Opinion polling data clearly shows a public ready for immigration reform. But for those who don't believe those polls, a much more interesting one may be the polling of television viewers - the ratings. And they are telling a very interesting story. Lou Dobbs - the public face of the anti-immigrants - is getting CREAMED in the ratings and is no longer the CNN darling who could say the most ridiculous things on the air and get away with them because he delivered the numbers. From Walter Shapiro:

Another symbol of softening attitudes may be found in – of all things – television ratings. A few years ago, CNN’s bumptious Lou Dobbs was riding high as he fed fears that illegal workers were devastating the economy, breeding disease (he actually ballyhooed a bogus leprosy statistic) and claimed that immigration legislation represented a stealth plan to impose a North American super state. But the New York Observer reported this week that Dobbs’s ratings were down by 29 percent on CNN and dropping fast on Headline News (HLN). As Felix Gillette wrote in the Observer, referring to the prized 25- to 54-year-old viewing audience, "He finished in fourth place in the demographic at different time slots (7 p.m. and 9 p.m.) on two different networks (CNN and HLN) on the same night!"

Lou Dobbs never spoke for most Americans. But he had a large enough following of anti-immigrant extremists that they were able to deliver real ratings. Now even the diehard anti-immigrants are dropping off in numbers and are moving on.