Axelrod: Signals to Hispanic voters 'have not been positive'
In an open forum interview with Washington Post Managing Editor Chris Cillizza at a White House Correspondents Dinner breakfast event, Senior Presidential Advisor David Axelrod spoke to the "signals" Hispanic voters have received.
The American Latino vote is seen as a crucial underpinning to success in the 2012 elections, and President Obama's Senior Presidential Advisor David Axelrod gave shape to White House attempts at reaching out to Hispanic voters, saying of the Republican Party that the signals to Hispanic Americans "have not been positive."
Speaking with Washington Post Managing Editor Chris Cillizza at a Washington Post Live event on Saturday morning, Mr. Axelrod suggested the White House plans on immigration and on the DREAM act were more in line with the modern and multicultural America that exists currently. Axelrod referenced Senator McCain's flip-flop from a champion of immigration reform prior to the 2008 presidential election to more of a protectionist Republican presidential candidate, insisting on more stringent border enforcement and on illegal immigration investigations within American businesses.
The Obama administration is actively courting the Hispanic vote, with President Obama staging meetings with Latino celebrities and structuring other outreach, as the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. However, there are numerous topics of interest to the Latino community, and White House strategists did not offer a public road-map on the order in which they would tackle those issues.
"I'm not going to lay out what our strategy is on how to move from here to there," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said last week, according to the Wall Street Journal. But the Latino vote is not neatly owned by the Democratic Party, as GOP 2012 election strategists see openings in the Hispanic community, the Wall Street Journal uncovered in a separate report.