JGL Eye Column

By JOSEPH G. LARIOSA

(© 2012 Journal Group Link International) 

C HICAGO (jGLi) – It was already 7 p.m. Central Time in Chicago, Illinois, Tuesday Election Night (Nov. 6) and even television and Internet sources are already projecting Mr. Obama ahead of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, yet the Obama campaign was still urging volunteers to make phone calls to voters in swing states.

This is one of the little things that the Obama campaign did, which the Romney campaign overlooked. The Obama campaign had a staff, who resembled a basketball player, who dove after loose balls, and not a ball hog, who took all the shots for the team.

And Mr. Obama has to thank for the slim 5-4 ruling of the United States Supreme Court last March in the case of Citizens United v. FEC (Federal Elections Commission), allowing corporations and labor unions to funnel money thru political action committees to pay for election-season ads that spend $10,000 and “will still have to disclaim who paid for them.”

As a result, rich political donors of the Republican Party were able to pour millions of dollars into the Romney campaign and still got away with it by remaining anonymous.

The only way for Mr. Obama to match the money machine of the Republican Party was to get the millions of middle-class as volunteers, who contributed thru emails and credit cards an average of $5 to $15 dollars every time there is a need for the Obama campaign to buy ads to neutralize the Republican media attacks.

You can just imagine one U.S. billionaire, Sheldon Adelson, owner of Las Vegas Sands Corp., donated $70 million to help Republicans in the 2012 elections, nearly triple the previous highest amount, according to news outlet Politico. The good thing about this donation was that the donor was identified. How about those anonymous donors?

It is also good thing Mr. Obama was re-elected as he pledged to “work immediately with Congress” to stop “big oil, Wall Street banks, health insurance companies and other powerful interests that marshal their power every day in Washington to drown out the voices of everyday Americans.”

VOLUNTEERS WITH NO MONEY CAN ALSO DONATE TIME

If you are a volunteer to the Obama campaign and you had no money, your presence and time were still welcomed by the campaign, by knocking door-to-door to talk to voters to register and go out and vote.

I think employing phone banks and door-to-door campaigns and accepting small-amount donors are among the secret weapons of the successful Obama re-election campaign.

And Obama’s campaign was able to structure their appeals to voters by having a menu of issues and concerns. For instance, for the Latino voters, the campaign offers to pass the comprehensive immigration reform; for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT), the campaign is supporting same-sex marriage; for women, equality at the workplace; for the youth, the passage of DREAM Act; for the elderly and disabled, the healthcare program that takes care of pre-existing conditions, for Filipino Americans, the creation of the White House Inter-agency Working Group that would review the applications of Filipino World War II veterans, who were denied recognitions and benefits for the Filipino Veterans Equity Act because their names were not listed in the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, Missouri, etc.

Imagine, how proud is the Republican culture? When the UNITY convention was held in Las Vegas, Nevada last August, it was an opportunity for either Governor Romney or Rep. Paul Ryan to speak before the influential members of thousands of minority journalists composed of Asian-American Journalists Association (AAJA), National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ), National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA) and the Native American Journalists Association (NAJA).

MISSED OPPORTUNITY FOR MR. ROMNEY

M r. Romney, one of his supporters told me, was in Las Vegas while we held the four-day convention. But he never showed up nor sent a surrogate to spell out the message of his campaign.

He should have attended or sent out a surrogate because UNITY has a proven “track record.” When Mr. Obama was invited by UNITY during its convention in Chicago, Illinois in 2008, then-Senator Obama accepted the UNITY invitation and was ready to answer critical questions thrown at him by UNITY members. Unfortunately, Mr. Obama’s rival, Sen. John McCain, did not show up at the event where organizers planned to put Messrs. Obama and McCain together to speak and answer question on the same stage at the same time. Of course, Mr. Obama won in 2008.

Last August, Mr. Obama could not make it to the UNITY convention. But he sent his backup, Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez (D-IL-4th), who predicted that “a million youth will emerge from their shadows” when the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals would be in place just like other Civil Rights movements.

But one other thing that an Obama supporter (Mr. Renato “Rambo” Avenido, publisher of usnewslasvegas.com) whispered to me was the “sin” of the first President George Bush Administration to the Bill Clinton Administration that caused misery to the Obama White House.

CAN OBAMA DO A NOYNOY AQUINO?

M r. Avenido told me that during a press conference he attended in Las Vegas that was called by former President Clinton, who said that when he left the White House, he left behind a surplus of $600-million. Where did this surplus go, Mr. Clinton asked. Mr. Clinton was campaigning for the re-election of Sen. Harry Reid at the time of the 2010 mid-term election.

Mr. Avenido suggested that President Obama do a President Noynoy Aquino, who brought his predecessor, former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, to court to answer graft charges to account for missing millions from Philippine treasury.

My other friend, Marlon L. Pecson, a Hillary Clinton loyalist-turned-Obama supporter, told me he voted for Romney due to Romney’s strong stand against China. Romney has pledged to label China as “a currency manipulator. And I will go after them for stealing our intellectual property… if they cheat, there is a price to pay.”

I agree with Mr. Pecson’s passion for the U.S. to go after China so that this will complement Mr. Obama’s strategic shift toward the Asia-Pacific as countries, like the Philippines and Vietnam, who are concerned of China’s rising power and assertive behavior. It will also support Mr. Obama’s “pivot” to the region as the U.S. ends wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is on top Mr. Obama's pledge to file a case with the World Trade Organization in Geneva, targeting China for alleged illegal subsidies of auto parts made for exports, which the U.S. administration argues undercuts American suppliers and encourages outsourcing. # # #

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Editor’s Note: To contact the author, please e-mail him at: (lariosa_jos@sbcglobal.net)