Florida debate reaction: Hispanic youth can't like what they're seeing

If the Latino journalists and pundits in my Twitter feeds had summarized their reactions to NBC's GOP presidential debate into three words, I think they'd be these:

"No nos gusta."

In what was easily the most gut-wrenchingly boring debate (and that's saying a lot...member that time when CNN's John King asked Michelle Bachmann if she preferred Elvis or Johnny Cash?) and when the candidates did venture into the issues of most importance to Hispanic voters, they offered horribly polarizing answers.

Gingrich defended insisting on English as the official language, Romney dropped the "self-deportation" line — the concept not only doesn't make much sense but also does little except disenfranchise Latino voters considering casting a ballot for Romney.

So far, Mother Jones has the most-detailed explanation of self-deportation that I've seen. But I'm sure there will be a flood of reporting and analysis of it published in the coming days.

Although he's certainly far left of the GOP debaters' target audience, former Washington Post journalist Jose Antonio Vargas used his Twitter account to voice the same discontent tonight that I was hearing in the heartland of Ohio.

Overall, neither of the frontrunners did much to win over Hispanic voters tonight - and Ron Paul and Rick Santorum offered little more than forgettable responses.

You ask, Alexander, if Hispanic voters hold the keys to the 2012 election. Winning them over does not — much like most demographics, they are already comfortable with their partisan loyalties – but the key is mobilization in vital swing states.

Take a look, for example, at the breakdown of currently registered Florida voters according to the Pew Research Center.

This year, there are 452,619 Latinos registered as Republicans in Florida (making up 11.1 percent of registered Republicans) compared to 564,413 who are registered as Democrats. That's virtually a 60/40 split — meaning that neither party has a monopoly on the Hispanic vote.

If GOP candidates continue to disenfranchise Latino voters, they're handing Obama the valuable electoral votes in states such as Florida, New Mexico and Arizona.

Looking forward, we've got two more major events this week. Obama delivers his State of the Union tomorrow night and the GOP hopefuls take the debate stage again of Thursday. Alexander, what are you expecting from POTUS tomorrow night?