Two major and complementary headlines have come out of President Obama’s interview with Univision on Thursday. The first is that the hosts asked surprisingly tough questions, grilling the president about security in Benghazi, his failures, Fast and Furious and immigration reform. The second is that Obama didn’t appear to expect such a tough outing. The cross-examination left him justifying why he hasn’t fired Eric Holder, spewing that immigration reform is more important than getting the economy moving, and that he now realizes he can’t change Washington from the inside.
The Romney campaign and the RNC have found President Obama’s interview on Univision to be one of the most useful appearances the president has made in months. The president wasn’t just off his game, he looked like he hadn’t really played the game much at a high level before.
So what happened?
I have a hunch.
President Obama leads strongly among Latino voters. Based on how reporters in the English-speaking media treat issues like Fast and Furious, he probably expected an easy ride through the Univision appearance. He probably expected to play a game of softball, as he had with People en Espanol on Friday at the height of the unrest in the Middle East. That magazine apparently let Obama bat around until his arms got tired, then tweeted their joy at being privileged to bask in his presence.
So he goes into Univision thinking “This is gonna be another easy day of hitting for the fences.” Like he handled his Presidential Daily Briefings, he didn’t do his homework. He didn’t realize that Univision strives to be more than an entertainment hub, it strives to be a serious news network. Univision goes out of its way to hire bilingual hard news reporters so it can piggy back with other local news stations and generate news content in English and Spanish (Telemundo does this too). He didn’t factor in the possibility that Univision wanted to do more than just give him straight pitches down the middle, they wanted to use the opportunity of a rare extended interview with him to get answers, and make some headlines of their own. He didn’t anticipate the threat of tough questions from real and inquisitive journalists, just as his administration didn’t anticipate the threat of terrorists using the 9-11 anniversary to give America a black eye.
What I’m saying is, Barack Obama lumped Univision in with the unserious media he tends to do — Letterman, People en Espanol, and so forth. The media his campaign gives his time to tend to slow jam the news and tell him how fabulous he is. Switching metaphors, his handlers keep the training wheels on, with the bolts welded to the frame. Univision ripped those training wheels off, sending little Barry crashing in ditch. He ended up saying he can’t change Washington, and his biggest failure has been to pander sufficiently on immigration reform when we have 23 million Americans who want work but can’t find it thanks to him and his policies. He had no answer why the consulate in Benghazi wasn’t secured or why Eric Holder has gotten away with a policy that has left hundreds of Mexican citizens and two American agents dead. He saw none of these questions coming.
Whether Obama stereotyped Univision because most media tend to make life easier for him, or he disrespected the Spanish-speaking network and its audience as such, I’ll leave for others to ponder. They’re not mutually exclusive.
Univision, welcome to our world. He thinks we’re all idiots too.
Last I checked, Univision was a Cuban station. In that case, yes, Barry stereotyped. Badly. If the Univision reporters’ questions reflect the concerns of the Cuban emigrant community, and the Cuban emigrants were watching this interview, there may be hope for Florida.
The Won probably thought that Jorge Ramos and Maria Elena Salinas were just 2 more bubble headed useful idiots. And that the University of Miami audience would be all fawning over him.
He should stay in the kiddie pool with People and Letterman.
Well, those reporters were just plain RUDE! Everybody knows that the correct way for little brown people to address Obama is as follows:
“We are so very helpless, Señor Presidente! The white banditos come to our village! They burn our humble peasant cottages! They steal our burros! They shoot the holes in our sombreros! They take the candy from our piñatas! They wake us up when we are having siesta! Oh, Señor Presidente, they eat our daughters and rape our tortillas! You are very wise, and like us you have the brown skin. Only you can save us, Señor Presidente! Please, we beg of you! Help us, and all that we have – our pesos, our votes, our daighters, our tortillas – all will be yours!”
I don’t know where these Univision people went to reporter school, but they’re obviously not products of the Ivy League.
Jorge Ramos, enjoy your rare day of praise!
SR – yeah Univision is largely Cuban managed, but they’re the kind that don’t mind open borders.
It’s funny, they hit him from both the left and the right.
Not untypical of what us gringos see of Mexico and Mexicans, at home and here, legally and illegally. But I’ve never seen Obama eating a burrito.
The Latino (or Hispanic, you choose) elements can be very hard working and conservative, and that element must look at Obama as a total pretender. Then on the other side their political expectations can be Marxist in the extreme, which is something that Obama seems not to want to agree with openly and publically. Plus, the Mexican tradition of looking at their own president as a horse’s ass, a tool of the rich, completely remote and removed from the people, yet presiding over the people’s republic, not to mention corrupt as the day is long. How many of those hats was Obama prepared to dance around? None, apparently.
I looked up to see how big a player Univision is these days. The news is encouraging. And take a look at the second clip. Romney ain’t no Mick Jagger, but he got him some rock ‘n roll.
http://www.deadline.com/2012/07/univision-tops-english-language-networks/
http://www.nationalreview.com/media/video/327905
– debate panel of questioners and not a sensitive, ponytail-haired person. Bring us together…Right.
I don’t think Univision is a Cuban station, as in owned by Cuba.
In any case, they are lucky they are not an American station. After that interview, they could have ended being “investigated” by the FCC, “audited” by the IRS, and a bunch of other agencies.
“The media his campaign gives his time to tend to slow jam the news and tell him how fabulous he is.”
What the heck? I’ve read and reread this sentence several times and it still makes no grammatic sense to me. What did you actually mean to say? Oh, hold on, if I rephrased it this way is it what you meant? “The media to which his campaign gives his time tend to slow jam the news and tell him how fabulous he is”?
It’s mostly the split infinitive that is confusing me, although I’m also a little foggy on what “slow jamming” is….
Hisanics…the new Jooos.
You can kick them around because they’re gonna vote for dems anyway.
Oh wait.
I can’t imagine Barack Obama engaging in stereotyping. I don’t think he knows how to type even in mono.
you promised us – you promised and did not keep your promise for illegals – let all the problems that the us has go to hell and concentrate only the illegation immigrants ….