Remember all the hoopla about whether or not Hispanics would support Barack Obama? Well, according to the latest poll, it looks like McCain can pretty much kiss Hispanic votes goodbye:
The poll of 2,015 Latino voters conducted by the Pew Hispanic Center found that Democrat Barack Obama, who lost the Hispanic vote to Hillary Clinton by nearly 2-to-1 in the Democratic primary, holds a commanding 66 percent to 23 percent lead over Republican presidential candidate John McCain.
More under the fold:
The Houston Chronicle notes that the GOP is looking toxic in the eyes of Hispanic voters across the spectrum. And no wonder, with the GOP's dismal record of late on issues like health care, education, immigration, etc, etc. The GOP foolishly took Hispanics for granted because of Bush, while spouting racist anti-immigration propaganda--and look where it's gotten them:
The Democratic tide in the Latino community is so strong that Obama leads among every nationality group, including the historically Republican Cuban-American population, where Obama now leads, 53 percent to 29 percent.
Hispanics could also prove important to Obama's support in Western states, yes, but also in Florida, notes the Chronicle:
Unless McCain can reverse the GOP slide, the Hispanic vote could prove pivotal to Obama in traditionally Republican states such as Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada, and could help him close what has been a significant gap in Florida. It also could help the Democrat in three states that went Republican in 2004 but have small but rapidly increasing Hispanic populations: Iowa, Virginia and North Carolina.
While Latino participation in the electoral process has lagged far behind that of Caucasians and African Americans, the Pew report found that Hispanic voting in the 2008 primaries has been sharply up and that 17 percent of Latino primary voters indicated that they were going to the polls for the first time. Seventy-eight percent of Hispanics say they are closely following the election this year.
Hispanics make up 15 percent of the U.S. population and 9 percent of its registered voters. The Pew report estimates that by 2050, Hispanics will comprise 29 percent of the nation's population.
And for those in the MSM who were certain Obama's race was a turn off for Hispanics (always a rather racist assumption, IMHO) here's something to consider:
Obama's race does not appear to be an issue with Latinos, despite stories in the national media describing alleged racism in the Hispanic community. There is no difference in voting preferences among Latinos who say Obama's race is a factor in deciding their vote as those who say it isn't.
Wish we could say the same for white America.