Washington - Hillary Clinton can remain confident on
obtaining the Hispanic vote: every attempt by Barack Obama to steal
from her the support of the largest majority in the United States was
unsuccessful on 'Super Tuesday.'
The power of the name Clinton simply remains too great.
Some 61 per cent of the millions of Hispanics who voted (around 10
million were eligible to vote) gave their support to Senator Clinton,
60, a key factor to grant an edge to the woman who aspires to become
the first female president in US history.
'The Hispanic community has known the Clintons for longer,' said
New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, himself of Mexican origin.
'Senator Clinton held some very positive positions on education
and health and immigration,' Richardson - himself a former candidate
to the Democratic presidential nomination - added.
However, the governor has not yet endorsed any of the candidates
remaining in the race, although he watched the Super Bowl with Bill
Clinton last week.
On 'Super Tuesday,' the Latino vote proved particularly decisive
in California, a state in which opinion polls indicated that Obama
had closed in on Hillary Clinton. Indeed, exit polls showed that
Obama obtained 42 per cent of the white vote, just 3 percentage
points less than Clinton.
However, among Hispanics - 29 per cent of the population in the
country's most populous state - stood by Clinton: 66 per cent voted
for her, with 33 per cent backing the Senator from Illinois.
A 'striking feature,' The Washington Post said Wednesday of this
aspect.
Obama, 46, had tried everything. He adopted the famous slogan of
trade-union leader Cesar Chavez, 'Si se puede' ('Yes, we can'), he
had the support of Maria Shriver - the wife of California Governor
Arnold Schwarzenegger - and of TV queen Oprah Winfrey.
Numerous Obama rallies in and around Los Angeles featured an
active Senator Edward Kennedy, one of the most firm defenders of
immigrants in the US Congress.
A total of over 23 million Hispanics live in California, New York,
Illinois, Arizona, New Jersey, Colorado, New Mexico and
Massachusetts, eight of the 24 states that voted on 'Super Tuesday.'
The states are home to 51 per cent of the Hispanics in the United
States, according to data from the Pew Research Centre.
The only large 'Latino state' not voting on Tuesday was Florida,
where Democratic voters went overwhelmingly for Clinton on January
29, carried strongly by the Hispanic vote.
Obama's low standing with Hispanics was similar across the
country, with the exception of Illinois. Latinos favoured him only by
a tight 50-49 per cent margin even in his home state.
The remaining Western states that voted Tuesday, where the
Hispanic population is also significant, favoured Hillary
Clinton: in Arizona she beat Obama by 53 per cent to 44 per cent, and
in New Mexico she obtained 56 per cent to the Illinois Senator's 36
per cent.
The former first lady's triumphs were even more comfortable in the
North-East. In New York, Clinton beat Obama among Latinos by 73 per
cent to 26 per cent -and by a slightly smaller margin (68-30) in
neighbouring New Jersey.
As in California, the 'Kennedy effect' did not really work among
Hispanics (or the rest of the voters) either. In the home state of
the most famous political dynasty in the United States, Clinton won
by 56 per cent to Obama's 36 per cent.
USA
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