So much for the idea of a un-mendable black-brown rift in the American polity. The newly released 2008 National Survey of Latinos has Obama besting Mccain by 66% to 23% among Latino voters. This is far better than Kerry did in 2000.

The study goes on to find that the Latino party ID gap between Democrats and Republicans has grown to 39% (65% Democrat to 26% Republican). This widening gap along with favorable conditions for Democrats makes the increasing closeness of this race even more puzzling. At this point in their elections, Bill Clinton and Michael Dukakis had double digit leads. I guess this is the black tax writ large!

It appears that if Obama does lose this election it won’t be because of any “black-brown tensions,” which means my Google reader won’t be filled with superficial analyses of Obama’s “Latino problem.” That alone calls for a Mariachi!

or for those Latinos from the East Coast: