Taking The Pulse Of Obama's Latino Support

MICHEL MARTIN, host:

Now we want to examine the president's standing among Latino voters a year after his historic election. During his primary race with then-Senator Hillary Clinton of New York, pollsters and pundits speculated that Obama would not be able to draw Latino votes, in part, because he was not well-known, in part, it was said, because of racist sentiments within the Latino community. Now that idea proved to be more myth than fact. President Obama - or rather, candidate Obama drew 67 percent of Latino votes in the general election. And, in fact, that was a tremendous shift from 2004, when the Democratic nominee, Senator John Kerry, was able to capture only 53 percent of the Latino vote. So, how is Obama doing a year later?

With us to talk about this is Linda Chavez, chairman of the Center for Equal Opportunity, that's a think tank based in Virginia. She's a syndicated columnist, a former Republican Senate candidate in Maryland, and the author of "Out of the Barrio: Toward a New Politics of Hispanic Assimilation." Also with us is Fernand Amandi. He's the executive vice president of Bendixen and Associates, that's a public opinion research firm that specializes in multicultural and multilingual polls.

And I welcome you both. Thank you for joining us.

Ms. LINDA CHAVEZ (Author, "Out of the Barrio: Toward a New Politics of Hispanic Assimilation"): Great to be with you.

Mr. FERNAND AMANDI (Executive Vice President, Bendixen and Associates): It's a pleasure to be with you, Michel. Thank you.

MARTIN: Fernand, I'm going to start with you because your firm tracks political views among Latinos. And we have to mention, I believe it's correct, that your company did work with the Obama general election campaign, and also for Senator Hillary Clinton during the primary. So, how is President Obama doing among Latino voters now?

Mr. AMANDI: Surprising well. In fact, next to African-Americans, you can say that Latino voters are very much his biggest supporters and the heart of his base right now. He's enjoying tremendous approval ratings amongst that group. We did a study at the beginning of the year where the president enjoys 85 percent approval rating amongst Latinos overall in the United States, which is just an extraordinary number, and that support has continued to the present day.

MARTIN: Why do you think that is?

Mr. AMANDI: Well, I think first and foremost, the Latino community in this country didn't do well under the previous administration. While there was not a tremendous amount of recognition of Barack Obama going into last year's election, his ideology, his campaign platform, the message and the mandate upon which he was running was very much something that appealed to the community. Whether it was bringing about new reform to the health care process, the handling of the economy, which as everyone knows, was in tatters when the president took office earlier this year. And many of the other points of view that have to do with everyday concerns, everyday issues, the Latino community has embraced this president and so far are strongly with him and in his corner.

MARTIN: And yet, President George W. Bush was - he won an historically high percentage of the Latino vote in 2004, even though he didn't win the majority of the vote, and, as I recall, had strong support among Latinos. So is it Latino voters just taking each candidate by candidate or each office holder on his own and not comparing them to each other?

Mr. AMANDI: Well, President Bush, remember, did a tremendous job reaching out to the community, really speaking to them with respect, with a lot of appreciation for the culture and for the community. But as the economy deteriorated, which is obviously one of the issues that not just Latinos but most Americans are concerned about, and also the very nasty rhetoric seen by the Republican Party, the president - President Bush's party on the immigration issue, which a lot of Latinos felt, took a personal, negative, and divisive tone did a lot to deteriorate their curiosity about the Republican brand. And, of course, so many of them returned to the original roots where you tend to see the Hispanic community be which is within the Democratic Party.

MARTIN: Hmm.

Mr. AMANDI: Obviously, a lot of that support has maintained itself throughout these last nine and a half months and the community, as far as the Public Opinion Research number shows and the polling shows, continue to support this president at very strong levels and are awaiting the action that he described and talked about during the campaign.

MARTIN: Linda Chavez, let's hear your view of this. You are, of course, a Republican, but you've had differences with your party over a number of issues over the years, particularly on immigration reform. What's your assessment of this?

