We Hispanics are about fifty million five hundred thousand people in the United States. Most electoral calculations indicate that the presidential candidate that does not win our community in the upcoming elections can forget about holding the office of Commander-in-Chief.

Now, let it be clear: we are neither Democrats nor Republicans. Above all, as Americans, we pledge allegiance to freedom practiced with responsibility, progress driven by justice, and fraternity of the genuine kind; of the kind built upon a sincere sense of humanity and mutual respect.

We are a family-loving, God-fearing and entrepreneurial people committed to the preservation of America’s best traditions, identity and culture. 

In such spirit, we long to see a United States that does not confuse being diverse with being perverse, but rather views diversity as an opportunity to build unity in community.

We yearn for an America that goes beyond merely tolerating success. We want to see this nation unapologetically celebrating excellence in business, academia and the arts without whipping pecuniary rewards to near nothingness.

We simply want the America that we dreamt about; the America that we came to work for, live for and die for.

And it is precisely against that standard of America that we compare the presidential candidates to as we weigh and consider whom to vote for this November.

More than immigration reform, we want a comprehensive reform for economic sustainable development. We want to be able to create, manage, distribute and transfer wealth in a way that is fair, just and competitive.

Last year we opened more than 170,000 new businesses in the United States even as we are, as a matter of fact, the ethnic group with the greatest number of entrepreneurs in the country.

As such we constitute a keystone of America’s culture, demography and economy. Concomitant to our role in this blessed land we are, in many ways, a pillar in the livelihood of our native countries’ back in the Caribbean, Central and South America.

In truth, we are much more than salsa, baseball, merengue and bachata. We are classical music, business, science and mathematics. We are the present. We are the future. We are the Hispanic People of South, Central, Caribbean and North America.

Hereby, thus, I humbly invite the presidential candidates to get to know us at a deeper level.

With that said, following is a sneak-peek of what we have seen unfold in this country’s political scene.

Barack Obama: evidently, a man of many talents and superb charisma. His speeches are of the feel-good type, but I must say that many times they do not give me a good-feel.

He waited until now to introduce a much needed immigration policy that, given the manner and timing of its implementation, could end up being nothing more than a quick fix to a problem that merits much more than that.

In effect, this so called stopgap measure has the shape and form of a cheap gimmick to persuade a ragged group of people with no sense of politics or policy. Needless to say, such description does not suit us Hispanics for we are politically active in every possible way, purpose-driven and successful in our pursuits.

But success is something that Mr. Obama has not delivered. With unemployment among Hispanics in double-digit territory, the President should not expect us to show up at the polls and vote for him in November just because he knows how to put up a show with a famous Latina that goes by the name of Thalia (see video podcast below).

The president’s convictions are not clear to the American people; they seem to always be “evolving” and conveniently morphing in the likeness and image of what is popular doing so even at the expense of what is fiscally and morally right.

Mitt Romney, on the other hand, is a man with a good head on his shoulders for bolstering the economy. His goals are clearly SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-framed. 

Rather than promising pies in the skies, Romney strikes me as leader that empowers and not just another politician that conditions his minions to promise by the millions, borrow by the billions, and cast economic freedom into virtual oblivion. 

He has vowed to protect the family, the rights of the unborn, and support the amelioration of this and the upcoming generation even as we all work to set this nation as “a city upon a hill” through the ages under the aegis of the Almighty. 

It is up to us, therefore, as Hispanics and Americans to weigh and consider the challenges that beset us and elect the person with the skill-set to overcome them with great success.

Furthermore, with the means being as important as the ends, we must support the candidate whose ethos is likely to uphold the values and principles upon which this nation was founded in 1776 lest our greatness cease to exist with leaders that sink our shining light into a never-ending night, contrite and defeated.

Watch this article's video podast on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6Vo0HydgbY 

The author is a political scholar, business consultant, and President of D’Oleo Analytica, Inc.