(I'd be remiss if I fauled note that in Arizona's Senate race, the same poll has Democrat Richard Carmona edging GOP Congressman Jeff Flake by a similar margin.)

The primary reason why Obama is competitive is the overwhelmingly lopsided margin of support (77% to 10%) he enjoys among Arizona's Hispanic community.

Romney's derisive quip at that upscale Boca Raton fundraiser last May, about his father having been born in Mexico to American parents, may not have garnered much attention in the so-called mainstream media. But the underlying anti-Mexican xenophobia engendered in both the remark itself, and the positive reaction it provoked in the crowd that night, did not go unnoticed by Latino communities across the country:

"My dad, as you probably know, was the governor of Michigan and was the head of a car company. But he was born in Mexico. And had he been born of Mexican parents, I'd have a better shot of winning this. (Crowd laughter.) But he was unfortunately born to Americans living in Mexico. He lived there a number of years, and I mean I say that jokingly, but it would be helpful to be Latino."

Needless to say, Republicans have already given Hispanic American voters any number of perfectly valid reasons to reject them soundly at the polls.