May 10, 2012

Romney's whiteness crisis re: Tito Puente

Michael Tomasky, the Daily Beast's Left correspondent, schools Mitt Romney in the importance of the surging Mexican-American youth vote  by scorning Romney's presumed lack of familiarity with New York-born Puerto Rican jazz musician Tito Puente (1923-2000), who -- as Bill Murray predicted in Stripes -- is dead. 
It seems clear that the main issue Mitt Romney is going to use to try to reestablish himself as a moderate is immigration. He told a private audience on April 15 that "we have to get Hispanic voters to vote for our party" and warned that current polling "spells doom for us." Then, on Monday, he made himself available to the media for the first time in a month—while standing beside Florida Senator Marco Rubio, a leading veepstakes name. … 
And finally—art. Art is so underestimated in politics. Romney is just sooooo white. Even whiter than the Osmonds. Bush wasn’t that white. He came from a state where these days you can’t help but know some Latinos, and he spoke him a little esspanyole, even. But Romney? He fired some guys working on his lawn because he couldn’t afford the political liability of employing them, as he openly admitted at one of those GOP debates. Aside from that—well, I admit I’m no more up on the latest salsa artists than Mitt is, but do you think that guy has ever listened to one Tito Puente record in his life?
Do you ever get the impression that most national pundits don't know anything about Mexican-Americans, other than there are a lot of them?

Granted, nobody in NYC-DC knows from Puerto Ricans, but don't you think Tomasky (who is younger than I am) could at least have come up with a Latino musician younger than Tito Puente? How about Ritchie Valens of La Bamba fame? Sure, he's been dead for 53 years -- as long as Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper -- but he was still born 18 years after Tito Puente.

77 comments:

Anonymous said...

Romney should get with Sergio Mendes and Brasil '66. It's latino music for rich white folks. Nothing says "life is good" more than cruising off Santa Barbara in the ol' Bayliner with old school Sergio cranking' out of the Bose, and a slow steady stream of Cuervo. Latin culture at it's best!

Anonymous said...

don't you think Tomasky (who is younger than I am) could at least have come up with a Latino musician younger than Tito Puente?

He said he was from Morgantown, W.V. so perhaps has his own whiteness chip on his shoulder

Alcalde Jaime Miguel Curleo said...

I think The American Prospect's financial problems may spring from it not tapping into the Chicano youth of today. They should do a special issue on the Zoot Suit Riots

DaveinHackensack said...

Most of today's Puerto Ricans have never heard a Tito Puente record either. They listen to Daddy Yankee, who takes the worst of black music (rap) and adds a little PR flair to it. Tomasky has probably never heard of him.

fish said...

Yeah but Tito composed an exculpatory mambo on an episode of the Simpsons! So there's that.

DYork said...

Morrissey.

Mitt looks a bit like an older Morrisey.

Anonymous said...

Tito Puento was obviously white. [In fact, the dude is so white that he looks more than a little Scots-Irish in those pictures - he could almost pass as a close relative of a Rodney MacDangerfield or a Jackie MacMason - were the Scots-Irish involved in the Triangular Trade in Puerto Rico?]

On the other hand, Arturo Sandoval looks like he might have just a smidgen of aboriginal [and/or escaped slave] blood in him.

eah said...

People in the movies always have nice looking flats.

...other than there are a lot of them?

An even bigger problem is that they don't know or care that there are already too many of them. With more on the way.

Truth said...

Yo Whiskey:

That broad is young, blonde, skinny and beautiful, and she lives in a brick-paneled loft; and she's banging...BILL MURRAY!

Big Bill said...

Couldn't Romney get a Mexican passport?

Run as the Latino candidate?

Surely it would be a closer connection to Hispanica than the now-three-generations-removed white "Cubans" in Florida?

Maybe wear a cowboy hat or something? I think they do that in Northern Mexico. Check out Vincente Fox.

anony-mouse said...

If Mormons are so white, how come you never see a blond/light-haired male one?

bluto said...

Dave,
I enjoy that all Reggaetron songs seem to use the same baseline.

Ironically, Daddy Yankee was one of the only folks from pop culture who endorsed McCain vs Obama, so perhaps there's an endorsement Romney could grab, as well.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2008/08/mccain-endorsed/

Anonymous said...

Most of today's Puerto Ricans have never heard a Tito Puente record either.

Something similar would make a fascinating survey for African-Americans in the USA: Get Gallup or Pew to perform a large-scale [socio-economically/demographically well-balanced] poll to ask African-Americans questions such as:

1) What instrument did Miles Davis play?

