The Tipping Point in Texas

Inside Obama's efforts to capture the Latino vote.

Ben Sklar / Getty Images

Hat Dance: Barack Obama, shown here at a 2007 rally in Austin, is trying to cut into Hillary Clinton's lead among Lone Star Hispanics

By Gretel C. Kovach | Newsweek Web Exclusive

Feb 14, 2008 | Updated: 12:52 p.m. ET Feb 14, 2008

Email To A Friend

Please fill in the following information and we'll email this link.

SPONSORED BY

At first glance it looked like a good night for Barack Obama here at Gilley's, the legendary Dallas honky-tonk. Hundreds of supporters crowded the room, sipping longneck bottles of Shiner bock and milling around the mechanical bull made famous by John Travolta in "Urban Cowboy" (back when the bar was located in the Houston area). TV screens overhead beamed in the news that Obama was sweeping the so-called Potomac Primary and building momentum for the delegate-rich Texas primary slated for March 4. Throughout the room folks were pledging to volunteer to help usher first-time voters to the polls. What made the night all the more promising for the Obama field team on the ground in the Lone Star state was that the campaign, which had only recently begun setting up shop in Texas, hadn't even organized this gathering. "What's crazy and wonderful, astonishing even, is that [the locals] organized themselves before we even got here," said Adora Andy, an Obama staffer who flew in from San Antonio for the Dallas event. "We're just backup."

But a closer look at the crowd indicated the challenge ahead for Obama and his allies. This audience of some 600 was overwhelmingly African-American and Caucasian; there were only a handful of Hispanics on hand. No line of volunteers formed in front of the "Latino Outreach" placard, which briefly fell to the floor, despite the plea for Spanish-speakers posted on the online invitation to the event.

A third to a half of the voters casting ballots in Texas's Democratic primary are expected to be Latino. And Hillary Clinton, Obama's chief rival for the nomination, has outpolled Obama two-to-one among Hispanic voters nationwide. Obama saw an uptick in his appeal to Latinos in Tuesday's voting in Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia, but he's got much ground to cover before March 4 if he hopes to best Clinton for the Latino vote and the lion's share of Texas's 228-delegate prize.

Clinton, after all, got her start in politics in 1972 going door to door in Texas border towns registering Hispanic voters for George McGovern's campaign. She strengthened her ties to the Rio Grande Valley region when Bill became governor of the neighboring state of Arkansas, when he ran for president, and when her old friends in this area hosted $1,000-a-plate fund-raisers for her Senate campaign. Developer Alonzo Cantu, a "Hillraiser" who bundled more than $100,000 in donations for Hillary's presidential bid, tapped everyone from wealthy longtime political patrons to trailer park retirees. Cantu also raised money for John Edwards before he dropped out of the race. What about Obama? Haven't seen him on the border, Cantu griped last year. "Still haven't," he said this week.

Clinton is leaving nothing to chance. On Tuesday she met in El Paso with 12,000 fans who were doing their best to ignore what was going on in the Potomac Primary. "There's a great saying in Texas. You've heard it: all hat and no cattle. After seven years of George Bush we need a lot less hat and a lot more cattle," Clinton told the crowd, in a barely veiled swipe at her opponent. "Texas needs a president who actually understands what it's going to take to turn the economy around, to get us universal health care, to save hard-working Americans' homes from foreclosure."

She stumped on Wednesday in McAllen, a booming border town surrounded by a county that is 90 percent Hispanic. Portraits of her husband hang in some restaurants. Local officials, more than 100 strong, joined her onstage to show their support. When U.S. Representative Ruben Hinojosa introduced Senator Clinton to the crowd, he said simply that she "has earned our love and respect." Back in Washington later that day, he added, "She has been a champion of our community for over 30 years. She did not discover McAllen on the map when it came time to run for president." Clinton can expect "overwhelming" support from South Texas Hispanics, Hinojosa predicts. "She has friends here, and she knows the issues we care about."

Member Comments

- Reply
- Report Abuse
Posted By: dmb8265 @ 03/03/2008 12:58:40 PM

I AM AFRICAN AMERICAN BUT I AM ALSO SMART, BECAUSE HE IS BLACK DOES NOT MEAN YOU SHOULD VOTE FOR HIM THIS MAN HAS NO CLUE IN WHAT IS GOING ON!!! ALL HE TALKS ABOUT IS CHANGE - CHANGE WHAT????? ALL THOSE VOTES THAT HE IS GETTING IS FROM REPUBLICANS AND INDEPENDENTS, IN THE PRIMARY THEY WILL NEVER VOTE FOR HIM, I CANNOT BELIEVE PEOPLE OF COLOR IS SOO!! LISTEN UP HE WILL NEVER ME ELECTED, DUE TO HE HAS NO CLUE WHAT IS GOING ON!!!! HE HAS NEVER EVER VOTED FOR ANYTHING IN THE SENATE HE IS ALWAYS ABSENT, SO DID HE DO THE SAME THING IN CHICAGO SENATE!!!!!! ALSO 38% OF REGISTERED DEM VOTE FOR HIM ALL THE REST WAS INDEPENDENT, REPULICANS THAT DONT WANT CLINTON TO WIN!!!!! SO THINK WHEN NOV 09 COMES DO YOU THINK THEY ARE GOING TO GO IN THE VOTING BOOTH AND VOTE FOR HIM!!!! A VOTE FOR OBAMA IS A VOTE FOR MCCAIN TO GO TO THE WHITE HOUSE AND WE CANNOT LET ANOTHER REPUBLICAN GET IN THE WHITE HOUSE AGAIN, THEY WILL NEVER VOTE FOR OBAMA FOR PRESIDENT THEY ARE GOING TO VOTE FOR MCCAIN, I AM AFRICAN AMERICAN AND I SEE WHATS HAPPEN!!! NOT BECAUSE I LIKE HILLARY BUT THATS WHATS GOING ON WITH OBAMA SURGE ANYBODY CAN VOTE IN THIS ELECTIONS AND THEY ARE DURING TO KNOCK HILLARY OUT BECAUSE THEY NO OBAMA CANNONT WENT IN THE PRIMARY. WAKE UP!!!!
- Reply
- Report Abuse
Posted By: dmb8265 @ 03/03/2008 12:49:11 PM

