Daily Kos gives us their take on Mitt Romney's dilemma in Mitt Romney realizes he's screwed with LatinosRomney captured the Cuban vote in the Florida primary, this doesn’t mean the GOP can win Latino votes this fall. Unlike other Latino voters, Cuban-Americans are reliably Republican.
The vast majority of Latinos in other states, however, are not from Cuba. Many are from Mexico, as well as Central America and Puerto Rico. Even in Florida, there is now a significant number of non-Cuban Latinos, who tend to vote Democratic.Second, assuming Romney is the Republican nominee, he has a lot of ground to make up with Latinos after being pushed far to the right on the immigration issue during the early primaries and caucuses.Many Latinos are culturally conservative, patriotic and remarkably entrepreneurial. On paper, this sounds like fertile territory for the GOP. But once Latinos have heard the GOP’s strong anti-immigrant rhetoric, they may well stop listening to anything else Republicans have to say.
Romney has said he thinks Arizona's hated SB 1070 is a "model for the nation." He has stood with Republicans as they've stood in the way of the sensible DREAM Act—why punish innocent and high-achieving children for sins not their own?According to current polling, Romney could face an 80-20 loss with Latinos to Obama. And if he does, there is no realistic path to GOP victory. None.So his response will apparently be to go all-in with the GOP's Hail Mary on immigration—a version of the DREAM Act that would keep those kids from being deported without giving them any hope of actual citizenship; perpetual second-class status with a guarantee those youngsters will never sully the GOP's America with the title "citizens" (or cast votes). Does Romney really believe that he can win back Latinos by telling undocumented Latino kids that there's no way they can ever be Americans, despite being American in every way except for the paperwork?
According the latest news, Romney has now gone against his previous statements and says that SB 1070 is not a model for the nation after all, proving once again that what was popular to say in the primaries doesn't play well on the national stage. To follow up on that link in the article, the Romney's numbers among Hispanic voters do NOT look good.
The latest data on Latino voter preferences, commissioned by Fox News no less, shows that Republicans are getting absolutely crushed among Latinos. Among the findings, 69.5 percent consider themselves Democrats or lean that way, while just 15.9 percent consider themselves Republican or lean that way.And if the election were today (MAR 20, 2012):
Obama 70
Romney 14Romney is so hated in the Latino community that he is actually underperforming among Latino Republicans! When the votes are counted, he will be lucky to clear 20 percent. THAT is how toxic the GOP and Romney are to Latinos right now.
There's a more concise breakdown of the numbers in that link and it make depressing reading for the staunch Republicans. For the Democrats, the only problem now would seem to be getting the Hispanic voters mobilized and registered to vote.