen. Clinton.
I can't argue with the Obama campaign strategy though. All you have to do is read this mornings (Sunday) L A Times political section to realize that whether consciously or not you can't help but think their coverage is biased against Sen. Obama. The LA Times editorial board did endorse Senator Obama and Senator McCain in the Opinion section in the same edition but the editorial board operates independently of the news operation. It was more about omission and it was subtle unless like me you look forward to reading about Senator Obama. There's just not much there compared to the other candidates. They did suspiciously place an article about the nuclear industry contributing more to Sen. Obama than all the other candidates. They also excluded something in the condensed columnar "Where the candidates stand," area. On the immigration column Sen. Obama's position on the issuance of drivers licenses to illegal immigrants is missing. Why is this important? Because those who thought they heard it in the last debate or were told by someone who did can't confirm it before the Primary.

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