9 Worst Political Commentaries About Latinos In 2012 (PHOTOS, VIDEO)

The year 2012 will be remembered as the year of the rise of the Latino voter. The demographic shift changing the shape of U.S. politics was felt as never before, as both parties reached out to Hispanic voters and cultivated new faces like Marco Rubio and Julian Castro.

Hispanics jumped from 6 percent in 2000 to 10 percent in 2012 as a share of the electorate, helping tip the election in favor of President Barack Obama after Romney won just 27 percent of the Latino vote.

But 2012 won't necessarily be remembered as the year of the most insightful commentary about Latinos. GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney ran a gaffe-prone campaign, encouraging undocumented immigrants to deport themselves and then saying the election would be easier for him to win if he were Latino.

Rightwing pundits including Ann Coulter and Bill O'Reilly lamented the country's demographic shift and berated Latinos as government-dependent, even though Hispanics make use of less than their fair share of the government benefits they are entitled to.

In a year chock full of poorly informed political commentary about Latinos, these may well mark the worst nine of the year.