It's too late for Dobbs to mend fences with Latinos

In fact, one of Dobbs’ gifts was the ability to offend just about every color of the rainbow. His decision to dabble in the birther controversy, which is fueled by accusations that President Obama is ineligible to be president because he was born in Kenya, convinced many African-Americans that he must be a racist. His clumsy approach to tragedies involving radical Islam such as the Ft. Hood shooting hurt his reputation with Muslim-Americans. And, before all that, came his contention that U.S. trade policy was “Exporting America” to India and China, which didn’t exactly endear him to people from those countries. This year, on March 17, after begrudgingly wishing listeners of his radio show a Happy St. Patrick’s Day (he has previously said that he dislikes all ethnic holidays), Dobbs facetiously wished Asians a happy whatever-they-celebrate “you know, St. Jin-Tao-Wow.”…

One former CNN executive who is Indian-American seemed to conclude as much. A few years ago, when she was still with the network, she told me that Dobbs saw himself as the defender of “real Americans” who looked more like him and nothing like her…

It also didn’t help Dobbs’ case any that he kept slipping and doing the same thing he criticized media outlets such as the New York Times of doing: confusing legal and illegal immigration. He gave loads of airtime to commentators, authors, and advocacy groups that want to ban all immigration. And his show would seamlessly weave together segments on border security (which pertains directly to illegal immigration) with segments on language and culture (which can also be impacted by legal immigration). Before long, people figured that Dobbs had issues with Latino immigrants — both legal and illegal. It’s what these people represented that mattered most to him, not how they got here.