Obama’s Curious Courtship of Eva Longoria

by Joe Guzzardi
May 3, 2011

Although America’s killing of Osama bin Laden may give President Barack Obama a temporary bump in the polls, the fact remains that he doesn’t understand politics—especially immigration politics. Obama doesn’t grap that the votes he’ll need come November 2012 lie with the moderates that helped elect him in 2008. Those voters, who spoke loudly and clearly in the 2010 mid-term elections, want immigration laws enforced, not an amnesty that Obama coyly refers to as “comprehensive immigration reform”.

Obama insists on inviting large groups, exclusively Hispanics or their advocates, to the White House to reaffirm what he claims is him commitment to “fixing America’s broken immigration system.” Two weeks ago, Obama tapped former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg for a brain-storming session. Last week, his invitees included “Desperate Housewives” star Eva Longoria as well as various Hispanic radio and television anchors.

Talk about preaching to the choir! Conspicuously missing are influential immigration advocates like sitting Congressmen or prominent lobbyists from the National Council of La Raza or the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund. If you wonder why they didn’t bother to attend, an April 20, CNN News Service story titled “Obama Holds White House Meeting on Immigration Reform,” summed their absence up in this sentence: “With Republicans now controlling the House and holding a stronger minority in the Senate, the chances for any comprehensive immigration reform are considered non-existent.”

Apparently, what motivates Obama to court the Hispanic vote is the widely misguided theory idea that their vote is essential to his re-election. Many claim that Obama abandoned them by failing to make good on his pledge to deliver comprehensive immigration reform.

The reality is that Obama duped Hispanics. They should have voted for Republican John McCain who had a verifiable 25-year record of supporting Hispanic causes. With comprehensive immigration reform proponent McCain as the sitting Republican president and the Democrats controlling both Congressional chambers, amnesty legislation for more than 10 million illegal aliens would sailed through.

Assuming politics is about winning, Obama needs to re-evaluate where he stands with the electorate (in danger of losing) and adjust his campaign strategy accordingly. The mix that helped elect Obama is history: eight years of George W. Bush, inept challenger McCain, the promised 3 million jobs and sincere enthusiasm for “change you can believe in.”

Replacing the hope that ushered Obama into office is his indifferent first term, stubborn unemployment that has seen more jobs lost than created, $4 a gallon gasoline and a third Middle Eastern war. These are moderate middle class Americans’ concerns. Those same moderates, who Obama should be appealing to, represent America’s largest voting bloc.

Confirming where the votes are, the Pew Hispanic Center recently released a report titled “The Latino Electorate 2010, More Voters, More Non-Voters”. Pew’s analysis: “Yet, even among eligible voters, Latino participation rates lag those of other groups. In 2010, 31.2 percent of Latino eligible voters say they voted, while nearly half (48.6 percent) of white eligible voters and 44.0 percent of black eligible voters said the same.” In order of importance then, the voting blocs are white, black and Hispanic. Even if Obama gets a fractionally larger vote share from Hispanics, he can’t win unless he maintains his 2008 support level with whites and blacks.

The euphoria created by bin Laden’s death will soon fade. But as long as Obama maintains his high profile immigration advocacy, his appeal among those two demographics will continue to slide and put his re-election at risk.

Joe Guzzardi has written editorial columns—mostly about immigration and related social issues – since 1986. He is a senior writing fellow for Californians for Population Stabilization (CAPS) and his columns have frequently been syndicated in various U.S. newspapers and websites. He can be reached at [email protected].