Norfolk, Va. -- When stress and fatigue from traveling start to get a hold on me, I remind myself how lucky I am to do what I do. After covering both the Democratic and Republican conventions, participating in a panel on the importance of the Latino vote in Washington, D.C., and then landing a one-on-one interview with Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, that reminder came in handy.
I don’t want to see another airplane for at least a week. But in the meantime, I want to share some highlights of my interview with Sen. Obama -- the first interview given to a Spanish-language media organization since becoming his party’s nominee -- at such a crucial moment in the campaign, with less than two months to go before Election Day.
I started off by asking the senator how he plans to turn the campaign around in his favor now that he has lost some ground in the polls.
“Now, keep in mind that the polls are exactly the same as they were before all the conventions,” he said. “I think the key in the remainder of the campaign is to talk about the issues that people are caring about every single day: Who has a serious plan to put people back to work to create jobs in America? Who has a plan to provide for health care when so many people, especially in the Hispanic community, do not have health care? Who is going to make college affordable? Those are the kind of day-to-day issues I think people are really going to be focusing on, and that’s what we are going to talk about in this campaign.”
Sen. John McCain’s campaign manager, Rick Davis, recently said the election is not going to be decided on issues, but rather on personality and character. If that were the case, I asked Obama, could he and Joe Biden effectively compete against McCain and now Sarah Palin?
His response: “Well, why wouldn’t we be able to? I think your character is reflected on what you stand for, and if John McCain is fighting for oil companies or to keep the economy on the path that it’s at, it’s a reflection that he doesn’t get what’s going on in people’s lives day to day, and that’s what I think this election is about.”
Turning to some issues of interest to Latinos, I asked Obama if by saying during his acceptance speech at his party’s convention, “I don’t know anyone who benefits when a mother is separated from her infant child,” he was implying that there should be a moratorium on immigration raids.
“What I’ve said is that raids are a publicity stunt, they are a tactic to push people away from focusing on the failures of the immigration system as a whole. What we have to do is to have a comprehensive immigration plan that has strong border security and that cracks down on employers that are taking advantage of undocumented workers,” he responded.
Sen. McCain claims that his opponent wants to unilaterally renegotiate de North American Free Trade Agreement and is against all free-trade agreements. What Obama told me he wants to do is make sure that the side agreements that exist on labor and on environment are placed in the agreement itself, and are enforceable: “I think that is very important to make sure that our free-trade agreements aren’t just good for corporate bottom lines and Wall Street, but they are good for workers.”
As far as being able to relate to Latin America even though he’s never traveled south of the border, the Democratic presidential candidate dismisses McCain’s travel stories: “I think he has not been supportive of policies that would make a difference in Latin America. What is important for people to focus on is who has the policies, and is serious about creating the kinds of alliances and partnerships based on mutual respect that would allow countries in Latin America and the United States to grow.”
Sen. Obama says he looks forward to traveling to the region in the near future, and judging by his energy level in the middle of such a grueling campaign, he could conceivably handle a trip like that a lot better than some of us journalists who are trying to follow the candidates’ trails.

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(Maria Elena Salinas is the author of “I AM MY FATHER’S DAUGHTER: LIVING A LIFE WITHOUT SECRETS.” Reach her at www
.mariaesalinas.com)
© 2008 by Maria Elena Salinas
Distributed by King Features Syndicate