In
what had become a painful week for Mr. Romney on the topic, the back-to-back
candidate speeches at the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed
Officials (NALEO) conference didn’t help the candidate. During his speech on Thursday, Mitt Romney
stopped short of endorsing the President’s immigration policy, only to tell the
Hispanic crowd that he would replace the policy with his own. However, he failed to outline even the
skeleton of such a plan, and his speech was generally poorly received.
On
Friday, President Obama greeted the same community (and more) and cast himself
as one of them: as a fighter for their rights and values against an
obstructionist Congress. Played back to
back, there is no doubt of whom the Latino community is supporting.
To
back up this assertion, polls came out at the end of the week showing the
President has an even larger lead among Latinos than he did in 2008. With a growing lead like that, it will be
hard for Romney to win in key swing states that will decide the election.
On
the second issue of the week, a Republican-controlled House of Representatives
panel voted to hold Attorney General in contempt over him (and the
administration) not providing some documentation sought by the committee. The Obama administration claimed executive
privilege on the specific documents.
Up
until then, the Fast and Furious issue, as it is called, had not really reached
the mainstream media. However, it is now
front and center.
Oddly
enough, the Obama administration and Democrats seem to be happy to see the
GOP-led House focus on the issue, and the Republican leadership has been
reluctant to make the issue a big deal.
Perhaps Boehner sees it as a distraction from talking about the economy
or the Democrats see it as a prime way to display how radical the Tea Party has
become.
I’m
personally not convinced this is a win for the administration, as it tints
Obama with scandal in an election year, even though perhaps there is no scandal
at all.
Polling: This past week brought a poll by Bloomberg
putting the President 13 points above Mitt Romney in a hypothetical
matchup. That single poll, which is
likely an outlier, has increased Mr. Obama’s lead in RealClearPolitics’ average
to 2.6% from 0.7% last week. However, if
we were to not include that poll, the President would only lead Mr. Romney by
1.4%, making the race still a statistical tie.
Who
Won the Week? Tie