2) What instrument did Milt Jackson play?

3) What instrument did John Coltrane play?

4) What instrument did Herbie Hancock play?

Heck, you could just as well throw in a few more recent fellows:

5) What instrument did Wynton Marsalis play?

6) What instrument did Branford Marsalis play?

And to make it even easier for them, the poll questions could be multiple choice:

A) Piano
B) Saxophone
C) Guitar
D) Trumpet
E) Vibraphone

I doubt that even an Ivy League "graduate" like Michelle LaVaughn Robinson could do any better than random guessing [Barry, on the other hand, might be just enough of a nerd to actually know some of the answers].

PS: I wonder how many African-Americans could correctly answer the question, "Who was James Marshall Hendrix, aka Johnny Allen Hendrix?"

Within the under-30 age cohort [and even the under-40's], I bet that the results would be just shockingly low - maybe even statistically negligble.

Charleston Native said...

answer to anon at 5:07 am

Yes, the Scots-Irish were very involved in the slave trade. Google List of the oldest synagogues in the United States.
You will find them in cities of note: Charleston SC, Newport RI, Savannah GA, New Orleans LA, even St Thomas VI.

When I lived in Charleston, I read Jews were heavily involved in the slave trade and 40% of Jewish households owned slaves, whereas only 5% of all southern households owned slaves.

Alex said...

There are no Puerto Ricans in DC! The suburbs have lots of Central Americans and Mexicans, but it is overall not a very latino city.

peterike said...

Tomasky is relentlessly, remorselessly stupid. Every utterance from him is pure tripe, but he's a good indicator of the Conventional Wisdom and therefore serves a useful purpose, like a pregnancy strip.

Anonymous said...

Romney should exploit the "he's sooooo white" line.

It's a "safe" way to take advantage of the rising white racial consciousness without being called a racist. Of course, he'll be called a racist anyway because how dare he suggest that being white is good, but he can very legitimately roll his eyes and laugh it off.

Just something along the lines of "does the left wing media think there is something wrong with being white" on his campaign blog or something like that.

ben tillman said...

And Jerry Garcia was born a year after Valenzuela, and he outlived him by 36 years. So why not Jerry?

Glaivester said...

You know, people keep making jokes about Scots-Irish, but it occurs to me that true Scots-Irish do have a penchant for Hebrew names, especially multisyllabic ones:

"These are my brothers, Ezekiel, Jebediah, Jedidiah, Obadiah, Zedediah, and Zebidiah, but you can call us Zeke, Jeb, Jed, Obie, Zed, and Zeb."

Chicago said...

Tomasky himself doesn't seem to know much about the people he's so concerned with. He lumps all the different groups into one ball of wax. Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, Cubans, hey what's the difference they all look alike. Mexicans might care about immigration issues, Puerto Ricans usually don't, certain politicians notwithstanding. Thinking the Cuban Rubio would appeal to Mexicans is just a part of this syndrome. Rubio probably looks like a Spanish plantation owner overlord to the Mexicans, which wouldn't inspire them very much.
This all gets back to how election campaigns are just carefully scripted exercises in posturing and symbolism, the better to manipulate the emotions of the electorate. Do any of them actually believe in anything whatsoever or are they just hollow people reading off what their handlers put in front of them?

Anonymous said...

Didn't Romney's grandpa live in Mexico for a while? If he were a liberal he would surely self-identify as Hispanic himself.

It's better than that.His father was BORN in Mexico.

Anonymous said...

I'm a couple of years younger than Romney--never heard of Tito Puente.

Anonymous said...

I hope Romney doesn't miss a golden opportunity this election season to pitt the average guy against Big Hollywood.

It was pretty amazing yesterday to see Obama squirm in that interview when he spoke of his now accepting gay marriage. Oh, I'm not saying that personally he's against it or for it, for that matter, but he seemed more ill at ease than at any other time I have seen him speak on a topic.

Clearly the big fund raisers he had coming up in NY and Hollywood, all with celebrities, was what made him "evolve" (although records show us he has evolved before on this issue.) Of course, the MSM failed to mention those fund raisers and failed to mention the arm-twisting and the threats that came from the GLBT leaders and their Hollywood allies.

If I'm a Romney strategizer, speech writer or whatever, I make sure to point out the 12 lane freeway between the Oval and HW.

I can't see anyone in the toss-up states disagreeing with the suggestion that those people have much too much power.

astorian said...

