Long-term damage

The GOP may have to spend many years undoing the damage they did this year by trying to convince voters that the problems our country is facing stem from immigrants instead of the way the federal government was being run by the Republicans. From Talking Points Memo:

How many years did the GOP put itself back with the rising population of hispanic voters in this country by running pretty much their whole campaign on immigrant bashing?

The answer, I think, is a lot. And exit poll data suggests a big drop off for Republicans among hispanic voters. According to the CNN exit polls, the 2004 spread as 40% for Republicans, 53% for Democrats. This year it was 26% for the GOP and 73% for Democrats.