US election 2012: Mitt Romney wins the Latino vote

As a relatively moderate white 64-year-old Mormon from Michigan with a
quarter-billion dollar fortune, who is frequently derided as the archetypal
country club Republican, Mr Romney would not seem to be the obvious choice
for the feistily Right-wing Cuban-American exiles of Miami and its suburbs.

Mr Gingrich, the former House Speaker and Mr Romney’s main rival, is like many
of them a Catholic and styles himself as a populist conservative. His
aggressive promise of a ‘Cuban spring’, stopping short only of killing the
Castro brothers, should have won over the families who fled the revolution
on the Caribbean island in 1961.

Mr Gingrich even used a Spanish-language radio advertisement to tie Mr Romney
to President John F. Kennedy, whom the exiles never forgave for the
disastrous US invasion of the Bay of Pigs. “Mitt Romney is a government
liberal,” the ad narrator told listeners at a rapid speed. “From the state
of, and similar to, Kennedy”.

Yet the attack fell flat. The stark contrast between the enthusiasm for the
two candidates was summed up by a Gingrich rally in a Catholic church just
outside Orlando last weekend. Arriving an hour late, he was greeted by a
darkened room less than one-third full. “Callista and I want to come out and
get a photo with each and every one of you,” he said. It was an eminently
achievable goal.

Hispanic voter after Hispanic voter told The Daily Telegraph roughly the same
thing about the twice-divorced self-confessed adulterer. “I prefer a man who
is a good father, a good husband,” said Raisa Centuriun, 75, at a Romney
rally in downtown Miami. “Gingrich’s ex-wife showed us that he did not have
our family values”.

Proudly brandishing their 42-year loving marriage, and grinning brood of five
sons and 16 grandchildren, the Romneys can sometimes appear other-worldly to
some sections of the electorate. However their solid

You can read the rest of this article at:: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/us-election/9053351/US-election-2012-Mitt-Romney-wins-the-Latino-vote.html

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Posted by RobertButler on Jan 31 2012. Filed under 2012 Presidential Campaign. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry