Reprinted from Mike Malloy Website
Remember when Dim Son used to attempt to speak Spanish during Hispanic Heritage month festivities, welcoming his Latino brothers to La Casa Blanca?
It appears that may be the most any current Latino American can expect from the GOP. More than 1,200 Latino political leaders held a conference in Las Vegas this week, and only one candidate bothered to show up, and it wasn't Rubio or Jeb.
As the Washington Post reports:
"Out of the GOP's 16 declared or likely presidential candidates, only one -- retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson -- bothered to show up.
"The absence of the others -- including former Florida governor Jeb Bush, who made outreach to Latino voters a central theme of his Miami campaign launch on Monday -- illustrates the gulf between the GOP's urgent need to present a more welcoming face to Hispanics and how far those running to be the party's standard-bearer are willing to go to do so.
"Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush, who is making special efforts to reach out to Hispanics, is among more than a dozen GOP candidates who did not attend a Latino presidential forum this week.
"Many campaigns cited 'scheduling conflicts' for skipping the 32nd annual convention of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials. Instead, at least 13 GOP candidates plan to be in Washington this week to address the Faith and Freedom Coalition's 'Road to the Majority' conference, the latest in a busy series of presidential cattle-call events for social conservatives."The two programs underscore the dueling priorities for Republican presidential hopefuls: the hot competition to court white evangelicals in the primaries and the imperative for the eventual nominee to improve his or her image among minority voters, especially Hispanics, in next year's general election.
"The party's 2016 candidates have been particularly bedeviled by how to handle immigration reform, which is strongly opposed by parts of the Republican base but broadly favored by Hispanic voters.
"'All I can say is that schedules reflect priorities,' said Arturo Vargas, NALEO's executive director. 'Of course they should be here.'"
Wow, and a bunch of these dudes will show up at a turkey slaughter or county Pinecone Festival if they think they can win some votes. So this is truly telling.
They never learn ... Lucky for us!