Hillary, Just Get to Know Us

The clumsy: A few months later, during a visit to Iowa, Clinton was confronted by undocumented young people who demanded to know if she would, as president, fulfill Obama's promise to fix the immigration system and whether she would use executive power to curb deportations. She beat a hasty retreat, and the encounter landed on YouTube.

Clinton can't run from the administration's record of immigration enforcement, which includes more than 2 million deportations, hundreds of thousands of divided families, and thousands of people -- including women and children -- locked up without a court date or access to counsel.

So far, in the 2016 campaign, Clinton's strategy seems to avoid the immigration issue, and focus on schmoozing with "High-spanics" -- higher-earning, U.S.-born Latino business leaders who like to talk a good game about immigration reform but really don't have a stake in the issue one way or another. But there is only so much the Latino elite can do for Clinton.

A November 2014 poll by Latino Decisions found that Latino support for Hillary hinged on whether she commits to preserving Obama's executive action on immigration -- something she has been reluctant to do. The poll found that, if Latinos are told that Clinton would continue the policy, a whopping 85 percent of them would support her. But if they think she would let the policy expire, the figure plummets to 37 percent.

That's why effective outreach matters so much -- and why the mistakes are so costly.

Consider the video announcement that kicked off Clinton's campaign. In one scene, two Latino brothers are opening a restaurant, and they're speaking Spanish. Yet, about 80 percent of Latinos speak at least some English.

It's a lesson they teach you in Retail Politics 101, but something that Clinton still needs to learn: When you're courting a group of voters, it's considered smart -- not to mention respectful -- to take the time to get to know them.

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Ruben Navarrette's email address is ruben@rubennavarrette.com.