Perhaps the most pathetic thing about John McCain’s appearance before the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials yesterday was its sheer predictability on the issue of illegal immigraion.
Although McCain’s prepared remarks referred to the need to prove to the (rightly) skeptical public that we can and will secure our borders before taking other measures, the Q & A that followed found McCain declaring that comprehensive immigration reform that includes a pathway to citizenship for the nation’s estimated 12 million illegal aliens would be his “top priority yesterday, today and tomorrow.”  Thus, instead of having a “lion’s den” story, McCain blogger Michael Goldfarb had to leap into damage control mode. Adding insult to that self-injury, Barack Obama followed McCain with remarks arguing that McCain “walked away” from his own legislation in order to win the GOP presidential primary.
Camp McCain later responded: “It’s quite audacious for Barack Obama to question John McCain’s commitment to immigration reform when it was Obama himself who worked to kill the Senate’s bipartisan immigration reform compromise last year.” The campaign also put out a press release detailing the five “poison pill” amendments which Obama supported or sponsored. The final blow was the union-backed amendment to phase out the bill’s temporary worker program after five years, the passage of which left ithe bill’s supporters stunned on the floor for more than an hour after the 49-48 vote.
Wherever one comes down on illegal immigration, McCain should be held liable for political malpractice. His campaign knows this issue is a minefield for him. They also knew that Obama provided a decisive vote to kill the comprehensive immigration reform bill NALEO supported. That McCain did not try to get out of the minefield by attacking Obama and placing him on the defensive in the second speaking slot is simply ridiculous. In contrast, Obama went right for Maverick’s jugular while McCain’s crew was busy cleaning up the mess made by their candidate.
“In contrast, Obama went right for Maverick’s jugular while McCain’s crew was busy cleaning up the mess made by their candidate.”
If McCain is ‘Maverick’ does that mean Obama is ‘Iceman’?
Both are pilots of populism projecting independent thinking. The Pros are telling them to pander to the MOR because that is the road to success. Who are we to quibble? Karl, your gift is the ability to
disembowel your opponents with equal aplomb, and sparing the lesser of two weevils by burning the greater evil at the stake.
You are the Grand Inquisitor.
Try not to look too hard for useful analogies in Top Gun, cleo. It’s just a movie, and not a very good one at that.
Although the Kenny Loggins intro absolutely RAWKS.
He thinks being a nice guy will work. Meanwhile, the messiah is on offense, all the time
setting the agenda, all the time. bush 41 lost because he acted clueless, talking to the
wrong people about the wrong stuff.
I’d really like it if that little guy on the right got to where he so desperately wants to go.
I’ll buy him a ladder if he’ll stop waving that grappling hook around.
Someone could lose an eye.
Do you think he takes Paypal?
Sorry about the OT, Karl. The relatives are in town, so last night was Wine-Guzzling Night.
Obama bad. McCain bad too.
See? Intelligent I cannot do. I’m shooting for wry.
Both are pilots of populism projecting independent thinking.
Spot on. Who are you and what have you done with the real Semanticleo?
“Spot on.”
Because you agree I am suddenly coherent?
https://proteinwisdom.com/?p=12652
A nation is more than just an economic market. We have history, heritage, language, religion, customs which need to be respected as well. Mass immigration, legal and illegal, threaten those things.
But will any good come from it? Not with the chronically corrupt Mexico and the chronically corrupt politicians in Wash DC. The Democratic Party wants to add new voters and dependents in order to create new social programs for and the Republicans want to let in half of Mexico and Central America because business wants a never ending supply of cheap labor.
The vast majority of the American people want illegal immigrants deported and legal immigration reduced, at least for a while, a time-out from excessive immigration.
We will get it? Not likely because we have government by lobbyists. La Raza & MALDEF and the Chamber of Commerce want the border left open and immigration laws unenforced.
☮ ☮ ☮ ☮ ☮ ☮
You’re generally coherent, cleo.
If you ever got to the point of responding to what was said and done, instead of to the voices in your head, you’d be a valuable commentator.
Regards,
Ric
If you ever got to the point of responding to what was said and done, instead of to the voices in your head, you’d be a valuable commentator.
It’s easier to just pontificate☁
Hmmmm.
Fuck McCain. Not voting for that rat-bastard son of a bitch.
Memomachine, why do you start almost every comment off with, “Hmmmm”? Just asking ☠
McCain is not great, but he’s about a BILLION times better than Obambi.
I think we all agree you’re suddenly coherent.
(Thanks for the setup.)
Obama supports a far more liberal approach to immigration than McCain. He will support union concerns whenever possible, but he also supports drivers licenses for illegals and health care for illegals as well. He is predictable on the issue, in that he tries to be all things to all people. That is Obama in a nutshell.
