While much media ado is being made about the boost among Latino voters that Barack Obama may have won following his endorsement last week from New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, the bigger payoff could come in the form of diplomatic cover that the onetime Clinton ally now provides for other superdelegates that might follow suit.

“As the nation’s only Hispanic governor,” reported the International Herald Tribune, “Richardson could become a champion for Obama among Hispanic voters, who have been a key voting bloc for Clinton in the primaries thus far.”

So far, the much-courted Latino vote has indeed been crucial to Clinton‘s primary campaign in New Mexico, Texas, and California. In those three states, she outpolled Obama among Latino voters by about two-to-one, according to a report this month from the Pew Research Center.

But, as the focus turns toward states like Pennsylvania, the Latino vote isn’t likely to play a decisive role.

“As a Hispanic governor, his support might have made more difference to Obama before the Texas primary earlier this month,” pointed out Gannett News Service commentator Chuck Raasch.

CNN’s Jack Cafferty argued that the key to Richardson’s endorsement is that it “will potentially give cover to a lot of the remaining undecided superdelegates by breaking for Barack Obama. Still roughly half of those 800 party insiders have made no commitment.”

An editorial in the Santa Fe New Mexican pointed out that Clinton would have to sweep Pennsylvania and other remaining primaries, but that Obama stands to win many delegates as well. “Then there are the superdelegates, so crucial to the count. Richardson is the epitome of that bizarre species; his coming out for Obama is likely to influence others,” said the editorial. “So it isn’t especially as an Hispanic that the governor will be of great pre-convention value; rather as an increasingly familiar face on the national and international scene whom much of the nation found appealing.”

In that light, so the argument goes, Richardson’s move provided critical support for Obama at just the right time, coinciding with the damage control still ongoing from the incendiary remarks made by Obama’s pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

Some suggest Richardson’s foreign policy heft also might provide Obama’s resume with a boost in an area where the Illinois senator’s relative inexperience has been criticized.

“With Richardson at his side,” argues Raasch, “Obama is now able to employ a tried-and-true tactic of politicians, using the experience and gravitas of others to bolster perceived resume weaknesses, much as George W. Bush did in tapping Dick Cheney for his running mate in 2000.”