The Obama campaign can already be confident it will win Latino voters, who in most polls support the president over Republican nominee Mitt Romney by margins greater than two to one. It is now working to make sure Latinos come out to vote in large numbers, and a television and radio ad out in Spanish on Wednesday urges them to do so.
"Why is it so important for Latinos to vote in this election?" talk show host and Obama endorser Cristina Saralegui asks first lady Michelle Obama in the ad, which will air in Colorado, Florida, Nevada, Ohio and Virginia.
"So much is at stake," Obama replies, going on to list comprehensive immigration reform, health care and education, all of which rank high but not at the top of most Latino voters' concerns.
Despite the large margins Obama holds over Romney with Latino voters, Democrats have been concerned that a lack of enthusiasm could keep those voters home, making the lead less significant. Enthusiasm has fallen since 2008, when Obama won two-thirds of Latino voters -- helping, among other things, to propel him to victory -- but it has recently begun to climb.
Latino Decisions, a non-partisan firm conducting weekly tracking polls, predicted Wednesday that Obama will win among Latino voters by a three to one margin. The firm also released a poll on Monday that showed Latino voter enthusiasm up, another bad sign for Romney.
In the first of Latino Decisions' tracking polls six weeks ago, a plurality of Latino voters said they were more enthusiastic about the election in 2008 than they are today. Now, it's switched: 40 percent of Latinos say they are more enthusiastic this year, versus 32 percent who say they were more enthusiastic last time around.
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