McCain In Danger Of Losing Hispanic Vote By Landslide

More bad news for Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain — but will there be an attempt in the closing weeks of the campaign to make sure the worst doesn’t happen? Right now he’s in danger of losing the Hispanic vote by a landslide:

Despite championing immigration reform in 2007, John McCain is poised to lose the Hispanic vote by a landslide margin that is well below President George W. Bush’s 2004 performance.

Polls show Obama winning the broadest support from Latino voters of any Democrat in a decade, while McCain is struggling to reach 30 percent, closer to Senator Bob Dole’s dismal 1996 result than to Bush’s historic 40% four years ago.

McCain seems to have wound up with the worst of both worlds: He appears to be getting no credit from Latino voters for his past support for immigration reform, while carrying the baggage of other Republicans’ hostility to illegal immigration.

And he’s been unable or unwilling to attack Obama—who was once thought to have taken a lethally liberal stance by supporting granting drivers licenses to illegal immigrants—from the right.

As October puts four states with large Hispanic populations – Florida, Colorado, Nevada, and New Mexico – at the center of the presidential contest, what appeared at first to be a possible strength for McCain has emerged as a profound weakness.

There still is another debate next week. Will McCain try and find a way to use this issue to his advantage and break the likely vote outcome? Or will it recede like so many other issues in the face of continued horrific news each day about Wall Street’s and world markets’ latest lows? Or is the issue too shaky a tightrope for him to dare try to walk so close to Election Day?