New Hispanic/Latino numbers in battleground states. The good stuff first
Colorado O: 74% M: 21% O +53
New Mexico
O: 69%
M: 26% O +43
Nevada
O: 71%
M 22% O: +49
Florida
O: 46%
M: 48% M +2
The latest PPP poll out for CO, relesed tonight shows that Obama is up 52% to 42% and it's internals shows 71-21 support among Hispanics helping drive Obama's numbers up. CO, PPP POll and the PDF
Latino Decisions has been the one of the polling outfits that has been keeping track of the Hispanic/Latino Vote this election season. Their polls have been targeting only the Hispanic/Latino community and have been coming out since July. Since the Democratic primary the numbers for Obama have been going up. The notion that Obama couldn't win the Hispanic vote was silly. The polls showed before the primaries were wrapped that Clinton's support would transfer to Obama.
"The Latino vote will be critical in the Southwest and Florida, and results of this poll show very clearly that Latinos may well provide Sen. Barack Obama with the margin of victory," said Matt Barreto, a University of Washington professor of political science who is a co-partner on the research.
The survey, conducted between Aug. 18 and Sept. 10 also showed that an unprecedented number of Latinos may vote - nearly 90 percent in those states. Given the growing Latino electorate in states like Nevada, where 59,489 Latino voters have registered since 2004, a high Latino turnout could determine outcome of the national election, Barreto said.
Respondents also said the economy is their top priority. Nearly a third said they had trouble making mortgage or rent payments during the past year.
In 2004, all four Latino battleground states voted Republican. However in 2008, those states are leaning slightly toward Obama, a Democrat, according to poll averages collected by Real Clear Politics.
What has been surprising to me is that McCain has been losing ground at a rapid pace. If you look back at 2004 and go by the exit polls that showed Bush getting 40-44% of the Hispanic vote you would assume that McCain would carry the same support. First of all I the numbers came from what we all know were flawed exit polls that showed Kerry winning, but I do believe that Bush might have at least increased his parties s support among Hispanics into the high 30's.
In 2006 we saw Hispanics / Latinos turned into a political football and we saw the demographic turn dramatically to back to Democrats. Historically Dems win the demographic by gaining around 65-68% support. In 2006 we saw dems across the nation gain support of 70+% of the demographic. The problem was that only 7% of Hispanics voted. Good news is that the numbers in NV, CO, NM, and even FL are well above the 2004 levels of support that Bush received. More importantly is that the percent that McCain is receiving is devastating. In all but FL he's in the low 20's. McCain has spent millions to try and win over the demographic. His campaign has stated time and time again that 40% was key to victory in Nov. The very least that they could afford to get was 35% (traditional number).
As the electoral map takes shape, it's increasingly clear the Latino vote may be decisive," said Arturo Vargas, executive director of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund, which helped pay for the survey. "In key battleground states," he added, "Latino voters are ready to vote in huge numbers, and a significant percentage is still persuadable. Underestimating the Latino vote could be disastrous for either party."
Latino Decisions, a public opinion firm whose partners include Barreto, Stanford University political scientist Gary Segura and Pacific Market Research, telephoned 1,600 Latino registered voters drawn equally from official statewide files in the four states. The poll's margin of error is plus or minus 4.7 percent for each state.
In 2008, the Latino vote is expected to increase to 9 million, or roughly 8 percent of voters. By comparison, 7.6 million Latinos voted in 2004 and 5.9 million in 2000.
Obama's numbers have only gone up and up and up and are now at all time highs or holding around his highs from the early Sept. polls that were mostly conducted in August. He's been holding and increasing these leads since the July/August polls. With 3 weeks left the ground is just too great to make up. I would not get too upset about the Hispanic vote in FL because Republican's normally win the states demographic because of the Cuban vote. What is nice is that Obama is doing better than normal for Dems in the state. More good news is that the percent of voters going to the polls this year is expected to increase as noted above. Why you ask?
IT'S THE ECONOMY STUPID!
The issue carries acoss all demographics and all states
MOST IMPORTANT ISSUE IN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
(MAY NAME TWO ISSUES)
CO FL NM NV
Jobs/Economy 48% 51% 55% 54%
War in Iraq 27% 31% 34% 25%
Health care 20% 17% 20% 13%
Immigration reform 13% 11% 11% 27%
Here are comparison numbers from 2004. Look at FL. That is important. Obama is doing much better than Kerry. The expected increas in turnout with Obama's current averages is the making of a big big night on Nov. 4th. Keep up the work and make it happen.
