The proposal to boost U.S. trade with Latin America is largely an effort to improve his standing among Latinos, and not to go down in history as the least-liked Republican candidate among Hispanic voters in recent history. (If Romney gets 25 percent of the Hispanic vote, as the polls suggest, he would be far behind Bush’s 40 percent in 2004, and Sen. John McCain’s 31 percent in 2008.) Still, I wish Obama would have also mentioned Latin America among his top priorities. He could at least have referred to his ambitious Trans-Pacific Trade proposal, which although mostly geared at Asia, would also include Latin America’s Pacific Rim countries such as Chile, Peru, Colombia and Mexico.
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