Obama’s great Latino week: Thumping Romney 72-20 in latest poll

10/10/2012 5:00pm by 1,287

Obama ad targets DREAM Act supporters

President Barack Obama continued his very good Latino week by releasing a new DREAM Act -targeted ad featuring his own better-than-expected Spanish narration, continuing a days-long streak consisting of gained traction in Latino Decisions polling, and his announcement of the Cesar E. Chavez National Monument in California.

The ad is expected to air in battleground states where Latino voters are key, including Florida, Nevada, and Ohio.

“They respect their parents, they study for a better life, and they want to give back to the only country they know and love,” the president says in Spanish about undocumented youth. “As a father, they inspire me. And as president, their courage reminds me that no obstacle is too great.”

Pretty good for a guy born in Kenya, Donald Trump would add.

Obama attends announcement of Chavez monument

The ad comes on the heels of the President’s Monday appearance at the announcement of the Chavez monument in California, alongside the labor and civil right activist’s widow Helen, and UFW founder Dolores Huerta. The monument will become the first to honor a Latino born later than the 1700s, and will encompass 120 acres featuring Chavez’s gravesite, UFW offices, and former home.

“No one seemed to care about the invisible farm workers who picked the nation’s food,” said the president in remarks. “Bent down in the beating sun, living in poverty, cheated by growers, abandoned in old age, unable to demand even the most basic rights. Cesar cared. In his own peaceful and eloquent way he made other people care too.”

The event was attended by thousands, with many turned away due to overcrowding.

Latinos like Obama. Romney, not so much

Later that same day, Latino Decisions released a new poll showing Obama crushing Republican Mitt Romney with Latino voters, a whopping 72 to 20 percent. Fifty-five percent expressed a favorable view of Democrats in Congress, with 24 percent having a favorable view of Republicans. Perhaps the most damning numbers were the mere 16 percent of Latinos who said that the Republican Party was doing a “good job” of outreach to Latinos, compared to 65 percent of Latinos thinking the same about the Democratic Party.

A second Latino Decisions poll released today also has Obama obliterating Romney among Arizona Latinos, 80 to 14 percent. Fifty-five percent of those polled also added that immigration reform and the DREAM Act were important issues facing their community.

Sounds like Mitt’s “self-deportation” plan wasn’t exactly a hit with Latinos.

Unsurprisingly, some lashed out online at the president, accusing him of shamefully pandering to Latino voters during the last few weeks of the election. Of course, this only becomes a factor when completely ignoring the fact that Obama has already dominated Latinos for months, and won the group over the last Republican nominee John McCain in 2008, 67 to 31 percent.

And Obama didn’t even have to dye his face brown either.

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Gabe Ortíz is a San Francisco-based writer. He has contributed to the Mission's bilingual newspaper "El Tecolote," and the political blogs AMERICAblog, AMERICAblog Gay, and Veracity Stew. He's also a Stevie Nicks lover and shameless catlady. Follow him on Twitter: @Tusk81.

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