The final, and most surprising, was the Hispanic vote, which trended heavily towards Obama. McInturff said that the most effective commercial of the campaign was the Spanish-language spot, put up by the now president-elect, which claimed that conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh was a McCain ally on immigration. Mainly, however, Obama had a huge financial advantage that allowed him to make great inroads within this and other minority communities.
The context of this ad is very important. It was released around September 15, and at that particular moment in the campaign, a few narratives about McCain had already set. First, because McCain was intimately tied to George W. Bush, it was not at all a stretch to believe that McCain and Bush had together sided with Rush Limbaugh to slur Hispanic immigrants. Second, because the McCain campaign had gone so erratically negative, it was not only widely felt that bit of hard hitting from the Obama campaign was long overdue, but also that the some of the more egregious stretches in the ad were basically ok. This was the classic rope-a-dope. Obama had suffered hit after hit after hit, so when it was time to throw a couple of low blows, the ref barely noticed.
Hispanic voters, however clearly did notice the message of the ad.
"They want us to forget the insults we've put up with, the intolerance," the television ad's announcer says in Spanish as a picture of Rush Limbaugh appears onscreen with quotes of him saying, "Mexicans are stupid and unqualified" and "Shut your mouth or get out.""They made us feel marginalized in a country we love so much," the ad continues. "John McCain and his Republican friends have two faces. One that says lies just to get our vote and another, even worse, that continues the failed policies of George Bush that put special interests ahead of working families."
Obama won Hispanic votes by more than 2-to-1 margins, and they were instrumental to Obama's western wins in New Mexico, Colorado and Nevada.
Also - I'm glad that both Obama's approval and the "Paid For" at the end are allowed to be in Spanish, no translation. (Slightly snark-ily - I really just find that quite funny).
On the other hand, the response of the (mostly-white) blogosphere and punditry was probably not as important as what was being said on Univision and other Hispanic outlets about the ad.
If the Spanish-speaking talking heads were saying 'this ad's kosher,' that probably had a greater impact on first and second-generation Hispanics than anything said on Fox News, MSNBC, DailyKos, Free Republic, etc., said.
I suspect after the third generation, Hispanic voting patterns are similar to white ethnics in the Rust Belt (i.e. truly swing voters), but I don't have any info for or against that proposition. Also, Cubans seem to trend more Republican than other Hispanic groups.