At least one will show up

October 15, 2007

By Stephen Dinan

Sen. John McCain this morning announced he will show up for Univision's Spanish-language Republican presidential forum in Miami in December. The question is, will anyone else?

Univision had planned a September debate but only McCain committed to showing up at that one, causing the nation's largest Spanish-language broadcaster to indefinitely postpone the forum. Univision didn't return a call or an e-mail message yet this morning asking about details, while the University of Miami, which was scheduled to host the debate, had no comment.

All of the top-tier Republicans avoided a debate aimed at black voters and held at Morgan State University in Baltimore last month, and coupled with the Univision snub it's producing mounds of bad press from columnists arguing the GOP is showing a racially insensitive streak. The top Democrats, for their part, have attended debates aimed at both Hispanic and black voters, as well as one sponsored by gay-rights groups.

But the Morgan State debate, which repeatedly featured questions accusing Republicans of failing blacks, showed the downside of these tailored debates for the GOP. And it's also the case that black voters make up very little of the Republican primary electorate — and that's who the candidates are trying to win right now.

Whoever the eventual Republican nominee is will get some sort of a do-over with both black and Hispanic voters in the general election, and that will be when we should judge the party's minority outreach.

Source: The Washington Times