90% of the US population has never heard of Tito Puente, and 5% knows him only as the guy who wrote Carlos Santana's hit "Oye Como Va."

And even that song is far less cool once you realize all it means is "Listen how it (my rhythm) goes."

helene edwards said...

If Tomasky really believes having listened to Tito Puente permits escape from the "too white" charge, then why doesn't he ask how much Motown Romney's listened to? What if it turns out Romney can name every Four Tops album? Would that mean he's less white than Tomasky and the rest of the press corps?

Anonymous said...

Amusing clip. Murray's role was originally written for Cheech Marin, hence the Tito Puente reference (put in by a white screen writer) and the lazy Mexican persona of the lead actor.

To liberal white people, Mexican culture = Cheech & Chong. Most of my generation amused themselves on dull summer afternoons between 7th and 8th grade smoking weed they stole from their older sibling's underwear drawer and listening to Big Bambu. With weed, it was always funny, no matter how many times you played it. If the record began skipping, it only got funnier.

Anonymous said...

Mexicans are leaving America, I should he care for their vote?

beowulf said...

"Didn't Romney's grandpa live in Mexico for a while? If he were a liberal he would surely self-identify as Hispanic himself."

1. Per Census/OMB definition, Romney is Hispanic because he "can trace [his] origin or descent to Mexico..."
2. Under the Mexican Constitution, Romney is a natural born Mexican citizen. But for the pesky 20 yr residency requirement, he could run for President of Mexico tomorrow."
http://isteve.blogspot.com/2011/10/mitt-romneys-foreign-policy-advisers.html?showComment=1318070838484#c2776156990994073701

Leesa said...

Yeah. Romney should at least know about Tito Puente like I do from that Simpsons episode Puente guested on. Jees, what an L7!

Anonymous said...

"Do you ever get the impression that most national pundits don't know anything about Mexican-Americans, other than there are a lot of them?"

Well, of course they know next to noting about Mexican-Americans. They seem to think Puerto Ricans and Cubans are just like Mexican-Americans because they spend all their time in NYC and Florida.

The press, Hollywood--Romney needs to call them out for their provincialism. I'd love that because they all think they're so sophisticated but the isolation of the media and of leftist entertainers is that they are the more provincial of all of us. They spend such little time around average folk, be they average Americans, average UK residents, average Frenchmen, that they haven't a clue.

Antioco Dascalon said...

This is hilarious. Mitt Romney's dad was *born* in Mexico and lived their in his early childhood. This makes Mitt eligible for Mexican citizenship after two, instead of the usual 5, years residency.
And has anyone under 40 listened to a "Tito Puente record" anyway? I think, in fact, that that activity is something a square like Romney would have done, perhaps as a freshman in college or in high school as a member of the pep squad.
Why not at least Shakira, Enrique Iglesias, Ricky Martin or someone else who was alive (let alone productive) during the 21st century? Bizarre.

rob said...

fondatori, Romney's father George was born in Mexico making George a Mexican to the same extent that Mexicans born in the US are Americans (and everyone not on the 'far right' will tell you they are as American as you and George Washington, except more so).

Mitt Romney is the first Hispanic presidential candidate, and yet no one ever mentions that. Probably because they're racists, even though they don't think Hispanic is a race, or that races are anything but pretend. I guess a tall white Mormon man is less 'authenic' than fat little brown people practicing syncretic Catholicism..

Of course we all know that Mexicans in the US aren't Americans, and Americans in Mexico aren't Mexicans, but who'd want to lose his job pointing that out?

jody said...

"Do you ever get the impression that most national pundits don't know anything about Mexican-Americans"

every day.

in fact, anybody who hasn't lived in (or these days, next to) a border state for a minimum of 3 years, knows nothing about mexicans and shouldn't open their mouth about them.

i'm a total novice compared to a guy like allan wall, the ex-pat who writes for vdare, yet i often feel the same way he does in his columns: these american politicians have NO IDEA AT ALL what they're talking about when it comes to mexico or mexicans. they're 180 degrees wrong almost always. they get it exactly backwards.

really egregious is how they conflate all groups with mexicans. dominicans, ricans, colombians, haitians, maybe even brazilians are all the same people. they don't seem to realize a lot of them don't like each other. saying something bad about ricans around mexicans won't upset the mexicans at all, and praising some rican musician in a bid to ingratiate yourself to mexicans is just going to make the mexicans scratch their heads.

Ovibos Nunivak said...