November 2004 (Latinos - NEP exits)
State Kerry Bush
Colorado 68% 30%
New Mexico 56% 44%
Nevada 60% 39%
Florida 44% 56%
UPDATE: Latino Decision stopped polling Texas, New York, and California in July because Obama was already BLOWING McCain out fo the water with high 60's and low 70's support. They decided to focus on the battle ground states. Democratic Corp tracked the AZ last month and showed Obama winning the vote there by big margins too.
Republican Publication Blames Washington Mutual Failure on Hispanics
I sh&% you not. Republicans are actually blaming the failure of the banking giant on Hispanics who worked for them, actually they are blaming the hiring of Hispanics as the problem.
Read for yourself... pre The Daily Kos
National Review's Mark Krikorian notes that (1) Washington Mutual became the largest bank to fail in American history yesterday and (2) its last press release touted the fact that it was named one of America's most diverse employers, having been "honored specifically for its efforts to recruit Hispanic employees, reach out to Hispanic consumers and support Hispanic communities and organizations"; for being "named [one of] the top 60 companies for Hispanics"; for "attaining equal rights for GLBT employees and consumers"; for having "earned points for competitive diversity policies and programs, including the recently established Latino, African American and GLBT employee network groups"; and for being "named one of 25 Noteworthy Companies by Diversity Inc magazine and one of the Top 50 Corporations for Supplier Diversity by Hispanic Enterprise magazine."
While juxtaposing these two facts -- (1) WaMu has a racially and ethnically diverse workforce and (2) WaMu collapsed yesterday -- theNational Review writer headlined his post: "Cause and Effect?"
This is the problem with the Republican party. They want to blame everything on minorities and can't take responsibly for themselves. It's time we kick the fools out and replace them with people for fight for us not against us.
I picked these up on the DailyKos. It seems that the idiot GOP chairman of New Mexico actually said Hispanics came here as conquerors and African Amercicans came her as slave. "Hispanics consider themselves above blacks. They will never vote for a black president."
Idiot, bigot, asswipe, crap head. First off all Mr. GOP chairman... Spaniards came here as conquerors and theh didn't come to the U.S. they came to Mexico. They pretty much elslaved and killed the indiginous tribes of Mexico. Second of all you are full of poop. Get you head out of your ass and look at the polls. Your man McCain is getting his ass handed to him largely because of you and your party. Your toast in New Mexico and your parties days are numbered. Hope you were not expecting ot run the NM government anytime in the near futre becasue Democrats with Hispanics help are there to stay.
Here is some side polling for everyones enjoyment. Kos over at Daily Kos posted these nubmers. They are part of the polling break down for the state.
Survey USA New Mexico - Latino Breakdown
Obama 69%
McCain 28%
Research 2000 Daily Tracking Nationally
Obama 68%
McCain 27%
I was browsing YouTube and found a user named Captioned for Obama. They are adding English and Spanish Captions to his commercials to help the hearing impared and those who's first language is not English.
Here is an example. Great work. I'll post some of the better commercials as I find them.
Translation: Obama: "I'm Barack Obama and I approved this message." Announcer: "They want us to forget the insults we've put up with, the intolerance. They made us feel marginalized in a country we love so much. John McCain and his Republican friends have two faces. One tells lies just to get our vote, and the other, even worse, continues the failed policies of George Bush, putting the interests of powerful groups above working families. John McCain, more of the same Republican deceptions."
The McCain campaign knows they can't win without the Hispanic vote. Don't be fooled again. McCain is no friend to the community. He and his party will be worse than Bush and his administration. Here is a great piece from the Latina Lista Blog... read the full piece here
if you notice the McCain camp believes they need 45% of the Hispanic vote in order to win..... uhhhh, someone should tell them they are running out of time and we are not that dumb. Currently by our count McCain is failing misserably in the battle groudn states and is only pulling 23% nationally.
It's no secret that the Republican Party wants the Latino vote. According to the McCain campaign's spokeswoman for Hispanic media, Hessy Fernandez, the campaign's goal is to secure 45% of the Latino vote.
The campaign feels that they can bridge the wide gap that currently exists between McCain and Obama as McCain gets out more in the Latino community. As Fernandez says, "He (McCain) is a true friend of the Latino community."
Well, when it comes to politics, and especially the recently adopted Republican Party platform, a "true friend" seems to depend on who is defining it.
While all issues are of importance to Latinos - education, health care, national security, the economy, etc., there are certain other issues that also impact Latino communities almost exclusively.
The Republican Party addressed these issues specifically in their platform: immigration, the Dream Act, undocumented immigrants and the English language.
Overall, it was a disappointing read - only because when it came to the issues that dealt with Hispanic immigrants, the same exaggerations were regurgitated and adopted by the party as fact.
Among the issues that the McCain campaign thinks will win Latino communities over are:
"...Guaranteeing to law enforcement the tools and coordination to deport criminal aliens without delay - and correcting court decisions that have made deportations so difficult ... It does not mean driver's licenses for illegal aliens, nor does it mean that states should be allowed to flout the federal law barring them from giving in-state tuition rates to illegal aliens, nor does it mean that illegal aliens should receive social security benefits, or other public benefits, except as provided by federal law."
What the committee members failed to honestly say was that because of this Administration's policies, a.k.a. Republican Party's, it's become common practice to criminalize undocumented immigrants by charging them with identity fraud.
Law enforcement officials who work with these kinds of fraud cases have gone on record in the past to say that the majority who perpetuate the damaging fraud against citizens, are their own fellow citizens.
From this simple passage of the platform that is pasted in this post, teens who want to go to college will be forever denied that possibility.
A little something I missed but we should all be informed on. This is a good reason to be optimistic and a reason to Mobilize.
Senator Barack Obama's Presidential campaign together with the Democratic National Committee today announced an unprecedented $20 million commitment to engaging and mobilizing Hispanic voters for the November election at a press conference with Senator Ken Salazar (D-CO), Congressman Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ), Congresswoman Hilda Solis (D-CA) and Congressman José Serrano (D-NY).
Members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus joined representatives of the Obama campaign and the DNC for the official announcement, which followed a briefing at Party headquarters on the campaign's Hispanic outreach program attended by 150 Latino community leaders from around the country.
"Senator Obama is honored to have earned a strong lead among Hispanic voters, but neither he nor the Democratic Party are taking a single vote for granted," said Frank Sanchez, Obama for America National Hispanic Leadership Council Chairman. "We know we have a lot of work to do, and this bold and unprecedented commitment to engaging and empowering Hispanic voters in our political process is an important step toward the November elections."
"This important commitment builds on the work we've done in the Democratic Party over the past three years to engage Hispanic voters, and to reject the Republican Party's politics of division," said DNC Chairman Howard Dean. "Hispanics are often disproportionately affected by the negative consequences of the failed Bush-McCain policies affecting every American. Whether it's about John McCain's promise to continue the same Bush economic policies that have led to a decline in median income for Hispanic households and a rise in unemployment, or the same foreign policy that has made Americans and our allies less safe while emboldening anti-American sentiment across the globe, Hispanic voters are looking for change."
The unprecedented $20 million commitment to engage and mobilize Hispanics will include voter mobilization, voter registration, online organizing, community outreach and paid advertising. Part of the effort will also include "Camp Obama" trainings around the country, which will empower Hispanics with the organizing tools and information they need to engage and turn out voters in their home neighborhoods and states. Both the Obama campaign and the Democratic National Committee also have Hispanic staff involved at every level of the campaign, from field organizers to senior roles.
Senator Barack Obama's campaign has already spent more on Hispanic outreach than any presidential campaign before it, and now the Obama campaign and the Democratic National Committee will join together in this unprecedented initiative to continue promoting engagement and mobilization among Hispanic voters and build on already overwhelming Hispanic support for the Democratic party and Senator Obama.
This is disturbing.... It has been brought to my attention that Repubicans are gurging Democrats from the polling records in the battle ground states of
OH, LA, FL, KS, NM, NV, CO
"In swing-state Colorado, the Republican Secretary of State conducted the biggest purge of voters in history, dumping a fifth of all registrations. Guess their color.
In swing-state Florida, the state is refusing to accept about 85,000 new registrations from voter drives - overwhelming Black voters.
