USA TODAY Hispanic Hype Revives "Bush Got 44 Percent" Myth
06/25/2012
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USA Today has a big spread, with some of their famous  "We're Eating More Beets"  chartsUSA Today, Mexico Tomorrow!

Hispanics in America A USA TODAY/Gallup Poll of more than 1,750 Hispanics across the country explores their demographics and their political views and their daily lives. The fast-growing ethnic group has the potential to have far-reaching impact on American politics and culture. Here's a quick look at what we found.

They failed to find that Hispanics are not a particularly big factor in American elections. They managed to find something that's not true—the "Bush got 44 percent of the Hispanic vote " myth:

"Meanwhile, the Republican share of the Latino vote continues to erode, from 44% for George W. Bush in 2004 to 31% for John McCain in 2008 to 25% in the survey for Romney. "We've seen a sharp drop-off … between 2004 and 2008," acknowledges Ed Gillespie, a senior Romney adviser and former Republican Party national chairman. "It was a factor, obviously, in the margin of President Obama's win. We do need to do better with Hispanic voters, and I think we can."

Here's my chart:

  1. Bush did not get 44 percent—that's been proved.
  2. McCain was an even bigger Hispanderer than Bush, if that's imaginable—and he got 31 percent against a minority candidate.
  3. Even if Bush did 44 percent, this would represent a landslide the wrong way, at least in the Hispanic vote, which is...
  4. Still a negligible factor, compared to a small percentage in the white vote.
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