Can Republicans win without Hispanic votes?

This is one of the Big Questions. Nate Silver was one of the biggest winners in last year’s election and one is wary of suggesting that he’s got this question wrong. Nevertheless, I rather suspect that he may have. He suggests that, in 2012 at least, the GOP could, perhaps should, consider giving up on the hispanic vote. The argument is that Republican weakness amongst latino voters didn’t actually hurt the GOP all that much. That is, hispanic votes only make the difference in states that are trending Democratic anyway. Furthermore, there remains a path to 270 electoral college votes even if the Republicans concede Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada.

So, Silver argues here and here, that:

If you excise those three Southwestern states [Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada], you still have a menu of 159 EV from which to choose, of which you [the GOP] need 91. And the remaining states are noteworthy for their relative absence of Hispanic voters.