EDITOR’S NOTE: New America Media surveyed some of the nation’s leading ethnic media outlets and editors to see who, if anyone, they are endorsing in the 2012 presidential election. What NAM discovered is continued strong support for the incumbent. Much more interesting, however, are the reasons the media gave for their endorsement: While ethnic media editors cited Obama’s policy positions and accomplishments during his first term, issues of race or identity politics were scarcely mentioned.
Following are excerpts of endorsements taken from a variety of Latino, Black and Asian media.
The Washington Afro American: “His healthcare reform was the signature accomplishment of his administration.”
President Barack Obama is running for a second term on the strength of his health care reform, his foreign policy initiatives, job creation, the auto industry bailout, banking industry reform and passage of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009. Among many African Americans, his healthcare reform was the signature accomplishment of his administration — providing care at a lower cost; allowing children to remain covered on their parents’ insurance plans up to the age of 26; and covering people with preexisting conditions.
We are not surprised that Obama hasn’t fulfilled a number of his 2008 promises. The mountain of uncooperative, disrespectful [and] at times insulting tactics … he has been subjected to … exceeds anything any other President in recent memory has had to endure.
We recognize that once re-elected, this environment will not likely change — at least not immediately. However, we believe that a second term itself will be a mandate that it is his vision and actions the American people support as opposed to those championed by the intractable conservative Republican blockade currently in Congress.
Vida en el Valle: “Obama deserves four more years.”
The President has shown real political backbone when it came to dealing with this nation’s worst economic crisis since the Great Depression; hunting down and killing Osama bin Laden; ending the war in Iraq and starting bring back our troops from Afghanistan; and passing healthcare reform, among other achievements. That he accomplished all of these despite the Republican obstructionists is a big credit to his role as a leader.
Job creation is on the increase, the mortgage mess is stabilizing, and the stock market has rebounded to pre-2008 meltdown levels.
Gov. Mitt Romney’s … stances on various issues have been all over the map, in his quest to paint himself as a “moderate.” It is too risky to wait until he is in the White House to know what the Republican presidential candidate would do with immigration reform, relations in the Middle East or economic stability.
New Pittsburgh Courier: “Obama is fighting for the middle-class, where the vast majority of Black people are.”
There’s a clear difference between President Obama and Mitt Romney. Obama is fighting for the middle-class and low-income citizens, where the vast majority of Black people are, whereas Romney believes in the top-down theory.
Boosting the economy for the middle-class, which will lead to more jobs, is Obama’s top priority. As proven in the Clinton administration, when the middle-class grows, so do the minority communities. There were more blacks and other minorities and women moving into the middle-class than in any other time in history.
Obama is working on getting more innovative and creative new manufacturing jobs instead of the Romney method of buying up companies for profits then outsourcing the jobs.
Romney will increase military spending, which will take funds from the social programs Blacks so desperately need, and you don’t spend more on something unless you plan to use it.
One of those cuts most likely will be education, which would be devastating to the black community. Obama understands the importance of education to the growth of this country and how every child should have access to it … regardless of income, whereas Romney lives in a different world. He says students should borrow from their parents. That’s great if your parents are rich, but most middle-class parents simply don’t have the money.
Cleveland’s Call and Post: “We believe [Obama] is cut from an entirely different cloth.”
In the wake of a severe storm that paralyzed many of our eastern states in the blink of an eye, President Barack Obama is on the case with all the federal resources that he can muster and at the same … time, he’s working hand-in-hand with governors of the affected states. While we can’t help but to recall the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the ineptness that President George W. Bush displayed — costing lives and affecting the displacement of a myriad of Gulf Coast residents (many of whom are still disenfranchised) — on the other hand, we believe this president is cut from an entirely different cloth.
Time and again, President Obama has faced down circumstances both critical in national magnitude and world-changing in tone and timbre. Need we add that President Obama has been able to redirect our nation from the brink of collapse despite a GOP-led U.S. Senate of obstructionists? Too late, we already did. But, we must also say shame on a political party who has collectively decided to go against whatever the president is for, even if some of the things he’s for are things they too had been for — and all of this for a one-term agenda to defeat an Obama re-election. In a world of swindlers it’s what they call among grifters, a “long con.”
La Voz del Pueblo: “Being Republican is synonymous with being anti-Hispanic.”
Romney simply can’t connect with the average voter, and even less with the Hispanic voter. Eight years ago, George W. Bush conquered 44 percent of the Latino vote and Republicans spoke of a new national majority, but their optimism was a myth. Hard to believe, but a few years later the GOP and its stubbornness has led to a profound disappointment in our community. Now being Republican is synonymous with being anti-Hispanic.
Everything points to a comfortable victory for President Obama in the Hispanic community; almost 70 percent of Latino voters support him. Let it be clear that no one here is talking about idolizing Obama; the failure of many of his promises has caused a lot of disappointment. But Romney, followed by [Arizona Republican Gov. Jan] Brewer, [Arizona immigration law SB 1070 author Kris] Kobach and [Maricopa County Sheriff Joe] Arpaio, represents an unthinkable nightmare.
There is one guilty party, and his name is Mitt Romney, who, in seeking to win at all costs has reached extremes that have caused a sharp rejection by Latino voters.
