In a breathless e-mail I received Tuesday, Florida Democratic Party Chair Karen Thurman wrote of the previous Sunday night’s Univision Democratic presidential debate (emphasis added):

On Sunday night, Democrats made history at the University of Miami when, for the first time, our presidential candidates directly addressed the issues of the Hispanic community in Spanish.

Sitting in the arena, I was surrounded by hundreds of prominent Democrats from across the country and more than a thousand students. An almost euphoric excitement filled the room. The momentous event reached a record 4.6 million viewers via the Univision television network — more than any other debate or forum this year.

Besides her overblown prose, Thurman also overstated the viewership, which was more like 2.2 million — less than the Fox Network’s Republican prez debate a week earlier.

It seems typical of the Democratic Party’s approach to what seemingly every pundit and their consultant was referring to as “Latino Power” after the debate (which ignores the fact that most Cubans and Latin Americans in my part of the country hate being called “Latino”), which is to exaggerate its efforts to woo Hispanic voters away from what appears to be a vacuum on the Republican side. But more on that later.

La Politica is a new publication that is set to debut Nov. 5 and provide analysis of the Hispanic-wooing efforts of the candidates for the ensuing year before the elections. The publisher is sending around a prototype PDF of the magazine to potential advertisers and subscribers. It looks both promising — and uncompromising. I particularly enjoyed its analysis of the Democratic presidential candidates’ efforts to cage a little of that “Latino Power” thing:

Amusing malaprops and glaring grammatical mistakes mar the Spanish language websites of the Democratic presidential candidates.

Hector Orcí, chairman of Hispanic marketing agency La Agencia de Orcí & Asociados, derides the websites as “not particularly interesting, nor effective, nor well-written … If they were doing as bad a job in English as they are doing in Spanish, none of the candidates would get elected with the exception of Bill Richardson.”

Although the article goes on to point out that Richardson’s Web site is rife with errors, too:

Spanish is obviously the second language of the campaign´s Spanish-language blogger whose very first post includes the phrase “Bill Richardson está corriendo porque quiere ser el próximo presidente.” In Spanish, unlike English, you cannot write a candidate is ”running” for office. Yet, the writer opted for the literal translation of “running” as “corriendo.” The second sentence of the second post manages to misspell five words. The third post includes a videotaped testimonial by Rep. Ben Luján, speaker of the New Mexico House of Representatives, who praises the Governor for “dando relief en los tax issues.”

The article notes that John Edwards has devoted a total of only 174 words to capturing the Hispanic vote. Likewise, the opening line at “Bienvenido a BarackObam.com” translates into tortured English as, “This campaign means the construction of a different type of politics and that starts with you.” Chris Dodd speaks fluent Spanish, but his Web site has no Spanish-language section. Hillary Clinton’s site has Spanish, but maybe shouldn’t, because it says Senator Clinton has “introducido proyectos legislativos.” The article notes that “introducir” means insert rather than introduce legislation.

And this is what brings us around to the Republicans again. Mitt Romney is the only Republican candidate who provides Spanish-language information on his Web site. And the Republican presidential candidates snubbed the “Latino Power” base by declining to participate in a Univision-sponsored debate. Except for John McCain, that is. But maybe that is an overall better strategy than the Democrat’s half-assed pandering to Hispanics:

“If you have a Spanish-language Web site and it is really bad then what kind of message does that send?” asks Lee Vann, the co-founder and president of the Hispanic interactive agency Captura Group. Vann says he tells prospective clients who are considering a Spanish language Web site “either do it right or don’t do it at all.”

And maybe that’s where the Republicans have it right and the Dems, typically, have it wrong. Despite Karen Thurman’s “almost euphoric excitement” last Sunday, a few months from now, nobody is going to remember that the Republicans snubbed Univision. But as the primaries approach, Hispanic voters seeking information on the candidates will go to their Web sites and find either, in the Republicans’ case nothing, or in the Democrats’ case poorly written and insultingly mangled Spanish.

Which approach do you think will have a greater impact on channeling “Latino Power?”