Obama and McCain: Wooing Latino voters

What happened

John McCain is making a push to win support from Latino voters, who could tip crucial swing states such as Florida, Colorado, New Mexico, and Nevada. (Arizona Republic) Barack Obama—who trailed Hillary Clinton among Hispanics in the Democratic primaries but leads Republican McCain among the same voters 2 to 1—called for a heavy Latino turnout to fulfill the community’s potential as a political force. (The Washington Post’s The Trail blog)

What the commentators said

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“The presidential race may be decided by how the Latino-Hispanic populations vote,” said Martin Peretz in The New Republic’s The Spine blog, and whether there is a big turnout. The candidates might want to keep that in mind as they hunt for their running mates.

“Como se dice ‘pander’ en Español?” said Dana Milbank in The Washington Post. However you choose to put it, both candidates have shamelessly hopped from the “pander armado—the military pander,” as well as the “pander migratorio—the immigration pander,” before “dropping all dignity and pouring on the praise” for Latinos in general—“el pander desnudo, the naked pander.”

During the Democratic primaries, said Matthew Continetti in The Weekly Standard online, it looked like McCain would benefit from Obama’s weakness with Latinos. But McCain lost the momentum by quieting down about immigration reform to avoid angering conservatives, and Obama is scoring points with his “theme of diversity to argue for immigration reform and economic policies aimed at the Latino working class.”