# Why haven't the candidates really talked about any social issues in the debates?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-havent-the-candidates-really-talked-about-any-social-issues-in-the-debates/466293>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [October 3, 2008, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-havent-the-candidates-really-talked-about-any-social-issues-in-the-debates/466293 "2008-10-03T09:58:24Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\
**Post date:** [October 7, 2008, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-havent-the-candidates-really-talked-about-any-social-issues-in-the-debates/466293/21 "2008-10-07T23:40:16Z")

</div>

> [@IdahoMauleMan](#):
>
> I was thinking about this very issue 2 days ago, when I was listening to NPR with a guest on the program speaking about the Latino vote.
> 
> They had a couple of experts on, who both agreed that Obama was picking up more and more of the Latino vote.
> 
> But they also agreed that his campaign was trying to stay as far away from talking about it as possible (in ‘positive’ or ‘proactive’ terms w.r.t. immigration) for risk of alienating the union and blue-collar vote in traditional blue states. And a lot of the Latino callers hinted at the same thing in a sort of round-a-bout way.
> 
> I guess that makes sense. And I might extend the reasoning to the issues above, as well. In some ways it seems to be a nod to the ‘moderate’ voting bloc that both candidates need to win.
> 
> Don’t venture too far into ‘hot button’ or potentially gaffe-ridden issues that could alienate a decent-sized portion of your moderate votes and, for Obama at least, try and run out the clock.
> 
> That’s my hypothesis anyway.

[Much as I recommended three years ago.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=312933&highlight=populism) Good to know Howard Dean and Barack Obama listen to me. 😃

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-havent-the-candidates-really-talked-about-any-social-issues-in-the-debates/466293.md?page=1)