Posted on Tuesday evening for Sept. 5, 2012.
The polls all say Hispanic/Latinos are solidly in President Obama’s corner. To what degree is the question. The surveys suggest their support bumps up against 70 percent – higher than the share Obama won in 2008. I pay very close attention to my family when I am around them for signs that corroborate national political storylines. I learned the hard way to pay attention to them, especially one sister in particular who undoubtedly is the most conservative of my seven siblings. She did not even like the sainted Ann Richards. During the Monica Lewinsky debacle at the White House, however, she volunteered immediately when I inquired from Washington that she did not think that President Bill Clinton should resign. Of course, my sister said, what he did is terrible, but do not rush to judgment. I was skeptical for days thereafter but she was proven right when Clinton not only did not resign but went on to be an exceptional President. And a great ex-President.
So it is that over the Labor Day weekend I became convinced that the support for Obama among HispanicLatinos has increased and that the intensity level is high – higher than four years ago. I believed before – but am now convinced – that HispanicLatinos took the incessant drumbeat against immigrants by the Republican right wing personally. Recent polling by Miami pollster Sergio Bendixen suggests the same thing. It was not what my sister and her husband said this time. But they harbor no doubt. Not so four years ago. Even after Obama won the nomination. They were not really sold on him. But something has changed.