According to Daily Beast columnist Jonathan Alter, President Obama's executive amnesty could so well place Latinos into the Democratic column that Latino homes will grace their living rooms with portraits of the 44th president:
The Newsweek alumnus made those remarks on the November 19 edition of Hardball, during a panel discussion on immigration reform and the president's planned executive-order amnesty. Alter also rehashed the tired conventional wisdom that if Republicans oppose a "pathway to citizenship" for illegals, they will demographically doom themselves to permanent minority status with the changing demographics of America, wherein Hispanics are a rising share of the population.
The relevant transcript and video follow:
MIKE PAUL, former aide to Rudy Giuliani: The key number is 32 percent [sic] that means that obviously there are a lot of people who don't like it. Not just in Congress, but the American people. And yes, if there was such suffering, those numbers would be higher, and they're not high enough.
CHRIS MATTHEWS, host: They do support a path to citizenship.
BETH FOUHY, senior editor, msnbc.com: They support a path to citizenship.
JONATHAN ALTER: That number [referring to 38 percent of Americans who support Obama's amnesty in a new NBC poll] will be irrelevant in the long sweep of time and you're going to see in 20 years--
MATTHEWS: So you say it's going to work?
FOUHY: I agree.
ALTER: Absolutely, you're going to see Latino families -- remember in the hollows of West Virginia they used to have FDR and JFK's pictures? In Latino homes in this country over the next 50 years, a lot of them are going to have a picture of Barack Obama, and that's going to be good for Democrats.
MATTHEWS: This tape will last 'til then.The tape will be available.
[laughter from Fouhy]
