Since the beginning of the debates, the election has taken on a bit of a “tortoise and the hare” feel. Many of us tuned in to the first debate expecting to see Obama beating Romney by leaps and bounds, wooing voters with the superior intellect and charisma that won him the 2008 election. Instead, both conservatives and liberals agree he “phoned it in,” looking as if staying awake was all the effort he could muster.
This week Obama again displayed a startlingly hare-like degree of overconfidence with his “off the record” remarks about Latino voters. Talking to a reporter at the Des Moines Register, he claimed, “Should I win a second term, a big reason I will win a second term is because the Republican nominee and the Republican Party have so alienated the fastest-growing demographic group in the country, the Latino community.” And the GOP has certainly fumbled during this election cycle, from Romney saying it would be easier for him to win the election if he were Latino, to Latino voter suppression throughout the Southwest.
However, Latino voters may not be as solidly pro-Obama as he would like to think. He has deported more people than any president in American history. In the debates, he referred to some undocumented immigrants as “gangbangers.” Many college-bound Latinos see his compromised work on deferred action as belying his stated support for the DREAM Act — and in general, Latinos say they’re less likely to vote at all. Romney’s “slow and steady wins the race” approach has served him well enough that the candidates are, in some polls, neck and neck. READ MORE
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