{UAH} Can Obama recoup Latino support after breaking promise on immigration? - The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/in-the-loop/wp/2014/11/15/can-obama-recoup-latino-support-after-breaking-promise-on-immigration/?tid=HP_politics?tid=HP_politics

Can Obama recoup Latino support after breaking promise on immigration?

President Obama speaks on immigration in El Paso, Tex., in 2011. (Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images)

Back in June, President Obama, occasionally dubbed the "deporter-in-chief," promised Latino leaders he would use his executive powers and issue an order to protect some illegal immigrants from deportation.

Then, in September, reportedly buying into the interesting notion that delay would help embattled Democratic Senate candidates in the South — three lost anyway and one more is likely to do so — Obama said he would delay any action on immigration until after the election.

A June poll by Latino Decisions found 45 percent of Latinos cited immigration as their most important issue, well ahead of jobs, education or health care. (And the poll includes Puerto Ricans and Cubans who would not be personally affected by the executive order on that issue.) The poll also found, unsurprisingly, that lack of action by Obama would substantially lessen Latino enthusiasm for Democrats.

Sure enough, Republicans madesubstantial gains among Latinos in the Great Shellacking of 2014.

But the good news for Obama — or really Democrats running in 2016 — is that, in a follow-up, election-eve poll, Latino Decisions found that 63 percent of this key Democratic constituency indicated that perhaps all would be forgiven if Obama acts now — as the White House is now suggesting he will.

"The tone of Republicans in recent days suggests just how desperate they are to prevent this," said Stanford political science professor and pollster Gary Segura. "They've threatened lawsuits, shutting down the government and impeachment, all in an effort to dissuade the president."  That "suggests just how serious a threat they see to their electoral future, should the president keep his promise."

Al Kamen, an award-winning columnist on the national staff of The Washington Post, created the "In the Loop" column in 1993.

Can Obama recoup Latino support after breaking promise on immigration? - The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/in-the-loop/wp/2014/11/15/can-obama-recoup-latino-support-after-breaking-promise-on-immigration/?tid=HP_politics?tid=HP_politics‎

Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone.