Number of the day

By The Economist | WASHINGTON

IT'S 8%. That, according to Research 2000, a pollster that does work for the liberal blog Daily Kos, is the approval rating of the Republican Party among Hispanics. A rock bottom number, only five years after George Bush won 40% of the Hispanic vote. Markos Moulitsas, the site's founder, can't resist blaming the campaign against Sonia Sotomayor and taking a victory lap:

Of course, no one could've predicted that trashing a safe, conventional Latina jurist as a racist and caring (e.g. empathetic) person would further harm the GOP's standing among a demographic they desperately need to win to remain electorally relevant outside the South!

It's almost unfair. For the most part, Senate Republicans didn't go after Sonia Sotomayor on racial grounds; their ostensible allies on talk radio and TV did. And even though Barack Obama's popularity is drifiting down, Republicans are failing to gain ground with any groups at all. A little empathy for Ms Sotomayor might have done them good.