Obama's pollster: Republicans have a tolerance problem
Obama's campaign pollster, Joel Benenson, says the Republican challenge goes beyond the Latino vote, extending to anyone who isn't white and thinks differently from party orthodoxy.
This October file photo shows the audience, who were mostly women, listen behind President Obama as he speaks about the choice facing women in the election during a campaign event at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va.
Susan Walsh/AP/File
Washington
Much has been made of GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney鈥檚 catastrophic performance last month among Latino voters 鈥� just 27 percent to President Obama鈥檚 71 percent.
Now at 10 percent of the American electorate, Latinos are the nation鈥檚 fastest-growing minority. Suddenly, Republicans are suing for peace on comprehensive immigration reform, an issue they have long resisted out of fear it could lead to 鈥渁mnesty鈥� for those in the country illegally.
But to Joel Benenson, Mr. Obama鈥檚 campaign pollster, the GOP鈥檚 problem is bigger than Latinos and immigration.
鈥淭he Republican Party has a tolerance problem,鈥� Mr. Benenson told reporters Wednesday at a session hosted by Third Way, a centrist Democratic group. 鈥淚 think when you define people who look differently than you as illegal aliens, and use that term over and over again, and talk about self-deporting them, that鈥檚 a tolerance issue.鈥�
The 鈥渓ooking different鈥� issue, Benenson adds, also helps explain why Asian-Americans voted for Mr. Obama over Mr. Romney by an even wider margin than Latinos, 76 percent to 23 percent. He suggests that the Obama campaign鈥檚 message on investment 鈥� in education, in building a future through hard work 鈥揳lso won Asian-American votes.
But the tolerance issue, he says, goes beyond race and ethnicity 鈥� it goes to issues.
鈥淲hen you call people who believe in global warming 鈥榡ob-killers,鈥� you have a tolerance problem,鈥� Benenson says.
鈥淲hen you want to deny gay people, who want to make a lifetime commitment to each other, just as their parents did, because they want to spend a life together, and you want to deny them that life aspiration, you have a tolerance problem,鈥� he says.
In addition, Benenson frames Republican attacks on contraception and Planned Parenthood as intolerance toward women.
A piecemeal approach to fixing the party鈥檚 demographic challenges won鈥檛 work, he suggests.
"If they think they can solve all their problems by picking off any one of those groups and saying, 鈥極h, we鈥檒l fix our problem here or there,鈥� this goes to whether you have core beliefs that are in line and in touch with the vast majority of Americans,鈥� the pollster says.
For most of the campaign, Obama led Romney by 10 percentage points on the question of whether his views and policies were in line with mainstream Americans. Only in the period immediately after the first Obama-Romney debate did the Republican nominee come close to even on that question.
The Republicans have embarked on a period of soul-searching, including a party-led task force that is reviewing the results of the 2012 election and brainstorming a path forward on how to widen the party鈥檚 appeal. And there鈥檚 no time to lose. Public acceptance of gay marriage, for example, is growing rapidly, as older Americans who are most resistant to the idea die off and younger people, who are broadly accepting, reach voting age.
Look at voters under age 40, says Benenson. 鈥淗ow do you redefine yourself now with what is almost half the electorate? They鈥檙e hearing a very strident, intolerant point of view on specific issues.... I mean, they have become a party of orthodoxy.鈥�
He also points out that Romney won the white evangelical vote by the same margin as President George W. Bush in 2004 鈥� 57 percentage points. But he lost the remaining three-quarters of the electorate by 23 points, 60 percent to 37 percent. Mr. Bush lost those voters by 13 points.