This past Saturday, Senator Barack Obama came to Little Havana to further discuss his position on many issues, among them his plan for Cuba. I was able to introduce Senator Obama before he addressed about 1,500 people at the Miami-Dade County Auditorium. Read my remarks here. Below, please watch a video of Senator Obama's remarks on Cuba, and take a look at a few pictures from the event.
For additional coverage of Senator Obama's visit to South Florida, read Beth Reinhard's piece in the Miami Herald.
In what is sure to be a major topic of debate, the Post reports on a leaked draft of an upcoming GAO report that suggests very little progress has been made in Iraq. The story begins:
Iraq has failed to meet all but three of 18 congressionally mandated benchmarks for political and military progress, according to a draft of a Government Accountability Office report. The document questions whether some aspects of a more positive assessment by the White House last month adequately reflected the range of views the GAO found within the administration.
The strikingly negative GAO draft, which will be delivered to Congress in final form on Tuesday, comes as the White House prepares to deliver its own new benchmark report in the second week of September, along with congressional testimony from Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker. They are expected to describe significant security improvements and offer at least some promise for political reconciliation in Iraq.
Meanwhile the Times reports that the White House is upbeat about its chances to win the coming fall debate over our approach to the increasing turmoil in the Middle East.
- Regardless of what Mike Huckabee said about the expectations behind his candidacy, Fred Thompson continues to have staffing issues without having formally entered.
- Rudy Giuliani outlined his tax plan. Hopefully this will help him in his "firewall state", Florida.
- Governor Bill Richardson and Hillary Clinton were among those at the LIVESTRONG forum. Check out Richardson's appearance and be sure to read Clinton's plan to fight cancer. Dennis Kucinich was also present on Monday. Tuesday will host Republican candidates Sam Brownback and Mike Huckabee, much to the disappointment of Lance Armstrong.
- Rudy Giuliani wrote an op-ed on how to fix America's immigration problems in South Carolina's Greenville News.
- Governor Bill Richardson explains how he will prove to the Latino community that he is the candidate of their choice.
- Tom Tancredo will be on O'Reilly tonight with guest Michelle Malkin. Topic of conversation? Sanctuary cities, immigration, etc.
- Be sure to look at Hillary Clinton's plan to improve the quality of health care for all Americans.
- Joe Biden, who is the subject of a nice op-ed from Niall Stanage in the Valley Advocate, weighed in on whether replacing Iraqi Prime Minister al-Maliki is the right thing to do.
- John McCain issued a press release challenging Senator Clinton's change in position on whether the surge in Iraq is working.
For more information on NDN's coverage of the 2008 Presidential election, click here.
One topic that hasn't been emphasized too much during the 2008 presidential campaign is the strategic outreach of candidates to court the Hispanic vote. While there has been some mention of this, the coverage of their outreach has been limited particularly to candidate participation in the NCLR Annual Conference, the NALEO Candidate Forum, and the upcoming Univision Candidate Forum at the University of Miami. (NOTE: Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama also received coverage for using firms that specialize in Spanish-language communication and polling.)
From campaign staff/endorsements to meetings with prominent Hispanics across the country, candidates are doing quite a bit to go after the Hispanic vote. Some of it is noted in the media, some isn't. So below I take a quick look at some of the major efforts of campaigns to reach out to the fastest growing demographic in the nation. I'll be adding to this as I can, realizing that I haven't touched on the efforts of all of the candidates.
Hillary Clinton - In a recent Bloomberg article, it was made clear that Clinton has made efforts to reach out to the Hispanic community to offset gains made by Barack Obama in the African American community. With endorsements from prominent leaders like Raul Yzaguirre, former president of NCLR, Fabian Nuñez, Speaker of the CA Assembly, Antonio Villaraigosa, Mayor of Los Angeles, Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farm Workers Union, Adolfo Carrión, Jr., Bronx Borough President, and Senator Robert Menendez, Clinton sure boasts a lot of support from Hispanic leaders across the country. Let us also not forget that Clinton's Chief of Staff, Patti Solis Doyle, is the first Latina to run a presidential campaign.
Barack Obama - While Obama doesn't have the vast array of endorsements as Clinton, he has had two incredibly important meetings with two people who could really encourage support for him. Eddie Sotelo and Renán Almendárez Coello - better known as "Piolín" and "El Cucuy" - are two radio DJs credited with driving turnout for the massive immigration marches that occurred in May, 2006.
Listen to Obama's interview with "El Cucuy" (NOTE: the interview is in Spanish with a translator) Pictures of Obama's meeting with "Piolín" are below:
Bill Richardson - Richardson, who was born in Pasadena, CA to an American father and Mexican mother is the only Hispanic-American in the Democratic field. He grew up in Mexico City and is the Governor of a border state. The man behind his ads is Lionel Sosa who is no stranger to presidential elections. Most recently, Sosa helped deliver 40% of the Hispanic vote to George Bush in 2004. Richardson, who also announced his candidacy in Spanish, also highlights the support he has from Latinos in various YouTube videos.
