Hillary Calls for Puerto Rico Debate; Obama Misses...

Published 26 May 08 07:37 PM | admin

Hillary Clinton is looking to Barack Obama and saying "Meet me in Puerto Rico!" Outside of a family restaurant in Penuelas, PR, Sen. Clinton challenged Sen. Obama to a debate "about the issues affecting Puerto Rico."

Sen. Obama, who has anointed himself the presumptive nominee with the help of the media, hasn't accepted the the invitation to the debate, which Univison said it would sponsor. Even as Obama is positioning himself for the general election by campaigning in states which will be important to the general election, he is missing an opportunity to show his campaign's commitment to winning the Hispanic vote.

I've written previously that Sen. Obama starts at a disadvantage compared to Sen. Clinton against with John McCain and Hispanics. Obama has only been a national figure for a couple of years, and Hispanics have had less time to test his commitment to the issues and causes important to us. John McCain, on the other hand, has proved his ability to work across the aisle on education, immigration, and many other issues. This is not to say that Obama hasn't done the same... but if he has, we haven't heard about it.

But a debate on the issues important to the people of Puerto Rico would go a long way in not just showing his commitment to the issues of the islanders, but also to prove that he is serious about winning the votes of Hispanics in November by paying very real attention to the issues important to Hispanic families.

But the people of Puerto Rico don't play into Obama general election strategy--after all, they don't' get to vote--so we're to assume that they don't deserve the same amount of attention as the voters of Michigan or Missouri. We've seen this before. Although he drastically outspent Hillary there, Obama barely visited Kentucky, opting instead to spend more time in comparatively-friendly Oregon. Kentucky voters have been hurt hard by a struggling economy and rising cost-of-everything, and, instead of solutions, Obama gave them the cold shoulder.

Maybe that's what the Hispanic community should expect from Obama, as well.