Latinos and women to determine next prez?

Wedge issues may boost Obama's prospects

Obama and Democrats appear to be using immigration and contraception to try to pry away voters from the other camp, similar to wedge issues that past Republican presidential candidates have employed.

By Mark Z. Barabak, Los Angeles Times
5:39 PM PDT, April 27, 2012

Is President Obama trying to wedge his way to a second term?

The economy will doubtless be the overriding issue in November's presidential contest, and Obama is hardly ignoring it. But a successful candidate appeals to all sorts of voters harboring all sorts of concerns, and the president and his backers appear to be using a pair of wedge issues to target two groups, Latinos and women, with messages grounded more in emotionalism than economics.

The issues — immigration and contraception — are hardly top-of-the-mind for most people, but each fits the mold of those typically used to pry voters away from a party or a candidate they might otherwise be inclined to support.

For Richard Nixon, the wedge issue was busing, as he tapped the racial resentment of working-class whites, particularly Southern Democrats, to help him win the presidency in 1968.

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