Please, Mr Sailer, Selena is the obvious choice of a Hispanic musician to exploit. Her fun, nonthreatening lyrics give you multiple generational appeal. You and Mr. Tomasky think Hispanic voters are all 70 year old women or aging, educated males.

Antioco Dascalon said...

Romney should run a the the first Mexican-American presidential candidate. When asked to prove it, he can then run as the first *undocumented* Mexican-American presidential candidate, and attack all opponents as racists.

Anonymous said...

A classic case of 'combett' or 'comments are better' than the article.

Anonymous said...

"There is a level of conformity among blacks that whites would find hard to believe. They like one kind of music: rap. They will vote for one political party: Democrat. They dance one way, speak one way, are loud the same way, and fail their exams in the same way. Of course, there are exceptions but they are rare. Whites are different. Some like country music, others heavy metal, some prefer pop, and still others, God forbid, enjoy rap music. They have different associations, groups, almost ideologies. There are jocks, nerds, preppies, and hunters. Blacks are all — well — black, and they are quick to let other blacks know when they deviate from the norm."

Anonymous said...

Tomasky himself doesn't seem to know much about the people he's so concerned with. He lumps all the different groups into one ball of wax. Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, Cubans, hey what's the difference they all look alike.

This is yet another example of how the elite is basically inventing a pan-Latin identity that has never existed elsewhere. It's some warped spin on the one-drop rule, even though a lot of people coming from the south don't even have that one drop of "Hispanic". You could be 100% African descent, a cholo, a Maya, or a Lebanese-Italian Argentinian, but it's all "Latino". The bizarre fantasizing that amorphous cooked up this category is the great unremarked part of America's identity crisis. If there weren't AA goodies to be had, you wanna bet that all these disparate peoples wouldn't put themselves under such a tent?

Maya said...

Miles Davis played the trumpet. I only know because I read his autobiography.

Anyway, I obsess over music, go to lots of concerts and have about a billion songs in my collection, and the only Hispanic musicians I can think of are Zoe, Titan, Nico Stai, Fangoria and the sucky pop stars from the late 90s like JLo, Ricky Martin and Christina Agulera. Of course, there might be a whole lot of Hispanic people in my favorite bands, but they just don't care enough to bring it up and make it widely known. At any rate, I can't think of anyone who looks as obviously Latino as George Zimmerman.

And I never heard of this Tito guy.

Anonymous said...

Steve, Romney's real crisis isn't the whiteness, it is the violence against gays. There are five witnesses to his gay bashing.

Alcalde Jaime Miguel Curleo said...

"people keep making jokes about Scots-Irish"

That's actually just one guy, posting over and over and replying to himself

leading Hispanics named Kirchner said...

anony-mouse said...
If Mormons are so white, how come you never see a blond/light-haired male one?

5/10/12 6:09 AM

There was just recently that supporting character in the Three Stooges movie (supposedly he's Mormon-level famous). More of a bottle blonde but has light eyes.

Steve, the reason Tomasky thought Puente was Mexican is because of that Santana cover. But unfortunately "Oye como va" is the island dialect and musically sounds nothing like norteno/Tejano/banda (i.e. polka)/other Mex genres, lol.

Anonymous said...

You don't know your Tito Puente from your La Puente

Yes, I doubt many in La Puente are listening to lots of Tito Puente. If middle-aged or older they seem to prefer the accordion/glockenspiel/Alpine-hiking rhythm stuff

Anonymous said...

Reggaeton is quite popular in eastern LA County but is a lower-class marker (sounds like the other produce of Mexican/S. American big music industry, basically). 2nd or 3rd generation Mexican-Americans youth often look down on it, veer instead to modern R&B (increasingly a melange of hip-hop & Euro-beat dance shlock) or weird 80s rock stuff. The further you go up US-101 the less you hear the Freddy Fender stuff too.

Anonymous said...

"Daddy Yankee was one of the only folks from pop culture who endorsed McCain"

Maybe Daddy's relatives back in the commonwealth have jobs with the RNC. And, judging by the man's lines in that link, he probably could have run a better campaign than "Maverick" did.

KGB Agent said...

Count me as another man who only knows of Tito Puente because he once guest starred on The Simpsons. I still remember the vengeful Latin rhythm he wrote for Mr. Burns.

josh said...

Has he ever heard of Cantinflas? BTW:One reason SNL became so popular was its cool ingroup humor. Chevy Chase made some joke once referencing Cantinflas ,which I found very amusing,as I had by chance stumbled upon his work one Sunday afternoon. Ditto for Aldo Rey. Who knew Aldo Rey?? By chance,having stumbled on Mailer's "Naked & Dead",I was familiar with Mr. Ray's work.

