In the age of YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, nothing goes unnoticed—especially in politics. It’s a lesson President Barack Obama’s reelection campaign manager, Jim Messina, is learning the hard way this week after tweeting about, of all things, chimichangas.
Messina was re-tweeting an opinion piece from the Washington Post about the GOP and Latino voters, but the line he picked to go with it enraged conservative Latinos, at least on Twitter.
“Line of the day from WAPO’s Dana Milbank: “The chimichanga? It may be the only thing Republicans have left to offer Latinos,” Messina wrote.
Almost instantly, the tweet drew flak from others on the social media site, including representatives of the Latino wing of the Republican party, all of whom were demanding Messina apologize. “RT @SARosado: Hey @Messina2012, not to try and insult your intelligence or anything, but not all Hispanics are about chimichangas,” was the tweet @RNCLatinos passed along.
Others weren’t so polite about the tweet, with some calling Messina a “racist.” Messina responded to the flak by writing that he was only using someone else’s words and that the Republicans were on the wrong side of most issue important to Latinos.
Wednesday’s tweet wasn’t the first time Messina has raised eyebrows on social media. In December, the Obama campaign posted a video on YouTube where Messina said the idea that 2012 was going to be a $1 billion campaign was “bull shit.” It was an odd moment for sure and, along with Herman Cain’s ‘smoking’ moment, proved that maybe campaign managers should just stay behind the scenes.