McCain has gotten the message on the border. He said so at this meeting. He did say:“We have to secure our bordersâ€â€that’s the message,†McCain said. “But we also must proceed with a temporary worker program that is verifiable and truly temporary.â€Â
A temporary worker program can take pressure off the border. Border security and a worker program are not mutually exclusive. In fact we have worker programs in place now.
But I think the truth is there are some people who are simply so fanatical on the issue that they will broach no debate. They had no problem ignoring the issue for decades. Newt Gingrich never even mentioned border security in his Contract with America. In 2000 and 2004, it was not a big deal on the right. It became a big deal when someone realized the political advantage in it.
And most Republicans will support McCain on this as well. If they were not willing to they would have made Tancredo the nominee. In fact I think that some people on the right pushed it so hard, it backfired on them in part because they went after Bush on this issue as well. Fine, but a lot of Republicans like Bush and support him. Going after him when he is trying to fight a war with a not so loyal opposition at this throat did not go down so well with some rank and file Republicans.
But there will be some people who will use this as an excuse to stay home and not vote. They call themselves conservatives but it seems they would rather let a liberal Democrat like Obama win and even allow him to govern with a Democratic majority than vote for the Republican nominee. This in spite of the fact that they had every opportunity to support someone else and yet lacked the votes to get another nominee.
The thing about McCain is that he is not going to run away from his policy. He will make a point of saying he got the message about the border and promise to secure that border, but he will not do what Mitt Romney did and suddenly start sounding like Tom Tancredo. No one would believe him if he did anyway.
I like McCain on immigration well enough. You’re right about the fanatical. It’s just not that fraught I don’t think. They’re just people.
happyfeet:
Yes, they are just people. And people get upset when they think they are being taken advantage of, that is only natural. But the Democrats are too cute by half on this subject. I live in Indiana and when all this was going on I wrote Bayh and asked what his position was. He did not like the bill because it was too hard on the families of immigrants he said. Apparently the bill limited the number of dependents or something. Lugar on the other hand is a moderate and votes like one.
But there is no good position here. Really. No way to make people happy.
No. People need to get it our of their systems is all. Whatever it takes to make a good majority feel safe and happy is probably the way to go. This is one area where for real you should put the polls in charge I think.
Oh. “No.” means I agree there’s no way to make people happy.
Certain people named Michelle Malkin are a lot determined to be miserable I think.
Hmmmm.
@ SevenEleventy
“Memomachine, why do you start almost every comment off with, “Hmmmmâ€Â? Just asking ☠”
It’s a stylistic convention.
1. It makes it easier to identify my own comments.
2. I used to use “ed” as my name. Not very specific so I started each comment with “Hmmm” so people wouldn’t confuse me with others commenting as “ed”.
3. *shrug* I’m used to it now so it’s automatic.
4. I’ve gotten a lot of ragging by people on other blogs for it. IMO it’s fairly minor but easy to seize upon when people would rather insult me instead of actually addressing any points I’ve made.
Hmmmm.
@ Terrye
“Obama supports a far more liberal approach to immigration than McCain.”
Considering that McCain has modified his stance on multiple occasions depending on whether or not he was talking to Latinos or conservatives, I’m not inclined to take McCain at his word.
Additionally I’m not totally convinced that Democrats want their fingerprints on immigration reform. Without considerable buy in by Republicans, particularly by a Republican “Maverick” President. Nobody has any illusions about how unpopular amnesty is. With Obama in the White House the Democrats won’t have any political cover from any fallout.
IMO it would take McCain in the White House for an amnesty to be passed.
“A temporary worker program can take pressure off the border. Border security and a worker program are not mutually exclusive. In fact we have worker programs in place now.”
That’s nonsense. So a “temporary” female worker comes into the country and gives birth. How is that “temporary”??
So there’s a “temporary” worker program. What’s their payrate? If it close to the minimum wage then won’t there be a market for lower wage illegal aliens?
Of course there will be. You know what the arguments are against implementing a “temporary” worker program.
Frankly it’s ridiculous that I have to even respond to this nonsense you’re trying to sell.
Fact is McCain does not have any credibility when it comes to illegal aliens. He does not have any credibility when it comes to fulfilling his promises. He does not have any credibility when it comes to working with conservatives because he only works with liberal Democrats.
“They had no problem ignoring the issue for decades. Newt Gingrich never even mentioned border security in his Contract with America.”
No duh. In the early 1990’s we weren’t dealing with 10-20+ million illegals.
“In 2000 and 2004, it was not a big deal on the right. It became a big deal when someone realized the political advantage in it.”
Again no duh. It’s because then the combination of the vast numbers of illegal aliens, their push for political power and the craven desire by Republicans to kowtow all meshed.
“And most Republicans will support McCain on this as well.”
