Esteemed opinion leader Earl Ofari Hutchinson ventured out for the meaning of Obama’s lack of Latino support and came back with profound meaning where simple politics is at play. Hutchinson and the Obama campaign staff would do good to remember that ,to paraphrase Freud , sometimes a poll is just a poll.

Hutchinson blames the Latino lag in Obama’s numbers as coming from a deep seeded distrust between Latinos and African Americans. While that distrust may have been documented recently in a poll amply touted by Hutchinson it is impossible to legitimately tie these feelings to the Latino roadblock that Obama faces.

If we were to put this race in merely racial terms the we must remember that in the early part of this campaign Latinos had a choice between a Anglo woman, a number of Anglo men, a bi-racial man who many identify as African American , and one of their own, a Latino. So far the vast majority of decided Latino voters have chosen the Anglo woman.

The Latino firewall that Bill Richardson faces has been as effective as the one that Obama must work to overcome should he become the Democratic nominee. Richardson has even less Latino support than Obama in the poll Hutchinson quoted. In fact Richardson has received less financial support from Latinos than has Clinton. An indication that among even the Latino political elite who have shown tremendous ethnic political loyalty for at least two decades Richardson has been outdone by Clinton.

The failure of the Obama campaign to garner Latino support is that his campaign was simply less accessible to Latinos than was the Clinton campaign during a critical early decision making period. A decision making period I might add manufactured by the Hillary team itself. While all candidates can point to a Latino rally here and there at this point Clinton has done a tremendous job of going outside its inner circle to communicate with Latino community gatekeepers as well as directly to voters. Clinton simply out-campaigned the Obama camp early. Latino “voters” are the same much researched Latino “consumers” who respond to a respectful early overture from a product or service and once decided are hard to shake loose. What may seem like “Berlitz “ style “pandering” to Hutchinson, and perhaps the Obama campaign itself, are in fact important signals of respect that carry weight with Latino voters/consumers.

While racial tensions in this country are always important to ponder and critical to resolve some answers are simpler, although perhaps almost as ugly, for a worried campaign to consider. The Obama campaign was aloof to Latinos while an important decision making process was being instigated by the Clinton campaign with the Latino community. While there is a need for a deeper black / brown dialogue we always must consider that there are sometimes more superficial answers to our personal dilemmas.

EMAIL COMMENTS TO: Mario@mylatinonews.com

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