Romney Camp: Obama Isn’t Macho Enough For Latino Voters
By Roque Planas, Huffington Post Latino Voices
Is Obama macho enough for Latinos?
The Romney campaign told Buzzfeed Monday President Obama’s biggest problem with Latino voters is that they view him as a “weak leader,” and his uninspired performance at the first debate with his conservative opponent this month helped solidify that impression.
To explain Obama’s narrowing lead in the key state of Florida, according to a poll released over the weekend by The Miami Herald and Florida International University, Romney aides provided this cultural analysis, as paraphrased by Buzzfeed:
In much of Latino culture, they explained, political leaders are expected to demonstrate a macho bravado, and Obama’s debate performance last month — with his verbal pauses, downward gaze, and weak defense of his own record — seemed to exacerbate the incumbent’s perception problem.
It’s not clear whether the Romney aides, who BuzzFeed did not identify, actually used the word “macho,” or if the web publication freely interpreted the aides’ explanation. Either way, Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-N.Y.) pounced on the Romney camp’s comments, calling them “offensive stereotypes of the Hispanic community.”
The interpretation also didn’t impress Ana Navarro, a conservative strategist who has criticized Romney for his positions on immigration:
While Latinos have a reputation for machismo, a culturally specific form of sexism,…
This article was first published in Huffington Post Latino Voices.
[Photo by Joe Crimmings Photography]
