I basically said the same thing you said in my Post #109. I don’t want Romney to go head-to-head on this thing. I want his campaign staff, who are smart and tough, to figure out a way to keep from losing 80% of the Latino vote over this.
The Latino vote is 8% of the total, and Romney’s best likely take is 35% of that—or 2.8% of the total vote.
If he takes an unpopular-with-Latinos, go-along-to-get-along position, he could lose at very most half of that or 1.4% of the total vote.
IMO if he can fight back on process—and Obama’s abuse of executive power rather than a stridently anti-illegal basis, he more than makes up for that 1.4% by higher turnout among his base and also a better show among independents and moderates.
His opportunity here is abuse of power, rather than the immigration issue directly.