Listen to Richardson's interview with "El Cucuy" (NOTE: the interview is entirely in Spanish)
UPDATE: Richardson is announced the creation of a grassroots campaign to focus on reaching out to Latinos in the video below:
Chris Dodd - As the recipient of one of NCLR's Capital Awards, Dodd is no stranger to the Hispanic community. And, as the video below shows, Dodd is the other bilingual candidate in the field, having learned to speak Spanish during his time in the Peace Corps:
Joe Biden - Biden's campaign manager, Luis Navarro, is Hispanic.
For more information on NDN's coverage of the 2008 Presidential election, click here.
- Time graded the Democratic candidates' performances during this past Sunday's debate.
- AdAge takes a look at advertising money, noting that total spending through August 6th has reached $7.9 million.
- YouTube has a sampling of questions users submitted for the Republican CNN-YouTube debate (via PrezVid).
- Barack Obama expanded his foreign policy platform after he called for an ease in travel restrictions to Cuba, promising to "grant Cuban Americans unrestricted rights to visit family and send remittances to the island." Obama explained his view in this op-ed in the Miami Herald, a position he's set to discuss further Saturday in Little Havana. NOTE: Obama's stance echoes NDN's position, which was most recently expressed by NDN President Simon Rosenberg in an interview with The Hill. For more background, check out video from our February forum, After Fidel.
- Adam Nagourney from the NY Times highlights Rudy Giuliani's campaign style in rural areas, showing how the Former NYC Mayor has to stretch to find common ground.
- Governor Bill Richardson expanded his campaign to Nevada after John Edwards shifted his staff from the Silver State to Iowa and New Hampshire.
- Fred Thompson is facing an FEC complaint from blogger Lane Hudson, who says Thompson has raised far more money than he needs to explore whether to run for president. Thompson, whose latest fundraising numbers fell short of projections, has long said he was raising the funds needed to "test the waters."
- The NYT takes a look at speeches delivered yesterday by both John McCain and Hillary Clinton at the 108th National Convention Of The Veterans Of Foreign Wars. Fred Thompson and Barack Obama address the Convention today.
- I have to highlight this article from Sunday's Boston Globe, which wonders if Mitt Romney has "stepped out of a time machine from 1950s suburban America, golly-ing and gosh-ing his way across the nation."
- Chris Dodd met with Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson today to discuss an issue that was touched upon in Sunday's debates: the mortgage market. Check out this YouTube video of Senator Dodd discussing the issue.
For more information on NDN's coverage of the 2008 Presidential election, click here.
When Karl Rove announced his resignation this week I'm pretty sure he did not expect the media to so swiftly declare his tenure a failure, and to start serious speculation that the great accomplishment of this "genius" was to give progressives an historic opening to advance their agenda.
Several examples today. The Post frontpages a story that looks at the Rovian politicization of the Administration, which many, including NDN, believe went way beyond what was permissible or just (for years we've been calling the modern conservative machine an Information Age Tammany Hall). Andrew Kohut looks at how much more progressive the nation has become, and Frank Rich wonderfully deconstructs Rove in his weekly column today.
We weighed in on Rove with this piece earlier this week, and of course have been exploring this subject for the last several years. A collection of our essays can be found in our Meeting the Conservative Challenge section. A particularly worthy read is this essay, the Democratic Opportunity, which ran in the Politico in April and lays out what progressives and Democrats must to do to seize the opportunity Bush and Rove have given us.
- John Edwards' ties to Fortress Investment Group LLC are coming back to haunt him in a new way. This time, the WSJ points out that Fortress filed foreclosure suits with 34 homes in New Orleans. (Edwards, who makes New Orleans a focal point of his campaign, has attacked lenders who have filed foreclosure suits against those affected by Hurricane Katrina.)
- Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani went at it this week on immigration. The back and forth prompted Giuliani to release ads in South Carolina to clarify his record. Meanwhile John McCain is sticking to his position that comprehensive immigration reform is necessary, regardless of of the threats he's received. (As background, PrezVid has a nice YouTube history of Giuliani's stance on immigration.) New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg also added his opinion.
- Chris Dodd is calling for an import ban on chinese food and toys.
- Fred Thompson plans on using the Iowa State Fair to raise his profile in the Hawkeye State.
- Chris Cillizza has a great post on the need for Mike Huckabee's campaign to capitalize on its second place finish in the Ames Straw Poll.
- As a father whose son is headed to Iraq, Joe Biden discusses ending the war responsibly in the video below. Biden says, "There is no political point worth my son's life. There is no political point worth anybody's life."
For more information on NDN's coverage of the 2008 Presidential election, click here.
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