According to All Headline News, President Obama said he predicts a Latino president could be within his lifetime.

While attending an “Open for Questions” Hispanic issues roudntable September 28, President Obama said, “I am absolutely confident that within my lifetime, we will have a Latino candidate for president who will be very competitive and may win.”

Obama went on to say that many places in the United States have a rapidly growing Latino population, such as Texas, and that within his lifetime, the majority in those states will be Latino. “With numbers comes political power,” he said.

With a large Latino voting block and voter participation, both parties will be responsive to Latino issues, and officials–Latino and non-Latino–will be especially aware of issues that affect the Latino population, said Obama.

You can read the full article on Obama’s participation at the roundtable here. Since Alabama has enacted portions of the anti-immigration bill, this would be a perfect example of officials not fully recognizing issues that affect Latinos and, to an extent, discriminating against them. I’ll digress since this isn’t totally correct venue to discuss the politics of the anti-immigration bill, but you can discuss this issue and Obama’s statements in the comments section below.