Ms. CHAVEZ: Well, I think Fernand is correct, that Barack Obama did enjoy tremendous support in the Latino community. But I would argue that part of that was really that the Republican brand has been perhaps irreparably damaged in the Latino community, primarily because of the very divisive and harsh rhetoric coming from some Republican office holders but more importantly, from conservative talk-radio and some of the conservative television shows, which has really I think left a sour taste in the mouths of many Latinos who might agree with the Republican Party on a host of issues from social issues to some economic issues.

I mean many of the Latinos who are most active in the political process are small-business owners. But they too have, I think, really been turned off by some of the rhetoric coming out of the conservative and Republican movements.

MARTIN: Linda, what do conservatives and Republicans have to do to regain their competiveness in the Latino community, recognizing that you are a researcher -you're a researcher and a writer. You're not in a sense giving advice to candidates, per se. But as a former candidate yourself, what do you think?

Ms. CHAVEZ: Well, I think they've done the first and most important thing, and that is they've sort of shut up about the immigration issue. Now, in part, that's because Barack Obama has not decided to make this a major push either, and that ultimately could come back to bite the Democrats and bite Barack Obama.

I think many Latinos supported him thinking that he would - particularly with a very large majority in the House and in the Senate - that he would push for comprehensive immigration reform. And certainly, there was, I think, the ability to do that early in the administration. It becomes less clear to me that he's going to have much success doing it now that the country is again so polarized, and particularly if he is not successful in getting through a health reform package and one that is embraced by the American people. I think that's going to make immigration reform even more difficult.

MARTIN: If you're just joining us, I'm speaking with commentator Linda Chavez and pollster Fernand Amandi. We're talking about Latino voters a year after Obama's election to the White House.

Fernand, what about that? Just last week, on this program we heard from Illinois Democrat Louis Gutierrez, a member of Congress. He, complained - I think is a fair word - that the president wasn't doing enough to advance the immigration reform agenda. Others argued that the timing just isn't right, that he has to set priorities. What is your take on how that issue is playing out among Latino voters?

Mr. AMANDI: Well, I think first and foremost, one must understand that given all of the studies and research we've seen over the last year, Latino voters understand that yes, the immigration issue's an important one. One in which they hope and expect there will be presidential action in his first year of taking office, as he has suggested and promised over and over again. But more importantly, they understand that the president inherited a very difficult situation upon taking office, and at the highest level of those priorities of what he should tackle is the economy and, as it relates to the Latino community, health care. Those two issues dominate. Those two issues are ones that the community understand are priorities, if you will, and they're looking for the challenges of the economy and reforming of the health care system to first be tackled before the president handles the immigration issue. So they're willing to give him a little bit of leeway and a little bit of leverage to at least tackle these issues that are affecting them on a more direct basis every day, and every day in and out.

MARTIN: And can I ask you about something, Mr. Fernand Amandi, because your colleague, Sergio Bendixen, told The New Yorker during the campaign - during the primary season something that caused a very great deal of ruckus and quite a lot of commentary. He was quoted as saying, and I quote specifically, "The Hispanic voter - and I want to say this very carefully - has not shown a lot of willingness or affinity to support black candidates."

Now, as I mentioned, he was working for Senator Hillary Clinton at the time. We sort of see what the election results are. But what does he think now about this? What have we learned since then?

Mr. AMANDI: Look, I think the 2008 election put many different points of view to rest. I think the point of the election is, is that the American people, of all races, of all branches, show that race is not going to be the great question in this country as far as electing the highest elected official in the land.

The Latino community has embraced this President Barack Obama. They have rallied around him. They are giving him tremendous support. And as I mentioned at the outset of my comments, they are looking for him to tackle the issues that are affecting them on a daily basis, the issues which keep them up at night that are of the greatest concern to them, which is health care and fixing this economic mess that he inherited.

MARTIN: Fernand Amandi is the executive vice president of Bendixen and Associates, that's a public opinion research firm with a particular expertise in multi-lingual and multi-cultural polling. He joined us from NPR member station WLRN in Miami. We were also joined by Linda Chavez, chair of the Center for Equal Opportunity, a syndicated columnist and author. She joined us from her home office in Purcellville, Virginia.

I thank you both so much for speaking with us.

Ms. CHAVEZ: Thank you.

Mr. AMANDI: Thank you, Michel.

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