Letters to the Editor
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Oh, does Obama have a white mother?
...I hadn't realized that! How ridiculous and biased to critize Sen. Obama for running an ad featuring pictures of his late mother when Sen. Clinton brought her mother (and daughter) on the campaign trail as has Sen. McCain in recent days. I found the story of Obama's mother's struggle with impersonal and arrogant insurance agencies in the last months of her battle with cancer to be both an effective and moving personal testimony to the current broken state of our health system. Obama gets it. And this ad shows that he does.
On the vexed question of whether Latinos will support Obama in the coming election, I want to note that I live in central New Jersey and work with many Latinos of varying national backgrounds. Several of my colleagues have pointed out that Latinos are a diverse and complex group without a single viewpoint or identity. Many conservative, establishment-oriented Latinos will vote for Hillary Clinton or John McCain certainly. But a large number of working class, progressive, and college-educated Latinos will support Obama as the candidate who best represents their interests, their vision, and their hopes for the future.
And for the record, I am black, my husband is white, my college-age kids are of mixed race and we all enthusiastically support Barack Obama.