Must Reads: 'Debate No-Shows Worry GOP Leaders' and 'Division Problem'
September 19, 2007
Two pieces in today's Washington Post analyze the long-term damage Republicans are doing to their party by consistently alienating black and Latino voters. A front page article examines how the GOP Presidential candidates have been skipping debates focusing on issues important to minorities and, concerned about election results, many in the party fear "a backlash that could further erode the party's standing with black and Latino voters." Similarly, Michael Gerson takes a closer look at the Republican Party's hardline view on immigration and how it equals GOP losses in 2008 and beyond. Calling conservatives a "wrecking crew" who are destroying the inroads President Bush made with Hispanic voters in previous elections, Gerson writes that the Republican party's shunning of Hispanics "could make the national political map unwinnable for Republicans."
Below are excerpts of the Washington Post article. To view the entire story, click here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/18/
AR2007091801781.html?hpid=topnews
Debate No-Shows Worry GOP Leaders
Candidates Are Urged to Attend Forums Sponsored by Minorities
By Perry Bacon Jr.
Washington Post
"Key Republican leaders are encouraging the party's presidential candidates to rethink their decision to skip presidential debates focusing on issues important to minorities, fearing a backlash that could further erode the party's standing with black and Latino voters. The leading contenders for the Republican nomination have indicated they will not attend the 'All American Presidential Forum' organized by black talk show host Tavis Smiley, scheduled for Sept. 27 at Morgan State University in Baltimore and airing on PBS. Former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, former senator Fred D. Thompson (Tenn.) and Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) all cited scheduling conflicts in forgoing the debate. The top Democratic contenders attended a similar event in June at Howard University.
"'We sound like we don't want immigration; we sound like we don't want black people to vote for us,' said former congressman Jack Kemp (N.Y.), who was the GOP vice presidential nominee in 1996. 'What are we going to do -- meet in a country club in the suburbs one day? If we're going to be competitive with people of color, we've got to ask them for their vote.' Making matters worse, some Republicans believe, is that the decision to bypass the Morgan State forum comes after all top GOP candidates save McCain declined invitations this month to a debate on Univision, the most-watched Hispanic television network in the United States. The event was eventually postponed...
"Except for McCain, the top GOP candidates have distanced themselves from [the immigration] proposal, which Kemp worries will become another strike against the GOP with Hispanics. Bush received 40 percent of the Latino vote in 2004, but the Republican base remains inflamed about illegal immigration, leading the candidates to focus on border-control proposals...Giuliani, Romney and McCain also declined to appear at events sponsored by the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials and the National Urban League, which Smiley said suggests a pattern of ignoring minority voters. He said debate organizers will set up lecterns showing the names of the absent candidates. 'When you reject every black invitation and every brown invitation you receive, is that a scheduling issue or is it a pattern?' he asked. 'I don't believe anybody should be elected president of the United States if they think along the way they can ignore people of color. That's just not the America we live in.'"
Below are excerpts of the Washington Post column. To view the entire story, click here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/18/AR2007091801626.html
Division Problem
The GOP's Ruinous Immigration Stance
By Michael Gerson
Washington Post
"Immigration used to be a debate among Republicans. Now the issue survives mainly as a weapon. Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney-- who once commented on illegal immigrants, 'I don't believe in rounding up 11 million people and forcing them at gunpoint from our country' -- attacks Rudy Giuliani for not rounding up enough illegal immigrants when he was mayor of New York. Giuliani -- who once said, 'If you come here and you work hard and you happen to be in an undocumented status, you're one of the people who we want in this city' -- criticizes Romney for tolerating 'sanctuary cities' in Massachusetts...
"That anger is pushing Republicans into some powerful symbols of indifference to Hispanic voters. The Univision Republican debate, scheduled for last Sunday with simultaneous translation into Spanish, was postponed when only Sen. John McCain agreed to show up...And this snub came on the heels of conspicuous Republican absence at a forum held by the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, and at the National Council of La Raza convention. It is a strange spectacle. Conservatives are intent on building a more appealing, post-Bush Republican Party. But their most obvious change so far is to reverse remarkable Republican gains among one of the fastest-growing groups of American voters. The renovators seem more like the wrecking crew...
"The political effects of conservative opposition to immigration reform have been swift as well. Latino support for GOP candidates dropped back to 30 percent in 2006. According to one poll, Latinos under age 30 now prefer a generic Democrat over a Republican for president by 42 points. A harsh, Tancredo-like image of Republicans has solidified in the mainstream Hispanic media. And all of this regression will be even more obvious in the next few months, because more than half of the Hispanic voters in America live in states that are part of the new lineup of early primaries. I have never seen an issue where the short-term interests of Republican presidential candidates in the primaries were more starkly at odds with the long-term interests of the party itself. At least five swing states that Bush carried in 2004 are rich in Hispanic voters -- Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado and Florida. Bush won Nevada by just over 20,000 votes. A substantial shift of Hispanic voters toward the Democrats in these states could make the national political map unwinnable for Republicans."
