CNN Commentary: Latinos will vote for Obama

[Adelante]

SAN DIEGO, California (CNN) -- For the last six months, one of the media's most convenient -- and offensive -- narratives has been that Latinos wouldn't vote for Barack Obama because they refused to support an African-American for president.

Pundits, columnists and bloggers agreed and offered outlandish explanations mentioning everything from the turf wars between Latino and African-American gangs in U.S. cities to the fact that Latin America is full of countries where race and skin color can determine social mobility.

Well, what do you know? Now, it seems Latinos will support Obama after all -- meaning that everything you've heard to the contrary up to now is rubbish.

A new Gallup Poll summary of surveys taken in May shows Obama winning 62 percent of Latino voters nationwide, compared with 29 percent for McCain. The pro-Democratic group Democracy Corps compiled surveys from March through May that showed Obama with a 19-point lead among Latinos. And a Los Angeles Times poll last month showed Obama leading McCain by 14 points among Latinos in California.

-snip

Even so, while Obama got trounced by Clinton in the competition for Latino voters in California, Texas, New York, he kept the contest close in Arizona, Utah, New Mexico. And he won the Latino vote in Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia.

But, in the last several weeks, as it became clear that Obama was on his way to securing the Democratic nomination and that Clinton's campaign was running out of gas, Latinos seem to have migrated to Obama. Now that the Illinois senator has become the presumptive nominee, and Hillary has suspended her campaign and endorsed him, Latinos really have only two choices -- go with Obama, or vote for John McCain.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/06/08/navarrette/

[sellitman]

1. We can guarantee a Latino vote with Richardson as VP

We can also win some key Western States with him as well.

[BklynChick]

2. of course they will