Sen. Robert Menendez’s advice for Barack on getting Latino votes
Found in juantornoe.blogs.com
Written by KEN THORBOURNE
Posted on 2008-06-17

June 17, 2008
By KEN THORBOURNE

Sen. Robert Menendez says a Barack Obama-Hillary Clinton ticket on the ballot in November makes sense, but Obama has his support no matter who the Democratic presidential nominee chooses.

Menendez, of Hoboken, who was one of Clinton’s biggest backers, added that he’d never pressure a presidential candidate to pick a certain running mate. About his own participation in the Obama’s campaign, Menendez said he planned to meet with the Illinois senator “to see what exactly he (Obama) needed me to do.”

“Certainly we are going to do everything we need to do in New Jersey to help him … and that any advice I could give on the national Latino stage I’d be happy to do it,” the one-time Union City mayor said.

Obama is going to have to do a better job wooing Latino voters, said Menendez, who added that he spoke with Obama two weeks ago.

“I said to him (Obama) that he needs to speak to the community in a way that they understand that he understands their issues,” said Menendez.

“For example, we all know this economy doesn’t work for working families. But the highest rate of unemployment for any group in America is Latinos,” he said.

On how the New York senator lost the nomination, Menendez said Clinton failed to organize in caucus states and allowed Obama to frame the debate.

Although Clinton made “strategic mistakes,” she garnered 18 million votes, only lost to Obama by 100 or so delegates and won critical swing states like Pennsylvania and Ohio, Menendez said.

Source:
The Jersey Journal

http://juantornoe.blogs.com/hispanictrending/2008/06/sen-robert-mene.html