In swing state New Mexico, HALF of the Democrats of Mora, a dirt poor and overwhelmingly Hispanic county, found their registrations disappeared this year, courtesy of a Republican voting contractor.
In swing states Ohio and Nevada, new federal law is knocking out tens of thousands of voters who lost their homes to foreclosure."
"In Mora County New Mrxico, where half the voters had to cast provisional ballots, about 1,000 Democrats - including state Auditor Hector Balderas - were stripped of their party affiliation in the county databank and their names did not show up on voter registration lists on caucus day.Mora County Clerk Charlotte Duran was not at work Thursday and did not immediately return a message left at her office."
CALL YOUR LOCAL ELECTION COMMISION AND MAKE SURE THAT YOU ARE STILL ON THE LIST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If you have been purged, get your ass down to your elections office, complain, and re-register to vote by your states deadline. MOVE!
Okay folks I got tremendous response from my ad on community organizers which is below. I got so much responce that many of you said it needed to be on the air so I developed a 30 second version of it and guess what, it's been picked up. Now we need to make sure it's supported so the cable buys can cover targeted districts in battleground states.
Rec It up and pass both around like wild fire. My original has already picked over 16,000 views in just 2 days and is hovering with the top videos of on YouTube.
This is the same organization that picked up this ad which will be airing in Ohio and Virginia begining this week. (I think this week)
The ad below was made by fellow KOS member cartwrightdale.
John McCain's campaign and spokes persons have mocked the community organizers who have fought hard for American Families. This nation was built on the backs of those who are willing to put others lives ahead of their own. The GOP doesn't realize that while they mock community organizers they also mock those who benefit from their work. Katrina victims, People who have been forclosed on, Jobless, Veterans, and countless other recieve the help of community organizers every day. Let them know that when they mock those who serve their community they are mocking the American people.
McShame, we will not stand by and watch you fool the country, we will not stand by and let you lie to us, we will not stand by and take it quietly this year. Not only do you lie to us, you and your running mate don't bother to check the great history of this country before you take to the stage and spew your hate.
One comment about community organizers got me going and a wonderful diary about some of our country's greatest contributors pushed me further. I've been mobilized to donate and get the heck out on the street. I've been motivated to use my skills from my profession so here is a little something I've cooked up
I am not standing by idle this year. I am not waking up on the 5th of November in 2008 and reliving the 5th of November of 2004. View it, pass it on, and wait for more because I've got a few more in the works. We are in full swing now guys so use any talent you have and mobilize!
Update: Here is a little something from camp Obama on community organizing. Thanks flvorfuls diary for bringing this to light! Give him or her some love.
Been busy and taking some time off gearing up for the race after the conventions. While I've been gone Obama has taken to the world stage with great command, he's weathered the storm of negative attacks McCain thew his way, he's made history and accepted the Democratic nomination and man was it a convention that will go down as one of the best for the ages.
Time for a Hispanic / Lation vote update and the storm that is brewing in Nov. We have some fantastic new nubmers from critical swing states.
In short, Obama is CRUSHING McCain with crazy numbers that I can move into the realm of "never seen" before in an election among the demographic. Two polls have just been released and both show an Obama has built an insurmountable lead, IMO.
First off we have the latest Latino Decision Poll conducted in battle ground states.
ColoradoO:69% M:24%
New MexicoO:70% M:21%
NevadaO:68% M:22%
FloridaO:45% M:48%
By comparison here are the exit polls from 2004
ColoradoK:68% B:30%
New MexicoK:56% B:44%
NevadaK:60% B:39%
FloridaK:44% B:56%
Comparison of June's Poll Numbers
ColoradoO:57% M:31%
New MexicoO:57% M:31%
NevadaO:57% M:31%
FloridaO:43% M:42%
So in 2 months
Obama is +12 in CO while McCain is -7
Obama is +13 in NM while McCain is -10
Obama is +11 in NV while McCain is -9 the net gains are eye popping. While both are about the same in Florida
Obama is polling very very well by comparison with big gains in New Mexico and Nevada. Colorado and Florida are about the same as Kerry's past numbers, but McCain's numbers are way down compared to Bush. This means that McCain not only has a lot of work to do in all four states, but he's got extra work to do in Florida where Bush took 56% of the Latino vote thanks to Cuban Americans. Looks like Obama has a chance to make some in roads in the demographic. In the other three states Obama has a chance to jump into the solid 70's, crushing traditional Democratic numbers since McCain is unable to pull even traditional Republican nubmers that usually hover in the mid to upper 30's.
