Obama Reaching Out to Hispanic Voters

In campaign ads, on radio stations ... Obama is targeting Latino voters. Reports Fox News:

When Barack Obama called Denver's oldest Spanish-language AM station last month to chat with host Fernando Sergio, the interview ran well over its allotted 10 minutes. The president took time to note his administration's support for Hispanic-owned small businesses and how many Hispanics he had appointed to federal positions.

"The Latino community in Colorado can ultimately determine who ends up being the next president of the United States," he told KBNO's listeners.

Then there was the report from the Associated Press today:

Obama is reinforcing his advantage with a sizable Spanish language TV and radio ad campaign in some of states expected to be among the most contested in the general election.

On this front, he is vastly outspending Romney in a race that could be decided by thin margins in many states.

"It makes sense for Obama to run nice ads in Spanish that only Latinos watch. It's a way of saying, `We're the candidate and the party that respect you,'" said Marc Campos, a Texas-based Democratic strategist who produces campaign commercials targeting Hispanics. "When they see positive, feel-good ads in their native language it reinforces the notion that this administration is working on their behalf."

An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released last month found Obama leading Romney among Hispanic voters by a margin of 61-27 percent. It's a gap so wide that for now at least, Obama's campaign is running positive ads designed to boost confidence in the president among Hispanics rather than to discredit Romney.

The Obama campaign has spent $1.7 million since mid-April on Spanish language ads in Florida, Nevada and Colorado, according to SMG-Delta, a media firm that tracks campaign advertising. Obama carried all three states in 2008 against Republican John McCain; all are closely contested this time.

Romney's campaign, by contrast, has spent just $33,000 on Spanish language ads in television markets in North Carolina and Ohio. Republican-leaning independent groups spending heavily for Romney in swing states have yet to run general election ads aimed at Hispanics.

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Does the GOP have a chance with the Latino vote this November? Townhall Magazine analyzed the odds not long ago--read more here. You may be surprised.