Democratic Bitches No More

Even the New York Times admits that divisive racial politics did not work for the Democrats with Hispanics this time. While Kerry focused on identity politics, Bush focused on issues that matter, abortion, morality, family. The result was that Bush won 44% of the Hispanic vote.


A reliable Democrat no longer, taken for granted no longer - and more electable than ever in their own right, with the first two Hispanic United States senators in 30 years poised to take office, from Colorado and Florida - a new swing voter may have emerged.

"The bottom line to me is that with this result, it's no longer sensible to think of Hispanic voters on a national basis as a core constituency of the Democratic Party," said Roberto Suro, the director of the Pew Hispanic Center, a nonpartisan research organization based in Washington.

"We are up for grabs," said F. Chris Garcia, a professor of political science at the University of New Mexico. "That is a good thing for Hispanics; we're going to be more influential in the future and a bigger target for both campaigns."