OPINION: Latino Pundit Grades Obama.

Obama Supreme Court

San Diego – Following President Obama’s first year in office, it’s time for Latinos to channel Janet Jackson and ask the president: “What have you done for us lately?”

America’s largest minority is certainly entitled to the question. Nearly 10 million Latinos cast ballots in the 2008 presidential election. Two-thirds of those votes went to Obama, whose record with Latinos was scant; let’s recall that UFW co-founder Dolores Huerta, while stumping for Hillary Clinton, called Obama a “Johnny come lately” to Latino issues.

Still, Latinos stood by Obama, and now they expect him to return the favor. But has he done so? The results are mixed. In some respects, Obama has done a lot for Latinos. In other ways, not so much.

Let’s start with the issues. Polls show that the top concerns for most Latinos are the economy, education, and health care.

* The economy. Obama didn’t get around to creating jobs until near the end of his first year. Meanwhile, unemployment ballooned to double-digits under his watch. Grade: C-

* Education. Obama took on teachers unions with his “Race to The Top” initiative, which holds teachers accountable for student performance. Grade: A -

* Heath Care: Obama backed a government-financed public option to provide health insurance for the poor – then abandoned it. He also failed to address the costs of prescription drugs. Grade: B

Then there is the matter of personnel, hiring, and appointments. According to the Associated Press, Obama is on track to name more Latinos to top posts than any of his predecessors – including George W. Bush who is widely acknowledged to have had the most diverse Cabinet in U.S. History as relates to Latinos. Obama got off to a strong start by naming three Latinos to the Cabinet: Rep. Hilda Solis as Labor Secretary, Sen. Ken Salazar as Interior Secretary, and Gov. Bill Richardson as Commerce Secretary. (Richardson withdrew after he became part of a FBI investigation into political corruption in New Mexico. Richardson was ultimately not charged with any wrongdoing).

But where Obama really hit the ball out of the park was in nominating federal appeals court judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. Sotomayor was confirmed as the nation’s first Latina Supreme Court justice. According to the Associated Press, Obama has tapped more than 50 Latinos to senior positions that require Senate confirmation, of which thirty-five of them have been approved. In their first two years in office, Bill Clinton had 30 Latino appointments approved and George W. Bush had 34. On appointments and hiring, Obama did fairly well. Grade: A –

Finally, saving the most explosive for last, there is the subject of immigration reform. And frankly, Obama’s handling of that issue has been a major disappointment. While addressing the annual meeting of the National Council of La Raza in July 2008 as a presidential candidate, Obama promised to make comprehensive immigration reform “a top priority in my first year as president.”

Well, his first year came and went, and this “top priority” came down to 37 words. That’s how much space Obama devoted to immigration reform in his first State of the Union address. Here’s what he said: “And we should continue the work of fixing our broken immigration system – to secure our borders, enforce our laws, and ensure that everyone who plays by the rules can contribute to our economy and enrich our nation.”

Note that Obama avoided phrases like “comprehensive immigration reform” or “earned legal status.” Instead, he emphasized positive phrases like “secure our borders” and “enforce our laws.” The president may still pursue immigration reform in 2010, but – after the health care debacle – it’s unlikely he’ll have much success. We’ll have to wait and see. Grade: Incomplete.

Add it all up, and you’ll see that Obama has been a better-than-average president as far as Latinos are concerned. And yet, at the same time, he has not been nearly as good as advertised.

So much for hope and change. It looks more like bait and switch.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Ruben Navarrette.

Ruben Navarrette Jr. is a member of the San Diego Union-Tribune editorial board, a nationally syndicated columnist and a regular contributor to CNN.COM. Contact him at www.rubennavarrette.com


5 Responses to OPINION: Latino Pundit Grades Obama.

  1. Sndp

    Keeping aside your prejudices, why should the illegal undocumented workers who do not pay taxes benefit at all from the government? I am a foreign worker too, and I will leave the US within a few months when my work permit expires. I do not plan to overstay, my wife and I pay a whopping 40% of our gross salary on taxes (easy to guess what state we live in) and we pay social security taxes too. Once we leave this country, all the SS taxes we paid, is for nothing. We are unhappy about that but we don’t complain because it makes sense to collect SS taxes from every one (if they finally decide to reside in the US for good). Also, the government here provides decent protection, good infrastructure and other amenities. So, how is it ‘FAIR’ for illegal immigrants to get ‘MOST’ of the benefits and not pay for it? You think I wouldn’t mind not paying taxes?

  2. Xavier

    I think the point is if illegal aliens are given a path to legalization, they will pay taxes. And as it is many of them do so already without access to all the benefits. I’m not promoting breaking the law but rather changing the law to better address our reality and the needs of both our economy and people willing to come and contribute to America.

  3. Handicapper

    Xavier said “I think the point is if illegal aliens are given a path to legalization, they will pay taxes.”

    How do you support the notion that breaking our Law is justified? Anyone in this Nation illegally is not entitled to services and should be arrested and deported!

  4. DanL

    President Obama has done something that the media has roundly ignored: reformed the Executive Branch. Gone are all the blatantly political patronage appointments of unqualified people of the Bush era who were often appointed to deliberately block the mission of their executive agencies.

    In their place, President Obama has appointed qualified individuals who are actually doing their jobs properly. For the first time since the Housing & Community Development Act of 1974 went into effect, the Obama Administration is actually requiring that Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) be spent properly and that recipient jurisdiction actually “affirmatively further fair housing” which is a very clear condition for accepting CDBG money. It’s like that in other federal executive departments as well. We finally have a law abiding administration in Washington that is turning the executive branch into a functional branch of government again. And this really drives the Republicans crazy because they did all they could to destroy government when they had the reigns of power.

  5. LauDee

    Handicapper, you say illegal aliens should be deported because all they did and continue doing is break the law. In fact, most of them come not because they want to break the law but because back home they don’t have anything. They leave home, Handicapper, home and family. You don’t understand the nostalgia they feel and I wish you did. Years without visiting the home they grew up in and seeing their mother and siblings is not easy. The thing is, they’re willing to give that up because they need the basic necessities that they can’t get at home. It’s not a decision made just out of spite or because they wish to break another country’s laws.

    Perhaps if immigration laws were reformed and not so outdated, they wouldn’t be breaking them. That is why we want and immigration reform.

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