Anonymous said...

Miles Davis played the trumpet. I only know because I read his autobiography.

I wanted to include John Lewis but then I figured that NOBODY would have heard of him.

PS: Keith Jarrett plays a mean G.F. Handel.

Maya said...

"If Mormons are so white, how come you never see a blond/light-haired male one?"

I know a Mormon young man who is a very light ginger. All the other ones I know personally seem to look kinda Celtic- brown hair of all shades, very light skin, rosy cheeks and light eyes. One girl is blonde and more Germanic looking.

Anonymous said...

BTW, Wikipedia says that Chick Corea is Spanish and Sicilian AND Scientologist!!!

Medill school of courtiers said...

It's so bleeding obvious that Obama's (nonbinding) papal indulgence of same-sex official victims was timed for the N.C. Amendment 1. They knew it would pass, they knew he might as well be seen as "letting it" pass but then denounce it on the other side (so brave to comment after the vote has happened). So now the fabled gay bundlers who are so critically important to the campaign (source: aforementioned gay bundlers) are prancing around after Jesus Christ II's latest miracle. Obama played them like a cheap Cartagena prostitute...

Tony said...

Wait a second here. If George Romney was born in Mexico, how could he run for president?

hbd chick said...

in my experience, mexicans are more into cumbia than salsa/mambo, so the reference is wrong on another level, too.

tito puente rocked! (~_^)

Anonymous said...

Ken Jennings is a blond Mormon.

Anonymous said...

"If Mormons are so white, how come you never see a blond/light-haired male one?"

19th century Mormon evangelism was disproportionately successful in Scandinavia. The one Mormon girl who I went to school with was blonde/light complexioned and had an obviously German/Scandinavian name. She was from a big family all of whom were pretty much just obviously superior to the other kids around them. It probably has unfairly influenced how impressed I am by Mormons to this day. One of the South Park guys did an entire Mormon episode about his similar experience.

Romney's wife is also a blonde.


"Yeah but Tito composed an exculpatory mambo on an episode of the Simpsons! So there's that. "

Thanks, I had no clue who Tito Puente was until I read that. The "Señor Burns" song from the "Who shot Mr Burns?" episode snapped right into my head.

green mamba said...

"I wanted to include John Lewis but then I figured that NOBODY would have heard of him."

I love the MJQ, especially the Django album.

ben tillman said...

When I lived in Charleston, I read Jews were heavily involved in the slave trade and 40% of Jewish households owned slaves, whereas only 5% of all southern households owned slaves.

I believe the figures were 72% and 29% respectively.

ben tillman said...

I'm a couple of years younger than Romney--never heard of Tito Puente.

I always thought he was someone's mispronunciation of the name of the Giants' second base man.

ben tillman said...

The bizarre fantasizing that amorphous cooked up this category is the great unremarked part of America's identity crisis. If there weren't AA goodies to be had, you wanna bet that all these disparate peoples wouldn't put themselves under such a tent?

It wasn't fantasizing; it was a deliberate part of a divide et impera/diviser pour régner/divide and conquer strategy.

ben tillman said...

Has he ever heard of Cantinflas? BTW:One reason SNL became so popular was its cool ingroup humor. Chevy Chase made some joke once referencing Cantinflas ,which I found very amusing,as I had by chance stumbled upon his work one Sunday afternoon.

In Dallas, Cantinflas is a beef dish.

Anonymous said...

In that Tito Puente episode I most enjoyed how the police chief responded with, "I hope the other suspects we interview are that entertaining!"

ben tillman said...

BTW, Wikipedia says that Chick Corea is Spanish and Sicilian AND Scientologist!!!

And he's Jewish!

WGASWGAF ? said...

Isn't Carlito's Way a fairly well known film? Tito Puente played the owner of the nightclub Al Pacino's character went into partnership with.

Just another frame of reference for the benefit of those of us who weren't raised by Puerto Rican grandparents.

Mr. Incredible said...

Jody: "dominicans, ricans, colombians, haitians, maybe even brazilians are all the same people"

This business reminds me of something I heard Tina Brown (I think it was) say during the 2004 election: that John Kerry should promote his vibrant "Hispanic wife" Teresa to help bring out the minority vote. This is funny on two levels:

1. Teresa is Portuguese, which is not Hispanic;

2. She grew up in Mozambique when it was a Portuguese colony, and studied in apartheid South Africa. From the POV of black people, she was a "white oppressor."

