HISPANIC MEDIA TURNING ON OBAMA

The long time romance between the US Spanish-language media and the Obama administration seems to be over. “Latinos overwhelmingly voted for Obama because he promised immigration reform within a year, but now the White House has lost control of the debate”, says Univision presenter Jorge Ramos, who is seen by many as the leading voice of a movement within the Spanish-language media that is turning its back on the president. Some observers credit the growing Hispanic media criticism with the recent decline in Mr. Obama’s approval ratings among Hispanics. [Source:  BBC]

Commentary:

An immigration overhaul does not appear to be on the horizon right now. The White House and the Democrats simply do not have the momentum to carry this forward. It appears that President Obama is simply overwhelmed by the recession, the war on terrorism, health care reform, financial industry reform, etc…

The White House does have a web site that it devotes to immigration reform progress. Here is the link

I can spare you some time by not clicking this link. I have monitored this site just about every month. I see a few new blog posts. However, I have not seen any substantive change in months. The “Progress” section has not changed at all.

My prediction is that we will not have any progress on the immigration reform issue for at least the next three months. If the democrats are still in the majority after congressional elections in November, we could see some progress on this issue after the elections.

The Democrats, however, may need to begin the process now, especially if they would like to continue to hold the majority vote in Congress. Latino voters made a difference in yesterday’s Arizona and Florida primaries, advocates for comprehensive immigration told reporters today .

Latino voters are flexing their muscles. The message is clear: this important constituency wants progress on immigration reform now, not later. Why not begin now? Many people would like to see immigration reform.