From NBC's First Read, an admission that the conventional wisdom "is wrong" about Obama potentially having trouble with Latino voters. Polls show that Obama is doing really well with Latino voters. McCain isn't. That's what the GOP gets for spending the last couple years bashing immigrants:
There was a growing consensus during the Democratic primary season that Obama was going to struggle with Latino voters -- due to the exit polls, his race, and McCain’s immigration stance. In fact, in that now-famous conference call in which Hillary Clinton indicated that she would be open to serving as Obama’s running mate, that response was spurred by concern by New York Rep. Nydia Velasquez (D) that Obama was going to have trouble with Latinos. But it looks like that CW -- at least right now -- was wrong. In addition to our recent NBC/WSJ poll, which showed Hispanics breaking for Obama 62%-28%, a new survey of 800 Latino voters from 21 states finds that 60% of them plan to vote for Obama versus 23% for McCain. That is down considerably from the 40%-plus Bush received in 2004. It’s no longer fair to say that Obama has a problem with Latino voters; McCain does. This was a case of conventional wisdom that was never based on fact, just semi-informed speculation based on primary exit polling and bad stereotypes of Latinos.CW not based on fact -- again. Yet, many of them make a lot of money to provide "semi-informed speculation." So much of what the punditry thinks and says is self-generated and not based on facts and reality.
Anyone who paid attention to the vicious, ugly anti-immigrant agenda of the Republicans (and John McCain went right along with it) would know there are going to be political ramifications. The purveyors of the conventional wisdom also seem oblivious to the Spanish-speaking media and the amazing organizing efforts undertaken in the Latino community. Think back to the immigrant marches in the spring of 2006 and how surprised "everyone" was. So, yeah, the CW is wrong -- again.
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