Posted by Jenny Nuber, Vice President, Grassroots

Fear not, all my blogs will not be about Twitter. It just happens that there has been such amazing fodder in the T-verse lately that I can’t resist. This week, it is doubly true. Not only has there been a scandal, but it also happens to involve one of my favorite guilty pleasure foods…. The Chimichanga.

For those of you not familiar with the chimichanga, it is basically meat and cheese, wrapped in a tortilla and fried to artery-hardening perfection then smothered in more cheese and some unhealthy sauce combinations. Now, while anything wrapped in a tortilla in America is immediately put under the “Mexican food” banner, I should state for the record that this culinary delight has about as much to do with authentic, traditional Hispanic cooking (and I cringe to lump hundreds of distinct regional cuisines under such an umbrella) as does Taco Bell.

Why you ask, are we talking about chimichangas and what does that have to do with Twitter? Well, this week, Obama’s campaign manager tweeted the following:

Line of the day from WAPO's Dana Milbank: 'The chimichanga? It may be the only thing Republicans have left to offer Latinos.

This instantaneously drew outrage and waves of rebuke from the Republican camp claiming that the reference was culturally insensitive and ridiculous. Of the many things I find peculiar about this whole kurfluffle is that Obama’s campaign advisor didn’t say it. Dana Milbank did. How many times do you retweet things you find funny/ironic/outrageous/interesting?

For instance, several weeks ago, I retweeted the following from journalist Nick Kristoff:

What does God think of Santorum aide's comment that a woman president is against God's will? I bet She's pissed.

Because I retweeted this, and it clearly stated so, am I to be held responsible for its contents, or assumed to be in agreement with Kristoff? Or perhaps even with Santorum’s aide? Do you make the assumption that I believe God is a woman? Or am I simply doing what Twitter was meant to do- disseminating information- bits and bobs of news, humor, outrageous quotes and general insight from celebrities, newsmakers, leaders and the general Twitterverse fishbowl?

Now some of you may argue that those acting in an official capacity, or on behalf of someone else, are held to different standards. OK, you have a point. But honestly, he’s Obama’s campaign manager- his job is to point out why the Republicans are a bad choice for America- and in this case, for Latinos. And given a recent Univision news poll where 30% of Latino voters said they believed that Republicans are hostile towards their community, it appears he has a point.

I read that tweet not as “the identity of the Latino community is surmised by a bad American version of its cuisine”, but that “Republicans have nothing legitimate (read: authentic) to offer the Latino community because they don’t actually understand the community at all”. I like to call this the “I think Taco Bell is real Mexican” syndrome.

It seems to me that if we are assuming that he is not just disseminating information that others say about the legitimacy of the Republican party in the Latino community, what he IS saying is that Republicans are so out of touch with the Latin American community and its needs that they would offer it something that has absolutely nothing to do with who they are.

What do you think? Tweet your thoughts to me @NuberTweets (if you need tips on how best to do that- check out our guide to Twitter: kglobal.com/twitter-guide)