the senator from Arizona will speak to this year’s National Council of La Raza
Posted by Raven on May 6th, 2008
REMIND me why I’m being asked to support this RINO?? I just got sick.
Sen. John McCain said yesterday that Republicans have shed support among Hispanic voters because of the party’s get-tough approach to illegal immigration, but he predicted that his enforcement-then- legalization approach will rebuild those bridges.
Using a Mexican holiday, Cinco de Mayo, as a launching point, Mr. McCain’s presidential campaign announced a Spanish-language Web site (www.johnmccain.com/ espanol), and said the senator from Arizona will speak to this year’s National Council of La Raza convention in San Diego in July to try to court Hispanic voters.
“I believe the majority of the Hispanics share our view that the border must be secured, and the border must be secured first. But they also want us to have an attitude, which I think most Americans do, that these are God’s children, and they must be taken care of, and the issue must be addressed in a humane and compassionate fashion,” Mr. McCain told reporters at an Arizona news conference yesterday.
Yeah, yeah…humane and compassionate is happening. It always will. THAT’s not even a point. WHAT is a point, that McCain never mentions, is the high HIGH costs placed upon American citizens who WORK legally for a living. There is nothing inhumane about sending the illegals BACK HOME. It’s as simple as that. All these weepy eyed words are bullshit. To McCain, it is all about cheap labor for the business lobby. And nothing more.
May 6th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
Raven, don’t jump of the deck quite yet. I really think we need to wait to learn what he says first.
Several reasons to keep an open mind at this point. First, while Clinton and Obama are beating up on each other, McCain has been “taking the war to the enemy” and addressing groups that are outside of the Republican core constitutency. This is a good strategy to take advantage of this window of opportunity to expand his base and define himself to these groups before the Democrats pivot their cannons and try to paint their portrait of him.
Second, McCain in the past has demonstrated the ability to tell politically inconvenient truths to the audiences he speaks to. Remember that he was the one who refused to make pander promises of Federal money to Michigan voters, and he was also the only candidate with the balls to tell Iowa voters that he opposed ethanol subsides (and I’ve read he’s reiterated his opposition to ethanol subsidies very recently).
So it’s quite plausible that McCain is just continuing with his strategy and will tell some uncomfortable truths to the La Raza audience. While McCain is certainly not channeling Tancredo, he has rather consistently shifted from his amnesty bill position to a position of enforcement first.
The major cloud is that I recall reading at ARS a few months back that one of McCain’s key Hispanic advisors had strong connections with La Raza. However, I don’t really know who McCain is listening to today.
Clearly, though, the Hispanic vote is going to be very important in the November election. And what the liberal press overlooks is that most Hispanics are really conservative in instinct, strong on family values and most who are here legally are not especially sympathetic to illegal immigrants. And most of these are not accolytes of La Raza’s version of racism. That makes many Hispanics congential to being Republican voters if they don’t attach a racist tag to Republicans.
By going to La Raza, McCain has an opportunity to stand up to Hispanic/immigration extremists and make a case for an immigration policy that rests heavily on enforcement, that does open a door to citizenship for those who respect the law, and not give illegals a preference over those who followed the law (thereby avoiding the moral hazard of past immigration laws). That would be my hope, anyway, and if he does so, he will gain the respect of the Hispanic version of the “silent majority”.
Of course, McCain could also go the other way and spend his time attacking Republicans and blurring the line between mavarick and panderer. But at least his past record indicates that McCain is capable - if he wishes to - of going to the lion’s den and courting danger.
So let’s see what McCain does in July. That may affect how enthusiatically I’ll support him come November.
May 8th, 2008 at 10:12 pm
With McCain… you just never know… and this being an election year, with the hispanic vote possibly being able to sway power…
If he panders… it’ll hurt him because his conservative base will abandon him like it did when he tried to pass McCain-Kennedy. If he is hard on them with the truth.. the Dems will paint him with the bigot/anti-immigrant brush.. it is a lose/lose tight-rope he is walking and I can’t see the advantage at even going to talk to these racists at La Raza….
We’ll just have to wait and see…