Views of whites, Latinos toward Barack Obama analyzed
In two new articles, pollsters put the attitudes of A) non-Latino white voters and B) Latino voters toward Barack Obama under a microscope.
In the Wall Street Journal today, Peter Brown of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute writes that he finds it "more than a little ironic that it has taken the first African-American to win a major party presidential nomination to make clear to everyone what has been the case for more than 40 years in presidential elections: Democrats have a problem with white voters."
Brown doesn't specify that the white voters to which he and other pollsters refer excludes those of Latin American descent. But we checked with him and that's the case.
In his piece, which can be read in full here, he notes that no Democratic presidential candidate since Lyndon Johnson, in his 1964 landslide, has won a majority of this white vote. He argues: "For those voters, especially ones without college degrees, the fact that Sen. Obama is black may not be as much a disqualifier as his background as a Democrat from the Frost Belt with no national security or executive experience and a voting record judged by the nonpartisan National Journal as the Senate’s most liberal during 2007."
The Chicago Tribune's Swamp blog has its take on Brown's column here.
On the Huffington Post Saturday, two members of the Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Democratic polling firm made their case for debunking the notion that the Latino vote is up for grabs in November's election.
Mark Feierstein and Ana Iparraguirre write that Obama's relatively weak performance among Latinos in his primary battle with Hillary Clinton (who dominated among those voters) "has helped fan the idea that he has a Latino problem or that Hispanics are disinclined to vote for black candidates."
Not so, they contend. They note that national polls have shown that Obama "is running well ahead of John McCain among Hispanics, and significantly better than John Kerry did against George Bush in 2004."
That may be how it plays out ...
... in November's vote, but before then both Obama and McCain apparently have some repair work to do with Latino media outlets, including bloggers.
In this piece for Politico.com, Gebe Martinez says that Spanish-language media have been "blogging, writing and outright complaining that the presidential campaigns have not been paying attention to them."
Frustration with the Obama campaign boiled over during a recent conference call with Robert Gibbs, the candidate's communications director, Martinez reports.
-- Don Frederick
Andrew Malcolm's immigrant parents repeatedly stressed the importance of active participation in a democracy. Early lessons included learning the alphabetical list of states by watching televised roll calls of national political conventions. That childhood exposure led to a lifelong fascination with politics, including 40-plus years of covering them and a brief stint practicing them as press secretary to Laura Bush in 1999-2000. A veteran foreign and national correspondent, Malcolm served on the Times Editorial Board and was a Pulitzer finalist in 2004. He is the author of 10 nonfiction books and father of four.
Johanna Neuman is a veteran Washington correspondent for both The Los Angeles Times and USA Today, having covered presidents and politics as far back as Ronald Reagan. A former president of the White House Correspondents Assn., she authored a book on media and foreign policy, “Lights, Camera, Wars.” Most recently she was co-author of the 
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Barack Obama for President of the UNITED States of America.
Posted by: PulSamsara | June 30, 2008 at 01:17 PM
Barack Obama for President!!! We are a group of people who believe that there is no other candidate better than Obama to lead the nation, to build its image in the world and to help it grow. For a long time, we have lacked a leader who inspires. Now, we have Obama! Go Obama. Support him, visit WhyObama08.org!
Posted by: Aiken Blue | June 30, 2008 at 02:36 PM
God sets and governs every kingdom on this planet. Let us not forget that. Let us keep praying for the candidates' well-being because God's plan will be fulfilled. Whoever God has chosen, that person, good or bad according to our standards, will be in power.God is sovereign!
Posted by: maga | June 30, 2008 at 08:02 PM
Obama for President?
He is younger than McCain and has a big smile. 2 pluses
His congressional voting record? "Present" is not a vote. It is non participation thus not doing the job he is being paid to do. I really expect the same if he were to become president.
Give me a Military man every time. You may not like
everything he does but he will get the job done.
Larry Merritt
Posted by: Larry Merritt | June 30, 2008 at 08:17 PM
What is wrong with this headline.
"Views of whites, Latinos toward Barack Obama analyzed"
Latinos is capitalized but not "whites."
Looks grammatically racist to capitalize when referring to one group of people but not the other.
Posted by: Mr. Unite Us | July 01, 2008 at 04:28 AM