From the poll...
Latino voters favored Barrack Obama over John McCain by a 3-1 margin in the key battleground states of New Mexico, Colorado and Nevada, according to a new poll released by Latino Decisions and the National Association of Latino Elected Officials. In Florida, the poll showed that Latino voters favor McCain by a slim margin.
"Despite Hillary Clinton's success among Latinos in the primary, this new poll reveals that Obama is doing very well among Latino voters in battleground states. Now the most important question is what Latino voter turnout will be," said University of Washington political scientist Matt A. Barreto, an expert in Latino voting trends who was the poll's lead researcher.
The survey found that in Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada, 68 percent of Latinos planned to vote for Obama, compared to 22 percent for McCain, while 10 percent were undecided.
Latino Decisions, a collaboration between Barreto, Pacific Market Research and Stanford University political scientist Gary Segura, conducted the poll by telephone Aug. 18 - 24.
The pre-convention poll reached 750 registered Latino voters in the four battleground states. Latino Decisions will release another poll taken in the same four states in mid-September following the Democratic and Republican national conventions.
In the three Southwest states, Obama's lead among Latinos was consistent. In New Mexico, Obama was favored over McCain 70 to 21 percent; in Colorado, Obama was favored 69 to 24 percent; and in Nevada, Obama was favored 68 to 22 percent. In all three Southwest states, a majority of Latinos are of Mexican descent and have traditionally voted Democratic.
In Florida, where Cuban-Americans constitute a significant portion of the Latino electorate, McCain led Obama 48 to 45 percent. In 2004, President Bush won 56 percent of the Florida Latino vote compared to 44 percent for John Kerry.
The poll predicts a 9 million voter turnout which would be at the high end of the 2000 estimates and 2 million more than came out in 2004 for Kerry vs Bush. With the registration drives that have been conducted in the community which put 1 million more voters on the ballots for the primaries and another additional 2-3 million more expected to be added for the general election, I'd say look for a record turnout of 10 million with a possibility of even more.
The poll does not break down the states but by the numbers but we can assume they are pretty damn close to Latino Decisions. Here is some info from the poll...
Obama has consolidated the Democratic Hispanic vote in a way that he has yet to do among non-Hispanic white voters.� Nationally, Obama runs 3 points below the generic Democratic presidential vote among white voters, but among Latinos his vote effectively matches the generic preference for a Democrat.[2]� He also holds a nearly 2-1 lead among independent Hispanics.
Nearly half of Hispanic voters say the concerns of blacks and Hispanics are similar, and among them, Obama holds an eye-popping 56-point lead over McCain.� But even among those who say the concerns of blacks and Hispanics are very different, Obama leads by 37 points.
or McCain to seriously improve his position among Hispanics, he would not only have to carve into Obama's lead among independents, but he would also have to retain significant Democratic support.� Democrats hold a 63 to 14 advantage in party identification among southwestern Hispanics.
So McCain has been spending a crazy load of money on T.V. and radio ads targeting the community and in 3 months he not only has gotten diddly poo, but he's actually faltered in the polls. We got to make sure the turnout is there folks and we can make sure NM and CO are strong Democratic wins this election cycle and we can turn Nevada. With the number's he's pulling it make total sense to me know why Obama thinks he can steel Nevada. I'll add that McCain has had a problem of pulling out of the upper 20's lower 20's in the polls prior to these. Now he is having problems pulling out of the lower 20's. Ouch.
UPDATE: SI SE PUEDE!!!!!!!!!!!! These are two groups that have polls specifically the Hispanic Latino demographic before and are the only one's besides Pew to be keeping tabs on voting trends... that I know of.
+12 Overall, +41 Latinos I know that a few diaries have been posted on Research 2000's latest poll conducted between July 25-27 that has him leading by 12 points, but I wanted to expand on this and dive deeper into the numbers.
The poll was conducted for KCCI-TV, KCRG-TV, WSBT-TV, and The Concord Monitor. It consisted of 1,100 likely voters and carried a 3% margin of error.
update: Sorry when I was building the table I got the women and white lable swapped, corrected now.
