Obama has been playing the Hispanic community for fools. As his polling numbers among this traditionally Democratic voting group eroded, he promised to elevate immigration reform to the top of the agenda. He had no intention of doing much of anything — other than decrying the efforts of Arizona to fill the void left by the federal government. Well, Obama has now managed to infuriate both proponents of a more restrictionist immigration policy and the Hispanic community. Politico reports:
President Barack Obama has lost the most trusted man in the Hispanic media.
Univision’s Jorge Ramos, an anchor on the nation’s largest Spanish-language television network, says Obama broke his promise to produce an immigration reform bill within a year of taking office. And Latinos are tired of the speeches, disillusioned by the lack of White House leadership and distrustful of the president, Ramos told POLITICO.
“He has a credibility problem right now with Latinos,” Ramos said. “We’ll see what the political circumstances are in a couple of years, but there is a serious credibility problem.”
Ramos has been called the Walter Cronkite of Spanish-language media, an unparalleled nationwide voice for Hispanics. And just like the famed CBS newsman’s commentary helped turn the country against the Vietnam War, Ramos may be on the leading edge of a movement within the Hispanic media to challenge the president on immigration — a shift that some observers believe is contributing to Obama’s eroding poll numbers among Latino voters.
Well, that’s some political karma. Obama’s cynical ploy has backfired spectacularly and revealed him to be very much a divider and not a uniter on a hot-button issue. There may not be consensus in the country on what to do about immigration. But increasingly, voters can agree that Obama is practicing the politics of division and doing so with so little finesse that he’s managing to annoy both sides in the debate.
