Barack Hussein Obama Crusades for
Driver's Licenses for Illegal Aliens
Hillary Learned Her Lesson, But Obama Still Doesn't Get It!
Barack Obama is easily winning the African American vote, but to woo
Latinos, where he is running 3-to-1 behind rival Sen. Hillary Rodham
Clinton, he is taking a giant risk: spotlighting his support for the
red-hot issue of granting driver's licenses to illegal immigrants.
It's
a huge issue for Latinos, who want them. It's also a huge issue for the
general electorate, which most vehemently does not. Obama's stand could
come back to haunt him not only in a general election, but with other
voters in states such as California, where driver's licenses for
illegal immigrants helped undo former Gov. Gray Davis.
Clinton
stumbled into that minefield in a debate last fall and quickly backed
off. First she suggested a New York proposal for driver's licenses for
illegal immigrants might be reasonable. Then she denied endorsing the
idea, and later came out against them.
Asked directly about the
issue now, her California campaign spokesman said Clinton "believes the
solution is to pass comprehensive immigration reform."
"Barack
Obama has not backed down" on driver's licenses for undocumented
people, said Federico Peña, a former Clinton administration Cabinet
member and Denver mayor now supporting Obama. "I think when the Latino
community hears Barack's position on such an important and
controversial issue, they'll understand that his heart and his
intellect is with Latino community."
Obama's intention is to
draw distinctions between himself and Clinton on what are otherwise
indistinguishable positions on immigration. Both have adopted the
standard Democratic approach of favoring tougher enforcement along with
earned legalization.
The Illinois senator is differentiating
himself in three key areas: driver's licenses, a promise to take up
immigration reform his first year in office, and his background as the
son of an immigrant (his father was Kenyan) and a community organizer
in Chicago.
Obama made the promise to Latino leaders to take up
immigration reform in his first year after Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill.,
chairman of the Democratic caucus, said his party might not raise the
divisive issue again until the next president's second term, assuming a
Democrat wins.
Latino leaders felt betrayed. For them, an
immigration overhaul is a top priority in light of state and local
crackdowns on illegal immigrants and federal raids in workplaces across
the country.
Clinton has not made such a promise, saying only that she would make her best efforts.
"Those
issues are huge," said Obama supporter and state Sen. Gilbert Cedillo,
D-Los Angeles, vice chairman of the California Latino Legislative
Caucus.
Democratic pollsters Stan Greenberg and James Carville
issued a direct warning on the driver's license issue in an analysis
last month designed to guide Democrats through the treacherous
immigration quagmire.
"The findings about driver's licenses are
particularly notable," they said. Two-thirds of surveyed voters oppose
them, the pollsters found, and the safety argument fails to dent the
widespread conviction that granting a driver's license rewards illegal
behavior.
But it will definitely work with Latinos, said John
Trasviña, president of the Mexican American Legal Defense and
Educational Fund. "Clinton and (Sen. John) Edwards have said no
driver's licenses for unauthorized immigrants," Trasviña said. "Sen.
Obama has said you get a driver's license if you know how to drive. And
that message I think will resonate in the Latino community as we get
closer to California."
Hillary Clinton's biggest asset is "El Presidente."
Thanks
to Bill Clinton's presidency, during which he lavished attention on
Latinos, and her own eight years as first lady, Hillary Clinton enjoys
enormous name recognition among Latinos.
Hillary picked up early
endorsements from leading Latinos such as Los Angeles Mayor Antonio
Villaraigosa, Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez and fabled farmworker
organizer Dolores Huerta.
Clinton opened her new East Lost
Angeles campaign office Saturday with three Latina members of Congress:
Hilda Solis, Grace Napolitano and Lucille Roybal-Allard.
Obama
has lined up several lesser-known officials, including Assemblyman Joe
Coto, D-San Jose, chair of the Latino Legislative Caucus, as well as
Rep. Linda Sanchez, D-Cerritos, who split from her sister, Rep. Loretta
Sanchez, a Clinton backer from Garden Grove.
While Clinton has
the backing of the United Farm Workers, Obama has picked up the
endorsement of Unite Here, a heavily immigrant service workers union.
Both camps discount speculation of simmering racial hostility that might make some Latinos reluctant to vote for a black man.
"The
familiarity with President Clinton has given her a very, very big lead
from the beginning," said Maria Elena Durazo, secretary-treasurer for
the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor who is campaigning for Obama.
If
there were racial animosity, "obviously we would have to address that
very directly," Durazo said. But mostly the response Durazo gets when
she asks Latinos about Obama is, "Who is he? I don't know who he is,"
whereas with Clinton, the answer comes back, "We know Presidente Bill
Clinton."
Maria Echaveste, a UC Berkeley law lecturer advising
the Clinton campaign, agreed. "Everyone is so quick to jump on" the
racial angle, she said. "But, frankly, I think the explanation is a
much greater number of people know her and love Bill Clinton."
Huerta,
a longtime Latina activist and co-founder of the United Farm Workers
Union, scoffed at Obama's credentials with Latinos. Clinton worked in
the Rio Grande Valley in Texas as a young woman, she said, while Obama
was missing in action during two major activist events in Chicago, once
when Elvira Arellano sought church sanctuary to avoid deportation, and
another time when two Latino men were falsely accused of murder.
"He's
now trying to build a relationship, but it's just not there," Huerta
said. In Nevada, casino workers dubbed themselves "Hilarios," she said,
meaning Hillary supporters. "This came from the people."
With Obama, she said, "A lot of them would say, 'Señor como se llama?' They didn't know Obama's name."
Latinos
also trust Clinton, Huerta said. "Support for her is not just support;
it's enthusiastic support. In fact, I haven't seen anything like this
since the Bobby Kennedy campaign back in '68."
Obama has begun
airing campaign ads on Spanish-language TV and his supporters are
working hard to promote Obama's activist Chicago roots, which Peña
declared forged "a personal connection with Latinos that no other
candidate has had."
Added Durazo, "He's the son of an immigrant,
he's the son of a single mother who sacrificed a lot to make sure he
got his education. All of those issues resonate with a hotel
housekeeper, a construction worker, a day laborer. ... I have great
hope that we're going to break through that gap in a big way."
