Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain both courted America’s 40 million-strong Hispanic community this week in their struggle for the White House, but Obama is clearly winning.Obama and McCain this week both addressed the 79th convention of the League of United Latin American Citizens. Last week McCain, R-Ariz., took a high-profile trip to Mexico and Colombia to boost his credentials with Latin voters. He also is trying to woo middle-class Hispanics with a commitment to maintaining President George W. Bush’s tax cuts.

However, Obama, D-Ill., is succeeding where the Rev. Jesse Jackson failed 24 years ago in forging a genuine “Rainbow Coalition” of black, white and Hispanic voters that could carry him into the White House. Even in his long primary contest with Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., he showed unexpected strength among younger Hispanic voters, and now he is winning over older ones as well.

In a hard-fought presidential race where polls show the two crucial swing states of Ohio and Missouri are still too close to call, the Hispanic vote looks to be crucial. They will be the crucial factor in determining the outcome in New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada and, most of all, Florida, whose Electoral College votes put Bush in for the first of his two terms in 2000.

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