Ben Smith makes a good point in his immigration piece — it really is the dog that didn’t bark.

One wonders what would have happened if the GOP had nominated somebody more willing to exploit the issue.   As Ben notes, they certainly wouldn’t have done all that much worse with Hispanic voters and may have been able to bring over some union Democrats angry about job loss.

To some analysts, McCain is ignoring a major chink in Obama’s armor, though one which may have less salience now that the economic crisis dominates the headlines. When Obama said last fall that he would support states’ decisions to issue drivers licenses to illegal immigrants, Hillary Clinton’s pollster Mark Penn told her staff that Obama might have just lost himself the election.

"We thought he was going to get killed over it," recalled a Clinton staffer, who said Penn’s polling portrayed it as so "lethal" that it could cost Obama the reliably Democratic state of California.