FIRST OF ALL, ALL THESE PEOPLE VOTING ARE INDEPENDENT, REPUBLICANS IN THE DEM RACE, THAT IS WHY OBAMA IS GETTING A LOT OF VOTES BUT IN REALITY WHEN THE PRIMARY'S COME UP THEY WILL NOT VOTE DEM TICKET THEY WILL VOTE REPBULICAN SHE IS LOVED BY INDEPENDENTS AND FOR NOW REPUBLICANS HILLARY IS GET OVER 50% OF THE DEM VOTES WHEN THE PRIMARYS COME HE WILL NEVER GET THOSE VOTES HE IS GETTING NOW HE IS A LOT OF BAGGAGES THAT WILL COME OUT AND HE HAS NO!!!!!! IDEA WHAT IS GOING ON IN THE WORLD - PEOPLE I AM AFRICAN AMERICAN AND I NO THEY DON'T WANT HILLARY BECAUSE THEY NO IN NOVEMBER SHE CAN WIN!!!!OBAMA WILL NEVER WIN!!! THEY ONLY REASON HE HAS WON ALL THE STATES IS BECAUSE OF PEOPLE BREAKING PARTY LINES AS OF NOW IN THE PRIMARYS THEY ARE NOT GOING TO VOTE FOR HIM. THAT IS WHEY I CANNOT BELIEVE HOW THE DEM WOULD LET INDEPENDENTS, REPUBLICANS VOTE IN THIS ELECTION THAT IS WHAT IS HURTING CLINTON NOT THE DEM BASE. PEOPLE WAKE UP!!! THIS MAN IS PHONY AND HIS WIFE SAYS I AM PROUD FOR THE FIRST TIME TO BE AMERICAN WHAT IS THAT SUPPOSE TO MEAN, THATS IS WHY AS A AFRICAN AMERICAN I AM TURNED OFF BY THE OBAMA CAMP, IF HE WIN I WILL VOTE FOR JOHN MCCAIN, HE IS
NOT READY TO LEAD THIS COUNTRY HE HAS NEVER VOTES ON ANYTHING IN THE SENATE, HE IS ALWAYS ABSENT, HE DONT NO HOW HE WOULD HAVE VOTED IF HE WAS IN THE SENATE, PEOPLE WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COFFEE THIS IS A BLACK MAN AND YOU DONT NO WHATS IN HIS CLOSET.
- Reply
- Report Abuse
Posted By: Dr.Lamot @ 02/26/2008 6:28:44 PM

Comment: Comment: Hillary Clinton Goofs Again
A Commentary by Dick Morris

Who was it that defined neurosis as repeating the same mistake again and again, and expecting a better outcome each time? That is really what the Clinton campaign is doing in its post-Chesapeake primary strategy. Now Hillary defines Obama as the candidate who makes speeches, while she is the one who provides answers and solutions.

Why is Hillary embracing this new line? Its not that she has any great record of solutions or answers of which to boast, but rather that she wants to highlight Obama's lack of a legislative record. Once again, she and her campaign geniuses are making the same mistake they made when they decided to use the experience as their defining difference with Obama. Its not that she had much, but they sensed an opportunity to highlight that he had even less.
Of course experience not only didn't work. It backfired massively. By co-opting the experience tag, Hillary bought into the status quo and left Obama to be the agent of change. A candidacy that could have excited tens of millions of women, the first serious prospect of a female president, became merely a boring part of the status quo, shorn of its novelty.

Hillary's claim to be the solution-person won't work either for the same simple reason: She hasn't passed any...she hasn't walked the walk so now she cannot talk the talk.

As a first lady, Hillary's sole important legislative involvement came during the first two years of her husband's presidency when she sought to pass her ill-conceived health care reform, an effort that failed so miserably that it cost her party control of the House of Representatives for the first time in 40 years. Between 1995 to 1997, she was largely absent from the White House, traveling the world, promoting her best selling book and helping to raise funds. She never attended strategy meetings and her only intervention in the singular legislative achievements of Bill's administration welfare reform and the balanced budget deal was privately to urge a veto of the former and to oppose the latter because it provided for a cut in the capital gains tax. Hillary returned to the White House in 1998 to oversee the defense to the Lewinsky scandal and the impeachment attempt, but the Clinton administration essentially folded its legislative efforts during those years and hung on for dear life. No portfolio of accomplishments there...

Her only actual legislation included one bill to increase nurse recruitment, another to aid respite time for Alzheimer's care givers and another to expand veteran's health benefits, a paltry output for six years service.

In her second term, she has spent full-time campaigning for president and has the worst attendance record of the three senators now still in the presidential race.