If she chooses a latino running mate, her upside will be particularily high. And the answer is a resounding yes, very likely I think. Very likely as in 20-25% of the time. (Just a wild guess right now though.)
Remember when Sarah Palin went to Harvard Law School? Because I sure don't.
Maybe that's a little hyperbolic, but he's certainly not as stupid as the media likes to insinuate.
Sarah Palin's problem was that she was an idiot. It wouldn't matter how experienced she was. And, she didn't just overshadow McCain, she overshadowed him by making a fool of herself. That's a key point to make.
I've actually talked to Julian Castro briefly a couple of years ago. He's quite impressive. It's ridiculous to compare him to Sarah Palin. The reason he has no chance of being VP is that he's not a Governor, Senator or high profile Federal official. Maybe that shouldn't be a threshold qualification, but it is.
Honestly, I think this VP talk is stupid. I don't want a VP selected for their race, gender or political appeal. It ought to be the best person for the job. If you pick that person, everything will take care of itself.
I wonder how Hispanics feel about all the condescending "a brown token with few qualifications will win the brown votes" talk among white liberals. I'd be pissed if I were seen only for the color of my skin, rather than my accomplishments.
Maybe they don't find it condescending, I dunno, but it could backfire.
In numerous polls, at least in a couple of polls conducted by the Pew Research Center/Pew's Hispanic Trends Center, latinos have expressed their laments that they don't have a national latino leader yet. A VP candidate endorsed wholeheartedly by Hillary could easily and rapidly become such a leader (just like the inexperienced Palin almost immediately became the Tea Party leader shortly after the 2008 election). A Hillary candidacy would probably raise the anemic latino turnout in 2012 at 48% by a few pecentage points, perhaps all the way up to 55-57%. However, I'm pretty sure that the only way to succeed with what right now seems like an almost impossible task, to raise the latino turnout to 60% or beyond, would be to put one of theirs on the ballot. And to suggest that there doesn't even exist one single qualified person among the US' 53 million latinos is quite pathetic, to say the least. What an offensive remark really to 17% of the US population.
