"If the McCain people don't realize they need to beef up that operation, then clearly he's not going to be president," said Robert de Posada, a Republican consultant on Latino politics.
Obama's sizable lead has surprised Democratic strategists after a primary campaign that appeared to foreshadow Latinos as a major weakness.
The Gallup survey of Latinos found that Obama, despite his string of losses to Clinton, performed just as well as Clinton in a theoretical matchup against McCain.
Obama is "doing better than anyone imagined at this point," said Simon Rosenberg, head of the pro-Democratic group NDN, which specializes in Latino outreach. "But he does have room to grow."
The Obama campaign recently hired a press spokesman to work full time on Spanish-language media.
Helping with the planning is U.S. Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Los Angeles), New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and Federico Pena, a former secretary of both Energy and Transportation under Bill Clinton.
Also, on Thursday, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who was a point person for Clinton on Latino outreach, said he would campaign vigorously for Obama, and called him "inspiring." In comments to reporters, though, Villaraigosa sounded nostalgic about Clinton, praising her "passion and persistence and intestinal fortitude."
Richardson said he was in Los Angeles on Tuesday recruiting local Latino actors and comics to serve as surrogates for Obama. It is part of an effort to paint the Illinois senator, who was born in Hawaii and had an African father, as someone who can relate to the immigrant experience. The personal approach is a departure from past Democrats who focused primarily on issue-based appeals.
It is similar in tone to the strategy used by President Bush, who highlighted his Texas links to Latino culture and Mexico -- and won more than 40% of the Latino vote.
"With Latinos, you stress that Obama's a minority like us," Richardson said. "You stress that he comes from a modest background."
Obama does not speak Spanish, but campaign aides said that the Puerto Rico ad showed that he could master pronunciation by studiously rehearsing the script.
Still, some say Obama is far from closing the sale with Latinos.
The Rev. Luis Cortes, a political independent who heads a Latino evangelical network, said Obama had yet to lay out a specific agenda for Latinos and remains very much a stranger compared to Clinton and McCain. Cortes is scheduled to meet with Obama next week in Chicago, and he said Obama has agreed to address a Latino prayer breakfast later this month.
