Why Reid did so much better than the polls indicated

The margin of his unexpected victory was provided by non-English speaking Hispanics who were not interviewed by English-speaking pollsters. Reid was, in short, elected by the least-assimilated, most hostile-to-America, non-English-speaking voters.

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Ken Hechtman, a Canadian leftist, writes:

You wrote:

“The margin of his unexpected victory was provided by non-English speaking Hispanics who were not interviewed by English-speaking pollsters. Reid was, in short, elected by the least-assimilated, most hostile-to-America, non-English-speaking voters.”

You don’t know the half of it.

Back in May, I talked to one of Harry Reid’s crew at a Democrats Abroad event in Montreal. He admitted even then that the campaign was dead—down at least 10 points against any of the Republican contenders, even Sharron Angle—and their only chance was a Hail Mary pass. They bet the entire campaign on the hope that they could somehow turn out the Hispanic vote at unprecedented levels, and it paid off.

In the next two years, that means this: maybe amnesty won’t pass the House, but sure as hell enforcement won’t pass the Senate. This is the hill the Senate leader needs to die on now because the Mexican and Salvadoran communities of Greater Las Vegas hold the mortgage on him.

In the medium term, if whatever Reid’s campaign did—and rest assured I will find out what it was—can be replicated elsewhere in the Southwest we could see another half-dozen Raul Grijalvases elected to Congress in 2012.

N. writes:

Ken Hechtman seems to actually relish the construction of a race- based spoils system of government, in which color of skin matters more than any inherent personal qualities, or acquired skills. Is that correct? Or am I misreading him?

Stephen T. writes:

I’m very leery about Latino Decisions claims that Hispanics swayed the election for Reid. For some time now, Latino Decisions and La Raza have been breathlessly prophesying the rise of a bold, vibrant, young Hispanic voting bloc that will at long last sweep the aging impotent Anglos aside and render them irrelevant. Mexicans have a cultural tendency toward grandiosity and bending the truth in overblown claims. They are dying to see this “new hispanic majority” happen and have predicted it will happen again and again in many places, only to have it NOT happen. (“Today we march, tomorrow we vote” etc) Thus, I think their claims that it finally *has* happened in NV should be taken with a grain of salt as it is obviously in their interests to finally claim a great victory for their people—the first effect of which, no doubt, would be an attempt to make Anglos feel electorally strong-armed into not opposing amnesty.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at November 04, 2010 07:17 PM | Send