Why Hispanics will miss Bush

“Difficult as it is to imagine, Hispanics actually may have a reason to miss President Bush when he’s gone. No, not because he accomplished the “Latino strategy” that his advisers touted when he was running for president in 2000 ”” passing comprehensive immigration reform and putting a Mexican American on the Supreme Court ”” but because he brought more attention to the Hispanic electorate than any major American politician before or since.

Think back to the Democratic Convention in Los Angeles seven years ago. By August of 2000, Bush’s Hispanic outreach had begun to broaden the appeal of the GOP, and that was sending ripples through the Democratic Party. During the convention, prominent Hispanic Democrats successfully leveraged Bush’s appeal to get their own party to pay more attention to the fast-growing Hispanic electorate. One Hispanic pollster complained that, in contrast to the GOP convention, he’d seen no signs that Democrats “have any effort geared toward Latinos.” Even Bill Richardson, who was then U.S. energy secretary, conceded that the GOP strategy was working and could “hurt Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore.”"

Stumble it! | |