Welcome/Bienvenidos

Hola, I’m Enrique Santos your host for this evening. It is truly an honor to have been asked to serve as your master of ceremonies tonight. Nuestro Presidente Barack Obama esta en la casa! Who here has heard of a guy named: Marc Anthony…Are we ready for El Flaco, Marc Anthony? How bout them HEAT?? Give it up for our NEW NBA World Champions…The Miami Heat! Former Miami Heat Star Alonzo Mourning is in the building. (The first Cuban to play in the NBA…ALONSO is a Cuban name isn’t it? Is that Alonso with an S or with a Z? AAAA-LOOON-SOOOOOOO. We love you Zo. Thank you for all you do for our community) Cristina Saralegui, the Spanish Oprah Winfrey esta presente and is now also an awesome champion for our Presidente. Welcome Cristi. Raul De Molina, de El Gordo y La Flaca from Univision is here tonight. Donde estas Raul? Raul is a great role model and true representative of our First Lady, Michelle Obama, and her commitment to a healthier America.  Thank you for coming Gordo.Let me please share with you why I’m here tonight and why I support President Obama:  It’s very simple, there is NO OTHER candidate…There’s no other candidate that has the courage to step up to the plate and make the difficult choices in the face of adversity. Barack Obama takes ACTION, he is the DIFFERENCE, he gives us HOPE & more importantly HE DOES THE RIGHT THING. HE DOES THE RIGHT THING for ALL of us as a whole, he is a TRUE fighter for equality and has demonstrated again and again that he respects and understands us. And he believes in us. Ladies & gentlemen our President has REAL solutions to the problems we face today.  Common sense solutions to our problems.  Many of which affect Latinos the most. The President’s Recovery Act kept millions out of poverty, including 2 million Latinos.  He has expanded key tax credits that helped nearly 4 million Latino families – that’s 8 million Latino children. Mitt Romney, on the other hand would return to the failed policies that crashed our economy and hurt the middle class and make our economy worse. President Obama has invested in our community colleges, like the one I and so many other Latinos have graduated from and are studying at. He doubled funding for Pell Grant scholarships so 150,000 more Latino students can afford college while making it easier for them to pay back their loans. Many Latino families have gone without insurance, as a matter of fact were the largest group of uninsured in the nation and The President understands that we shouldn’t go broke if we get sick.  Medicare will be strengthened and protected for 1.2 million of our abuelos (no more epiritistas, baños de yerba buena y gargaras de agua con sal. Mommy, that’s my mother’s solution to everything. Where you at mom? Love ya!) He is committed to working with Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform – because we need a legal immigration system that rewards hard work and demands responsibility. He believes we need a smart, effective system that secures our borders. Yet he wants to ensure that we’re not discriminated against or racially profiled like what is happening in Arizona.  Which Mitt Romney has called a “model” for the nation.  The same law which had parts of it shot down just yesterday by the Supreme Court, because it undermines Federal Law. President Obama continues to fight for the DREAM ACT (which was written by members of both parties). He’s the one who would give responsible, young immigrants who grew up as Americans the opportunity to earn their citizenship through military service or college education.  Want to know what Mitt Romney’s plan for immigration is? So do I….he can’t give a straight answer, because he has no answers.  He has no plan, he has no idea what he’s going to do regarding immigration.  But he has said that he will veto the DREAM Act.  On the other hand President Obama knows exactly what to do and has lifted the shadow of deportation on these young dreamers again proving that he has what it takes to get the job done and continues to DO THE RIGHT THING! Mitt Romney has embraced the inhumane policy of encouraging “self-deportation”.  I’m sorry, but I have a problem with the belief that an American President would want to make it so bad for someone that they would want to leave.  That’s inhumane, it separates families of American children that have contributed to our communities and that is just NOT RIGHT.  A President’s job is supposed to do exactly the opposite: make it easier for us to tackle our problems. Romney is the most extreme candidate on immigration and is on the wrong side of every issue that’s important to the Latino community.  Not to mention the LGBT Community. My friend Walker Burttchell, who is here tonight (Walker, donde estas? Welcome amigo) Walker was discharged in 2003 under Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, which asked him to serve as an honorable member of our armed forces, yet forced him to lie about his sexual orientation. As promised, President Obama repealed DADT and in doing so, he once again DID THE RIGHT THING. And Walker was one of the first people to shake his hand after he did it! Obama as we know also became the first President in U.S. history to express his approval on marriage equality. He feels that the states should determine that.  Mitt Romney wants to write discrimination into the Constitution. As a member of the LGBT Community and as a proud American of Cuban Immigrants, I feel compelled to fully support a man of conviction, a man with real solutions.  A leader and a constant fighter for true equality.  As The President told me in New York when I thanked him for affirming his support for same sex marriage: “Enrique, it was the right thing to do”.  Well, I want to make sure we also do “the right thing” on November 6 and re-elect Barack Obama President of The United States.
We have a long road ahead. Let’s register others to vote. Obama is bringing it on November 6th baby! Si se puede!!! He’s the coolest President I have ever met. Actually, he’s the ONLY president I have ever met.  But, trust me…he is the coolest. And in his continued effort to win The Latino Vote, The President will be singing backup vocals for Marc this evening. It has become common to hear people just like you (and you, and you) yell “I love you” during The President’s speeches.  But I’ve been waiting for someone to show their appreciation with…”T amo!” If you snuck a camera in tonight and are on tweeter make sure you tag your pictures and follow @BarackObama, @MarcAnthony, @LatinosForObama, me of course: @EnriqueSantos and the musical genius, my brother @DJAfrica who’s gonna warm things up for us now.  The President and Marc Anthony coming up in just a bit.  Once again welcome/bienvenidos. Let’s have a great night. On November 6, let’s re-elect Barack Obama President of The United States! Gracias