McCain getting head start with Latino voters

Sen. Barack Obama still is falling behind in appealing to Latino voters despite getting the endorsement today from Sen. Hillary Clinton.

This week, GOP presumptive nominee John McCain put Spanish language ads out into the presidential campaign. Meanwhile, the Obama's campaign still is puttting his Hispanic outreach efforts together. Perhaps he can bring over Clinton's outreach staff that did so well with Mexican-American voters now that she has suspended her campaign.

But Hispanic advocates across the country are getting antsy waiting for Obama staff reinforcements. Before heading overseas to build his foreign policy credentials over the coming weeks, Obama might want to take much more time here with an electorate still being ignored.

Polls still show Obama attracting much bigger numbers of Hispanic voters. But all McCain needs is another 5 or 6 percent more of the Latino electorate to reach GW Bush's haul in 2000. And Obama still must make a speech addressing the black/brown political divide in this country. Don't be fooled. It is real.