Latino Voters

George W. Bush became president on the strength of Latino voters who favored him by surprising margins. In 2000, he received about a third of their votes, and in 2004 that number is generally seen as having jumped to somewhere in the forty per cent range (there is some debate about the accuracy of these estimates.)

So how does John McCain do with hispanic voters? You'd think about as well as Bush, since McCain's sell-out America stance on immigration can be viewed as a pander to that community. Gallup has the numbers.

A new Gallup Poll summary of surveys taken in May shows Obama winning 62% of
Latino registered voters nationwide, compared with just 29% for McCain. Others
have found a wide gap as well.

What happened?

The numbers suggest that McCain's image has suffered after a competitive GOP
primary in which he renounced some of the moderate views on immigration popular
among many Latinos.

Getting back to the VP search, consider the implications of the hispanic battleground.

(New Mexico Governor Bill) Richardson said he was in Los Angeles on Tuesday recruiting local Latino actors and comics to serve as surrogates for Obama. It is part of an effort to paint the Illinois senator, who was born in Hawaii and had an African father, as someone who can relate to the immigrant experience. The personal approach is a departure from past Democrats who focused primarily on issue-based appeals.