Barack Obama dismissing Latino Vote.

One of the reasons I've decided to support Senator Hillary Clinton is because Senator Barack Obama has basically dismissed the Latino vote. While Senator Hillary Clinton has the name recognition in our community she's trounced Senator Obama in efforts to shore up key Latino endorsements and created grass-roots efforts to get the Latino vote in Nevada. Nevada also showed me a sign of Senator Obama's team that I found very troubling. Surrogates for the Obama campaign in Nevada placed the race-card and tried to sway the Latino vote with a Spanish radio ad that can only be described as racist.

The ad by the pro-Obama group UNITE HERE:

UNITE HERE Negative Ad
(Translation)
Hillary Clinton does not respect our people. Hillary Clinton supporters went to court to prevent working people to vote this Saturday — that is an embarrassment.

Hillary Clinton supporters want to prevent people from voting in their workplace on Saturday. This is unforgivable. Hillary Clinton is shameless. Hillary Clinton should not allow her friends to attack our people’s right to vote this Saturday. This is unforgivable; there’s no respect

Sen. Obama is defending our right to vote. Sen. Obama wants our votes. He respects our votes, our community, and our people.

Sen. Obama’s campaign slogan is “Si Se Puede” (“Yes We Can”). Vote for a president that respects us, and that respects our right to vote. Obama for president, “Si Se Puede” (“Yes We Can”).

Paid for by UNITE HERE Campaign Committee

(Spanish language)
Hillary Clinton no respeta a nuestra gente los partidarios de Hillary Clinton fueron a corte para evitar que la gente que trabaja pueda votar este sábado, eso es vergonzoso. Los partidarios de Hillary Clinton quieren evitar que la gente que trabaja el sábado pueda votar en sus lugares de empleo. ¡Imperdonable! Hillary Clinton no tiene vergüenza.

Hillary Clinton no debería permitir que sus amigos ataquen el derecho de nuestra gente de votar este sábado. Es imperdonable! No hay respeto el senador Barack Obama esta defendiendo nuestro derecho de votar.

El senador Barack Obama quiere nuestros votos, el respeta nuestros votos, nuestra comunidad y a nuestra gente. El lema de la campaña de Barrack Obama es “sí se puede, si se puede”. Vote por un presidente que nos respeta y respeta nuestro derecho de votar. Obama para presidente. Si se puede.

Pagada por UNITE HERE.

While many bloggers like Politico covered the racist radio ad against Hillary Clinton the news media was rather silent on the subject. Had this been a radio ad by a pro-Hillary group and was targeting Senator Obama with such vitriolic attacks and trying to influence race based votes we would never have heard the end of it. Both John Edwards and Hillary Clinton called on Senator Obama to denounce the ad and ask for it to be removed.

"It’s pathetic and it's sad and it's unfortunate that they have to stoop so low," was the reaction of Dolores Huerta and I couldn't agree more with her. This isn't the politics of hope that Senator Obama preaches about to the cameras this isn't transcending the politics he castigates from the pulpit of the campaign stop. This is the kind of dirty tricks and smears I'd expect from a Republican but not one that I would accept from a Democrat. The ironic thing is that if you watch major media outlets you're given the impression that it is the Clintons playing the race card and trying to divide people, while Sen Obama says nothing while his surrogates play dirty politics.

But this post is about how he's dismissing the Latino vote...

Even the token Latinos that Sen. Obama has tapped to help him reach Latino voters are finding it very frustrating. Congressman Luis V. Gutierrez seems to be twiddling his thumbs looking for something to do while Senator Obama is busy in South Carolina.

“When you are washing dishes and waiting tables and are working these kinds of jobs, you don’t pick up Newsweek and find out the phenomenon about Barack Obama...”

“She’s running a good campaign,” Gutierrez said of the New York senator. “Don’t blame Latinos and blacks with prejudice. There are a lot of other reasons” for Obama’s low Latino support, he said to Politico .

I'm not sure what the Congressman expects from someone who is trying to be so many thing to so many people. When did Senator Obama ever express an interest in Latinos before it became politically necessary to do so? Senator Obama hosted his first Latino themed Town Hall in October of '05. All of the years he was a "community activist" and served as a Senator in Illinois and he has his first Town Hall meeting in '05? Give me a break! I'm thinking the Congressman backed the wrong horse in this race. It wouldn't surprise me if he took this marching order directly from Mayor Daley or if he hopes that one day a President Obama could come back to Chicago and help him dethrone Mayor Daley.

Senator Obama and his people seem to have a really low opinion of Latinos and how we vote. Just read this quote from Steve Hildebrand, an advisor to Senator Obama:

"The Clintons have always put people in a box - they look at everything through racial lines, gender lines, geographic lines; they tend to segment people," said Steve Hildebrand, a senior Obama adviser who spearheaded his Iowa effort. "She goes to Nevada and sits with Latinos in their living room to court their vote - that's not the way Barack approaches people." If the Clintons paint him as the black candidate, no one's going to stop them from doing that. They are playing the same old-style games."

Apparently everyone deserves to be pandered to except for us lowly peasants that make up the Latino Vote. Just to point out how ridiculous and hypocritical the groups of people Senator Obama has surrounded himself with check out "Old-Style Politics," In Pictures. If you follow that link you'll see Senator Obama not pandering to us in our living rooms but in our back yards. During the SC debate Senator Obama smugly said that Latinos had no problem voting for him in IL. I'd like to point out to him that I didn't vote for him because he'd done anything particularly noteworthy but because he was running against Alan Keyes. This Latino voter won't be making the same mistake again.