President Obama talked via phone yesterday to the editorial board of the Des Moines Register, and though the discussion was originally off the record, the White House later agreed to allow the interview to be published in its entirety. Of particular interest were the president’s thoughts on immigration and political demographics.
“Should I win a second term,” he said, “a big reason I will win a second term is because the Republican nominee and the Republican Party have so alienated the fastest-growing demographic group in the country, the Latino community. And this is a relatively new phenomenon. George Bush and Karl Rove were smart enough to understand the changing nature of America.”
I put together this chart showing the president’s advantage among Latino voters. On the left are the results from 2008, when Obama won among Latinos, 67% to 31%. According to an NBC/WSJ/Telemundo poll released this week, Obama leads Romney in this same constituency, 70% to 25%.
And that 45-point advantage is actually more competitive than the latest Latino Decisions poll, which found the president ahead by 51 points.









