Romney appeals to Hispanics

>> i want to bring in maria reese kum kumar. thanks for being here. the president, doing well nationally with hispanics, up 34%. but not the case in the sunshine state , florida . all-important swing state . he's just edging out mitt romney there by two percentage points. what do you make of those numbers?

>> it's not a bad lead. what's happening right now with florida is there's literally -- in 2008 , there was a difference of only 132,000 democrats that were registered versus republicans. so what it says is that the margins obviously are thin because less than 200,000 voters separated the democrats from the republicans. what you're also seeing in florida is that you have a bloc of puerto ricans who are already citizens that need to be registered all along the i-4 or dor a -- or docorridor and the orlando area . the -- it's not a surprise the margins are slim. it's because of this new generational divide you're seeing among the cubans.

>> mitt romney addressing the latino coalition economic summit. he's going to continue to hammer the president on fiscal issue. is that how you appeal to hispanics? do you hit jobs and the economy or should he also be talking about social issues as well?

>> it's not surprising that peter alexander mentioned that his speech today is going to be about education. that's actually what the number one issue is among latinos, as is job creation . however, when romney has married himself to the paul ryan plan that is so closely gutting education and medicare, another issue very close to the latino community, romney has to start figuring out not only what is his agenda with the latino community, what are his policies and issues, but he has to pivot away from the ryan plan. and he says he has to move his views on immigration. latino communities say, you don't really understand where we're coming from.

>> colin powell said yesterday, i believe, on the "today" show the two key issues republicans miss in general, education and immigration. we have to talk about marco rubio . he's also speaking at the summit today. interesting, too, because according to a new quinnipiac poll in florida , picking marco rubio as a running mate only gives romney a small bump in the poll. is it better to have marco rubio on the campaign trail talking you up or do you want him as a vp?

>> i think you want him, talking about his immigrant roots and how he's been able to succeed in the united states given where he's come from. but he's a young candidate, he's not been vetted. he doesn't have that brand recognition that you want from a vp. the fact that he can't solidify florida himself, i think it's much better to have him out there, across the state talking about his experience but bringing in a more mature candidate, maybe someone like mitch daniels .

>> we heard earlier this week that mitch daniels would unplug the phone if he thought the call was coming. maria, thank you so much.