Been out of the look most of the weekend in family land, but picked up a few must reads while playing catch up today.
First, look to Texas, where the Washington Post has a Hispanic father-son legislator team down in the Valley. Dad's for Hillary, son's for Barack.
"Now listen, son. Just listen. It's not like every young person down here is supporting Obama. I mean, what about my grandson, your nephew? He's a huge Clinton supporter."
"Dad. He's only 8."
"Okay. That's true. But right now, we're taking any support we can get."
The father and son stared hard at each other. Then they both erupted in laughter.
"It's common knowledge that Clinton doesn't stray far from the southern Texas base because of the loyalty she is counting on from Latinos who live there,
writes Marisa Treviño at Latina Lista. But party/candidate loyalty is the hallmark of a past generation of Latinos." Then, very interestingly, she adds:
Another aspect of campaigning in South Texas that may not have occurred to the Clinton campaign is that yes, while the majority of Latinos live in that region, they also tend to be more traditional than Latinos who are urbanized.
To be honest, I hadn't thought about this before because this is the 21st Century but an anecdote I heard today highlighting this sentiment made me realize it's a strong possibility.
It's called machismo and those Latinos who may have admired Bill Clinton wouldn't vote for his wife because she's a woman.
How many people feel this way? Hard to tell, especially since many probably wouldn't admit to it but unfortunately, it does exist — especially in a region that is predominantly rural and adheres to traditional customs more stringently than can be found elsewhere in the state.
A reason to match the margins out of South Texas on Tuesday. Not that the margins in South Texas would ever be above reproach.
Johnson joked about the circumstances surrounding his election to the U.S. Senate in 1948, telling of a tearful young boy he saw in San Antonio. "Jose, why are you crying?" "My daddy doesn't like me," said the boy. "But, your daddy is dead." "Yes, but he came back to vote for Lyndon Johnson and he didn't come by to see me."
More seriously, there's a couple good looks at one Team Clinton's failings: the refusal to embrace the 50 state strategy that's now conventional Dem wisdom. The Nation writes, in an article beautifully titled "The Dean Legacy":
Trippi's book The Revolution Will Not Be Televised is required reading in a class that Obama's chief strategist, David Axelrod, teaches at Northwestern University. If the Obama campaign naturally understood what Dean was trying to do, even though Dean's candidacy ultimately fizzled, the Clintons did not. "They looked at '04 and said, If Howard Dean lost, those tools must not have worked," Trippi says. He cites Clinton's unwillingness to compete all-out in red-state caucuses as a main reason her campaign is in such a predicament. Markos Moulitsas of Daily Kos dubbed Clinton's approach--and subsequent discounting of her losses in red America--the "insult 40 states" strategy. While the Obama campaign prepared for the long haul, Clinton poured most of her resources into a few key early states, expecting to have the nomination wrapped up by Super Tuesday. "It's not a very long run," Clinton predicted in late December. "It'll be over by February 5."
Anyone betting that there's an Only Rhode Island Counts spin being prepped?
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