[Impy]

One must conclude the “43%” for Bush is far too high given the narrowness of his win. I heard the real number was 38%.

Big swing towards Obama in 2012, the only reason he “won” Florida and topped 60% in Cali again.

[BillyBoy]

Yeah, I never bought the “Hispanic in Florida gave Bush the Presidency” talking point. Obviously Al Gore stepped in it big time with the Elian Gonazles fiasco, but I seriously doubt Bush won a huge chunk of the Cuban vote, let alone Hispanics overall. He just did better with Hispanics than the “average” Republican does and won Cuban-Americans (statically, a very small percentage of Hispanic voters) by a slim margin.

If you remember the fight over the 2000 recount, Gore was demanding selective hand recounts in the four Florida counties he did best in. One of his best showings was in Miami-Dade, which is home to one of the biggest shares of Florida's Hispanic population. According to the 2000 census, 57.3% of the population in Miami-Dade is Hispanic or Latino origin, and Miami has one of the biggest concentrations of voters of Cuban ancestry in the country. Bush got around 46% of the vote in Miami-Dade (again, better than the “average” Republican... Romney got 38% against Obama in the same county in 2012) Still, the “Cuban vote” couldn't carry the ground zero location of the Elian Gonzales controversy for Bush, let alone the overall state or country as a whole.

[ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas]

Some polls had GWB in the low 30s among Hispanics in 2004.

Amnesty is to the GOP as the football that gets yanked away is to Charlie Brown. They fall for it every time.

Washington DC seems to cause dementia, and the longer they stay there the worse it gets. GWB had not really been there that long, but for a POTUS I guess the effect is stronger.

And Rubio just started out wrong.