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from The Great Debate:
The GOP’s immigration problem
Old vaudeville joke:
Man goes to the doctor. Says he has a pain in his arm.
“Have you ever had this problem before?” the doctor says.
“Yes,” the man answers.
"Well, you got it again.”
Bada-bing.
Now look at the Republicans' immigration problem. Have they had this problem before? Yes. Well, they've got it again.
Republicans had an immigration problem nearly 100 years ago. A huge wave of immigrants from southern and eastern Europe – Poles, Hungarians, Italians, Jews – came to this country during the first two decades of the 20th century, before strict national quotas were imposed in 1924. These immigrants were largely Catholic and Jewish.
Republicans were the party of the white Anglo-Saxon Protestant establishment. The GOP did little to reach out to immigrants, except to try to “Americanize” them and “reform” them (the temperance movement).
Democrats then, as now, were the party of out-groups. The Democratic Party had a long history of accommodating immigrants, going back to the Irish in the 19th century. Municipal jobs (like policemen) were some of the only opportunities available to the Irish, and they were heavily recruited by big-city Democratic political machines that controlled patronage.
from The Great Debate:
Seeking consensus on immigration, guns
Two tough issues — immigration reform and gun control. “It won’t be easy,” President Barack Obama said about gun control in December, “but that’s no excuse not to try.” Tuesday, he said about immigration reform: “The closer we get, the more emotional this debate is going to become.”
Which does he stand a better chance of winning? Answer: immigration. On immigration, Obama has Democrats strongly behind him. Republicans are divided — and freaked out by the issue. On guns, he’s got Republicans strongly against him. Democrats are divided — and freaked out by the issue.
from The Great Debate:
To see future electorate, look at California voters now
The changing face of the American electorate is etched all over the map of California. The Golden State may no longer be a partisan battleground, but it continues to be a reliable bellwether for the evolving national political landscape.
Even as President Barack Obama won a second term with an electorate that mirrored the demographic trends that have made California deep blue, Golden State voters chose to raise taxes to fund education and gave Democrats a two-thirds “supermajority” in both houses of the state legislature—meaning Democratic lawmakers will have the ability to raise taxes without a single Republican vote.
from The Great Debate:
Where Karl Rove was right
Give Karl Rove a break. His meltdown on election night may not have been entirely about Fox News prematurely calling Ohio for President Barack Obama. After all, the poor guy had every right to get upset while watching the Republican Party nominee’s campaign crash and burn.
For all intents and purposes, Mitt Romney trampled on Rove’s once vaunted GOP playbook -- and leaves a weakened GOP in his wake.
from Tales from the Trail:
Election shines light on long path to post-racial America
So much for post-racial.
Supporters watch as U.S. President Barack Obama celebrates his re-election during his election night rally in Chicago, Nov. 7, 2012. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
When President Barack Obama won his historic bid for the U.S. presidency in 2008 as the nation's first black president, there was a lot of talk about a new era for America.
from Bernd Debusmann:
Does Paul Ryan mean Romney has already lost the Latino vote?
Has Mitt Romney, the U.S. Republican Party's candidate for November's presidential elections, given up hope of boosting his dismal standing among U.S. citizens of Latin American extraction? The question arises after Romney's pick of a running mate of no apparent appeal to Latinos.
Romney's choice as candidate for Vice President, the ultra-conservative congressman Paul Ryan, is a darling of the Republican Party's rigidly ideological base but has done nothing that could endear him to the fastest growing segment of the American electorate. On average, around 1,600 Latinos turn 18, voting age, every day and by November 6, some 22 million will be eligible to vote.
from The Great Debate:
The GOP’s hunt for Latino voters
Jon Huntsman suspended more than just his campaign this week. He also put an end to any hope the GOP had of making strides in the Latino community.
And despite the stereotypes, because of the Obama administration's policies, there really was hope. The administration has increased the number of deportations to nearly 400,000 people a year since taking office, according to ABC News. Likewise, in Secretary Janet Napolitano’s annual report to Congress, she describes the Department of Homeland Security’s efforts to be at “record highs.” President Obama's first term has featured twice the number of deportations as George W. Bush's by instituting a systematic approach to immigration enforcement not seen since the infamous days of “Operation Wetback,” a program in which President Dwight Eisenhower deported over a million Mexican nationals, among them American citizens.
from Reuters Money:
Why don’t blacks save more?
Yet another survey confirms what we already know: Blacks don't save as much as their white counterparts.
According to Prudential's new study -- the African American Financial Experience -- 60 percent of African-Americans have less than $50,000 in company retirement plans and only 23 percent have more than $100,000. They're also three times more likely to raid their 401(k) or other retirement plans to meet immediate financial needs, the study says.
from Tales from the Trail:
In California, no voting bloc is safe
First Republican Meg Whitman, a political novice running for California governor, seemed to catch her Democratic opponent, 
Jerry Brown, napping with an aggressive early push for Latino voters -- a voting bloc that has proven tough for her party to crack.
Whitman has run a series of Spanish-language TV commercials and billboards that, according to the latest p0lls, paid off with a 14-point gain among Latinos -- despite the still simmering furor over a crackdown on illegal immigrants in neighborhing Arizona that was signed into law by Republican Governor Jan Brewer.
from Tales from the Trail:
Arizona law galvanizes U.S. Latinos
The swastika made of refried beans smeared onto the glass doors of the Arizona State Capitol this week captured the anger of Hispanics at the law authorizing local police to question anyone reasonably suspected of being in the United States illegally. The controvesial law, which critics say is a mandate for racial profiling, has galvanized the country's largest minority that is expected to turn out in large numbers at planned rallies in more than 70 U.S. cities.
Hispanics were disappointed that President Barack Obama failed to deliver on his campaign promise to overhaul the immigration system in his first year in office. The Pew Research Center says 76 percent of the estimated 11.9 million illegal immigrants in the United States are Hispanics. The Latino community sees the undocumented immigrants as contributing with their labor to the growth of the U.S. economy and deserve the right to be legal residents.