The overall numbers are good for Obama and as in other polls Women, Blacks and Latinos carry him over the top and he is winning all the age groups with the exception of those over 60. As of 12:00am R2000 does not have this info on their web site, but I expect it to be up some time before the morning rush.
The bounce, which I wasn't sure would come because a lot of low information voters normally don't pay attention to current events, came in force and in a wave I didn't expect. The breakdown of the numbers show that Blacks and Latinos remained strong and along lines where they have been polling, the bounce came with an uptick in Women and the rest was a small increase in demographics across the board.
For those familiar with my site I like to look at the Hispanic community. I know the margin of error is usually larger when you look at the breakdown of a poll, but some of these are right in line. Blacks for instance are in line with what all indications tell us will happen on election night and Latinos are right in line with polls specific to the demographic that have been released in July. The Latino number is a problem that the McCain campaign seems to be grinding their teeth over.
Yesterday on Politico.com there was a story about McCain and his frustration with the lack of support from Latinos. His camp saw a path to victory through the demographic and were counting on it. They have spent heavily on TV and Radio ads all through June and July and have seen no movement in the Latino community. It seems that they never expected to win the demographic, just pull the mythical Bush numbers (40-44%) that the flawed exit polls said existed. The problem is that those numbers never existed. They have been debunked and to assume you will get fictional Bush numbers after turning the demographic into a political football in 2006 is silly and to assume to get 40% when the GOP only pulled 26-27% in 2006 is asinine.
GOP strategist Bill McInturff has long emphasized that earning 40 percent of the Hispanic vote is critical for Republicans to win. Today, McInturff is John McCain's pollster, and by his metric McCain has a serious Latino problem
You think???
You have to understand in a way that the Republican party is damaged among Hispanics," conceded Hessy Fernandez, McCain's spokesperson for Hispanic media.
Smart guy this Fernandez is... And Obama isn't satisfied with pulling traditional Hispanic number, he's going for a larger share and I think he can pull it.
On Wednesday, the Obama campaign announced its first media buy of the general election on Hispanic radio in Florida, Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada. Obama has not yet purchased advertising on Hispanic television, while the McCain campaign has been up for months on both TV and radio.
Those ads, though, have yet to move his (McCain) numbers much. Both Gallup and Pew show his support to be fairly steady at and 10 percentage points less than Bush's in the summer of 2004.
That last line in politico's article is not correct, he is +15% below Bush 2004 numbers (if you buy into the argument that he got 40%). McCain is 10 points below traditional GOP numbers of 35%.
If Obama is able to turn out the vote among Hispanics then that pretty graphic the Huffington Post has up from Pollster.com will be crazy blue when you add NV, CO, long shot AZ & TX, and possibility FL to the mix. Don't get lazy, but I'd rather be in our spot then in John Flip-Flop McCain's.
On Wednesday, the Tax Policy Center released a report finding a $2.8 trillion gap between Sen. John McCain's (R-AZ) public economic proposals and his advisers' private assurances. McCain adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin responded yesterday to the report, saying that McCain's public statements are not necessarily "official" policy. Slate reports:
Douglas Holtz-Eakin, McCain's chief economic adviser, says the numbers he provided to the TPC aren't secret-they're the same ones he provides to anyone who asks. He also disputes the way the study takes suggestions McCain has made on the stump out of context. "This is parsing words out of campaign appearances to an unreasonable degree," Holtz-Eakin said. "He has certainly I'm sure said things in town halls" that don't jibe perfectly with his written plan. But that doesn't mean it's official.
This is just the latest of a string of screw-ups. On Friday John McCain flip flopped flipped when in a matter of minutes he said that the Timetable Obama proposed is a good one, then back tracked, then on Sunday claimed he never said such a thing despite it being broadcast to the world on CNN.
Sunday he attacked Obama for not visiting troops by launching an ad that shows Obama visiting troops. I'm not kidding, he actually did that.
He showed he has no clue who shares a border with Iraq, he doesn't know when the Surge began, and then claimed it began before it began because it was a concept that was floated by a guy before the idea was floated. He said he was against affirmative action and had never been for it despite him voting to support it. He claimed he would float the idea of raising the social security tax despite vowing not to raise a single tax and he attacked the media for not giving him good coverage when a new study came out that said he's gotten a fair ride while Obama has been trashed.
