Josh Marshall links to TPM’s article Dems Solidifying Hispanic Vote. The details:
Obama’s approval ratings among Hispanic voters — and the broader electorate — have been relatively weak at times this year, but as the Republican primary campaign hits the home stretch he’s showing no signs of trouble in matchups with any of his potential opponents. An extensive survey of Latino voters by Univision this week showed Obama racking up similarly high margins against Mitt Romney (67-24), Rick Perry (68-21), and Herman Cain (65-22). The 2-1 ratio is roughly in line with Obama’s margin against John McCain in 2008.
The current front runner Newt Gingrich, he believes we should turn the public school into work houses for children and also fire the janitors:
Newt Gingrich proposed a plan Friday that would allow poor children to clean their schools for money, saying such a setup would both allow students to earn income and endow them with a strong work ethic.
via Gingrich: Laws preventing child labor are ‘truly stupid’ – CNN Political Ticker – CNN.com Blogs.
Instead of releasing detailed platforms, they like signing pledges authored by lobbyists in exchange for their blessing. The worst, the pledge to outlaw any same sex marriage rights:
The pledge by the National Organization for Marriage states that, if elected, Perry will send a Constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman to the states for ratification, and appoint U.S. Supreme Court and federal judges who will “reject the idea our Founding Fathers inserted a right to gay marriage into our Constitution.”
Others vying for the Republican presidential nomination, including Michelle Bachmann, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum, have also signed it, according to Brian Brown, president of Washington-based National Organization for Marriage, which campaigns against same-sex marriage.
via Perry signs pledge on anti-gay marriage amendment – Yahoo! News.
Herman Cain alledges black people are brain washed into voting Democratic. That we couldn’t be looking at policies that benefit us and our community.
“African Americans have been brainwashed into not being open minded, not even considering a conservative point of view,” Cain says, according to quotes posted on CNN’s PoliticalTicker blog.
This ridiculous line of thinking that basically intimates blacks are too stupid to know what’s good for themselves is not new…the black mother’s wombs ads on billboards also peddle in this black people are too silly to know what’s going on mythology. Ron Paul? This guy wants biblical/feudal justice to rule the day. Seriously:
I don’t want to go that way, I want to go back down… all the way to the family and the Church — believe me it would be a happier and more peaceful world if we went in that direction, rather than asking the government and asking the King to solve all these problems… we need the family to deal with it.
And we can take our message and learn something from the Old Testament, how there was such a strong emphasis on the Patriarchal society and the disputes settled by judges rather than looking for Big Government.”
Ron Paul sounds like he wants to introduce house bill to make Leviticus the law of the land, and women second class citizens who are second or third wives, child brides as well who are to be considered chattel to settle disputes.
To win the Republican nomination, “those people” (Poor, Latinos, People of color, Women, LGBT, Muslims) must be reckoned with and talked about. Not reasoned with and talked to. And the nominee for the GOP will be bound by this rhetoric in the general election.