The ignorance is stunning.

Anonymous said...

I know many mormons, most are fair of skin, long of head with darker hair. A kind of generalized Atlantid look (not very scientific I know) seems common.

The ones who are more Scandinavian descended often stand out. One thing about mormons is they know their geneology so they will know exactly where all of their great grandparents came from.

These people were drawn from ancestors who had one or more issues with modernity. I think there may be a coherent genetic signature to that alienation.

Anonymous said...

Anon 3:58, one of the Post's "witnesses" to the "attack" has said he wasn't even there.

Anon 2:10, the Peter Brand character was in reality Paul DePodesta, not a Scots-Irish as far as I know. He wouldn't allow his name to be used in the movie, and the producers decided to go with a "composite" character base on Beane's assistants.

Anonymous said...

Back in the day, I always wondered whether Teresa's parents might have been Nazi agents aiding the Nazi infiltration of southern Africa.

[Teresa was born in 1938, and is five years older than John Kerry.]

Anonymous said...

Wait a second here. If George Romney was born in Mexico, how could he run for president?

Dude, you're a little late to the party. Oceans of ink and forests of paper were spent on that question back in 1967-68.

He could, for the same reason why McCain (born Panama Canal Zone) could run for POTUS in 2000 and 2008.

(Trivia for winning contests: last major party nominee before McCain not born in the "United States"? Goldwater -- born in the Arizona TERRITORY.)

Little Pristinatown said...

I can only imagine how much this op ed confused Tomasky:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/04/opinion/marshal-tito-in-queens.html

Anonymous said...

As I was raised by the Mormons, I feel qualified to say the above amateur ethnographic history is not only amusing, but totally wrong. Take a look at reported national origin in US Census data and you will see that Utah (about 3/4 of Utahns are of Mormon ancestry, whether or not they're active in the church) has extraordinarily high percentage of national origin from England (particularly the western counties) and Wales, with slightly higher than normal amounts from Scandinavian countries.

The overwhelming reason for this is that their earliest, and by far their most successful forays into international evangelism was to western England and Wales. A place that you could get to easily and filled with poor, English-speaking people ready to embrace the Homestead Act and the Book of Mormon, usually in that order. Most Mormon familes are made up of a mixture of old Yankee blood, English and Welsh that migrated between 1847-1890, and Scandinavians.

Anonymous said...

"Steve, Romney's real crisis isn't the whiteness, it is the violence against gays. There are five witnesses to his gay bashing."

Really? What I heard was that Mitt was shocked, SHOCKED, at the tackiness of Johnny's long hair. Mitt said,"Hey girlfriend, what you need is a Vidal Sassoon bob." Then he whipped out his trimming scissors and hair product and got busy.

Anonymous said...

I think Romney's answer to Tomasky is pretty simple.

So you're a fan of Tito Puente, huh?

Name one song.

rob said...

Romney or his people should just mercilessly tease Tomasky. "I'm white, huh? We should hire you as a whiteness consultant for the campaign. You can stand behind me and tell me who's white or not. If you do that well, by the time I'm president, you can move up to estimating how tall people are.

Really, having the Democrats point out that the Democrats ain't the party for white people is the best thing that can happen to the GOP: they won't do it themselves, and it'll turn out more GOP voters.

Tony said...

"He could, for the same reason why McCain (born Panama Canal Zone) could run for POTUS in 2000 and 2008."

C'mon now, you should know that the US owned the canal zone and not mexico. Its a moot point anyway, because George dicked up the nomination anyway. Not that he could have beaten Richard Milhous.

Loose Age said...

Oye como va mi ritmo. Bueno pa gozar mulata. Listen to my rhythm. Good to enjoy mulatta. Mulatta /Halle Berry. Was that the punchline, Steve?

MQ said...

When I lived in Charleston, I read Jews were heavily involved in the slave trade and 40% of Jewish households owned slaves, whereas only 5% of all southern households owned slaves.

LOL. Stuff to blame the Jews for:

slavery
the civil rights movement
Stalinism
finance capitalism
the Iraq war
immigration
every bad Hollywood movie

am I leaving anything out?

Anonymous said...

Two great 60s rock bands were mexican-americans. ? and the Mysterians (96 Tears) were mexican-americans from Michigan, and the Sir Douglas Quintet (She's About A Mover)were Texas mexican-americans with an anglo frontman (Doug Sahm). The Sir Douglas Quintet was trying to cash in on the british invasion and had the band backlit on their first album cover so you couldn't discern their ethnicity.