NP: Yes, Drama

I've seen lots of back and forth over whether or not Latinos will vote for an African-American candidate, and I think there's a pretty simple element that the dialog is missing.

Of course, I'm basing all of this on a single anecdote after the Nevada caucus that I now can't find, but that one anecdote was from a Hispanic voter in Nevada who said she wouldn't vote for Obama because he "is a Muslim." I don't remember if she said she heard it on the radio, or via e-mail, or what, but it was clearly part of the same overall trend that's been happening since the beginning of the campaign.

On the one hand, winning over Hispanics is going to be pretty crucial for Obama to get over the hump on Super Tuesday. On the other, I have to wonder if his campaign is monitoring the Spanish-language media to combat the rampant rumor-mongering the same way they are able to for the English-language media. I think there are a lot of eyes and ears out in the country that can and will flag egregious misrepresentations in the traditional channels, but I just don't know if those eyes and ears exist in Spanish.

(Tip of the hat on the Time article to Andrew Sullivan)