Same Old Claims in Another Language

Announcer (translated): Barack Obama is a friend to Latinos? The record demonstrates the opposite. Did you know that after the 2000 census that showed a tremendous growth in the Latino community of Chicago, Obama told reporters in Chicago that while everyone agrees that the Hispanic population has grown, they cannot expand by taking power from the African-American community? You heard right. But there's more. Did you know that Obama has never hired a Latino to a senior position in his office throughout his legislative career? Did you know that Obama has opposed trade with Mexico, Central America and Colombia, yet supports free trade with Africa? And during the immigration debate in the Senate, Obama ignored us in order to avoid upsetting labor unions and the voters in Iowa. And now after ignoring Latinos throughout his career, he promises us everything. Please Mr. Obama, Latinos are tired of the empty promises from politicians, like yourself, that offer us everything when you need our votes, but then forget about us. Latinos, think it over, because the future is in your hands. Paid for by Latinos for Reform.

Actually, not everything out there consists of warmed-over campaign claims presented en español. A conservative group calling itself Latinos 4 Reform has raised a mere $30,000, according to its chairman, Robert Deposada, to run a minute-long anti-Obama TV spot in Pennsylvania, Colorado and New Mexico. Deposada, the former head of the Latino Coalition, estimates that the group can air the ad three or four times in each market for that money.

The ad describes Obama as someone who has worked against Latinos and is now trying to curry their favor – but it's highly misleading. The ad claims that "after the 2000 Census that showed a tremendous growth in the Latino community of Chicago, Obama told reporters in Chicago that while everyone agrees that the Hispanic population has grown, they cannot expand by taking power from the African-American community." That's not quite what a 2001 article in the Chicago Defender said.

The newspaper article concerned a redrawing of the city and congressional legislative map and quoted African American and Latino representatives saying that they needed to be part of the process. While it is true that Obama said that no African-American seats should be sacrificed during redistricting, that was not seen as a position unfriendly to the burgeoning Hispanic community. In fact, a Latino alderman agreed with Obama:

Chicago Defender (April 19, 2001): Reached in Springfield, Senator Barack Obama (D-13th) said they met for the first time with the city on the remap issue and made it clear that "while everyone agrees that the Hispanic population has grown, they cannot expand by taking African American seats."

Agreeing was Ald. Billy Ocasio (26th) who told the Chicago Defender: "The Hispanic population has increased but not necessarily in African American districts.

"It has increased in the Caucasian communities and now that we have increased numbers, our representation should increase in those areas where we are living and that is not in African American areas," said Ocasio.

The ad goes on to misleadingly claim that Obama "has opposed free trade with Mexico, Central America and Colombia, yet supports free trade with Africa." What Obama has said is that he'd like to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement to include more protections for workers and the environment, not that we shouldn't have such an agreement with Mexico or other countries south of the border. In fact, the ad neglects to say that he supported the free trade agreement with Peru, applauding the agreement's labor provisions. As the Council on Foreign Relations puts it: Obama "generally supports free trade policies, though he has expressed concern about free trade agreements that do not include labor and environmental protections."

The ad also speculates that Obama "ignored" Latinos during the immigration debate. We'd note that Obama supported the immigration bill, and we found a previous attempt to criticize him for blocking the legislation to be a stretch. It was a Republican-led filibuster that killed the bill in the Senate.

Republished with permission from factcheck.org.

Sources
Strausberg, Chinta. "City, state pols say remap cannot take from Blacks." Chicago Defender, 19 April 2001.

Obama, Barack. "Plan for a Healthy America." BarackObama.com, accessed 29 Oct. 2008.

Meckler, Laura. "McCain Presses Obama on Health-Plan Penalties." Wall Street Journal, 16 Oct. 2008.

"Obama Fuzzy on 'Small Business' Exemption." ABCNews.com Political Radar blog, 5 Aug. 2008.

Table T08-0164 "Distribution of Tax Units with Business Income by Statutory Marginal Tax Rate, Assuming Extension and Indexation of the 2007 AMT Patch, 2009" Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, 20 May 2008.

Burman, Leonard E., et.al. "An Updated Analysis of the 2008 Presidential Candidates' Tax Plans: Updated September 12, 2008." Tax Policy Center, 12 Sept. 2008.

Candidate Positions: Barack Obama. "Council on Foreign Relations," accessed 29 Oct. 2008.
 

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