By JOSE de la ISLA, Hispanic Link News Service

When Barack Obama won the presidential election last week over John McCain, he did so with substantial help from Hispanic voters in four critical swing states. Nationwide, Hispanics supported Obama by better then two-to-one, Edison-Mitofsky exit polls showed, helping boost him to easy victories in such major electoral-count states as California, New York and Illinois.

The fact is Latinos have already made a difference in presidential elections.You might think it silly to have to prove that but some people never get the news.In fact, it is easy to argue that Latinos experienced presidential election success before they were even called "Latinos."

Posing the last question Oct. 15 after nearly an hour and a half of the presidential debate, CBS News' Bob Schieffer started with a basic fact: "The U.S. spends more per capita than any other country on education. Yet, by every international measurement in math and science competence from kindergarten through the 12th grade, we trail most of the countries of the world.

WASHINGTON -- Advertisers have a better handle on important concepts than do some academic researchers and certainly many commentators. The odd part is marketers have selling in mind while public-interest research tries to inform us for our own good.

WASHINGTON -- At a key moment during her Oct. 2 vice presidential debate with Joe Biden, Sarah Palin looked straight into the TV camera and said, "Well, the nice thing about running with John McCain is I can assure you he doesn't tell one thing to one group and then turns around and tells something else to another group."

HOUSTON -- Right after Hurricane Ike struck Galveston, Texas, a TV news reporter was out describing the devastation. She gave an account of how in one part of the community, the storm lifted a beach house, sending it airborne, and slamming into another beach house. In a voice with rising decibels, the reporter said, "It was like, like a pinata."

WASHINGTON -- When she accepted the National Association of Hispanic Journalists 2008 leadership award at the National Press Club last week, Maria Hinojosa mentioned a conversation she had with her friend, Univision news anchor Maria Elena Salinas, who complimented Hinojosa for her advocacy journalism.

My take on a U.S. Census Bureau report which asserted that "minorities," most of them Hispanic, would become the "majority" by 2042 brought a stream of disturbing responses from New England to California. I see this as an irrelevant issue -- in part because intermarriage will mediate and we will form huge gradations between one group and another.

Jeff Dunham is a ventriloquist who frequently appears on cable TV's Comedy Central with Walter, one of his dummy characters. Walter is ornery, crabby and mean-spirited. But entertaining and funny.

HOUSTON -- National Council of La Raza president Janet Murguia sat down with The San Diego Union-Tribune's editorial board right before her organization's national convention, which concluded July 12. In 40 years, the council has grown into the nation's largest Hispanic-American civil rights organization.