Which is why I refuse to vote Republican. I’ll vote for a conservative, but not because some jackass is a Republican.
“Fine, but a lot of Republicans like Bush and support him.”
Which is why so many conservatives have switched to independent like myself.
Which is why less than 27% of the electorate now self-identify as Republicans.
Hmmmm.
@ Jeff G.
Hey man. Could you increase the vertical height of the comment textarea?
It’s so short it’s actually difficult to write any kind of lengthy comment.
Hmmm.
@ Terrye
“But there will be some people who will use this as an excuse to stay home and not vote. They call themselves conservatives but it seems they would rather let a liberal Democrat like Obama win and even allow him to govern with a Democratic majority than vote for the Republican nominee. This in spite of the fact that they had every opportunity to support someone else and yet lacked the votes to get another nominee.”
Fuck you and the horse you rode in on.
I’m a conservative, but that doesn’t mean that I owe you or any other fucking Republican either my money or my vote. For far too long Republicans have acted as if they owned conservatives.
Your party doesn’t act in a conservative manner, you don’t get my vote.
And if you want to chase after Clintonites or moderates. Good fucking luck with that.
“A temporary worker program can take pressure off the border.
– I respectfully differ. Any sort of guest worker program must be very carefully thought out, or you run the risk of not only not reducing the influx of illegals, but in fact causing a scare which ramps up the illegal crossings. Heres how.
– If you just automatically “give” legal workers residency with no conditions, you just encourage even more incoming looking for work. Put a time limit on such a program, and that threat will scare people even more with a resulting rush to beat the deadline.
– The whole problem of any such program is policing. At the moment, other than the border at moment of crossing, and an insignificant ICE effort in which you almost have to call them on the phone to get noticed, effectively there is none. If you have no enforcement of very specificc magnitude, you have no “program”, and practically any way you do it will keep things exactly the same, or exacerbate the situation.
– Since border intercept seems to be the sole area that gets any real support, and only then after you literally drown the politicians in a tsunami of angry emails and phone calls, border control has to be painted across their foreheads, or it will go right on being business as usual.
– McCain appeared to backslide in his recent speech by even mentioning “worker program”. Those of us in the border states are just plain sick of the politicking bullshit, and McCain is doing the two-step again, trying to hang onto whatever Latino base he has.
– I understand the “whys”, but another ten years of this crap, and we might as well cede California back to Mexico.
– BTW, whenever you here a pol use this “12 million” figure, you’re free to ignore everything he says there-after. There is somewhere between 18 and 25 million in the San Fernando basin alone, never mind the entire rest of the country.
– See, when you live in a state that has one of the highest tax rates in the nation, and is already in the hole to the tune of 12 billion+, with no end in sight, seeing the same crappola lies told by every talking head on TV, and every politician in Washington, can make you a little grumpy.
– I could write pages on this about public schools, all but reduced to high cost baby sitting services, and health care overload with non-pays to the point where the medical profession is slowly closing down, (and no, thats not a vote for the insanity of gov. run health care), to the total disintegration of public services, a practically non-existent public transportation network at the very time when we need it the most for a multitude of reasons, and infrastructure devolution on an endless downward spiral.
– But I won’t.
hey terrye,
stop spouting this horseshit “If they were not willing to they would have made Tancredo the nominee.” all over the internet. you have been called on it many times and you refuse to acknowledge that less than half the country voted before mccain was the one left standing. NH and SC fucked us this election cycle. so stop acting like we are being little bitches experiencing buyer’s remorse. if the party had selected him the way you try to convince people they did he wouldnt have these problems w/ the base.
– McCain won because he ran the same way all “weak election year” candidates run, his campaign people made sure he went after the early caucuses and voter base, and because he was running against a pack of no-names like Huckelbee and Romney, nut cases like Paul, and people like Thompson and Rudi who, in the first case couldn’t make up his mind if he was really interested and acted like it, and in the second case, used a trued and proven formula for failure, waiting months before he got in the race.
– Hillery lost to Obama by the thinest of margins for the same reason, screw-ups in some of the caucuses, plus the yet unresolved MI/FL mess. There is still an outside chance that she could upset him at the convention, so that side is not quite over, but not likely. It depends on how much influence the Clintons still have, the effect of the Fembots in convention, and the resolution of FL and MI.
– As for the Republican side, Rudi bought the idea he would be able to win it on name recognition, but he lost so much face time, by the time he got back in it in Florida, McCain had an insurmountable lead.
– The Conservative base is pissed off because they know from his voting record and speeches that hes a RINO, and because of the other candidates lousy tactics, they have this feeling he was selected, not elected, but theres no part of that which could be called “their fault”. The Republican candidate maneuvering during the primaries was a freaking mess, and played right into McCains hands.
– BTW, the reason I’m calling MI/FL “unresolved” is theres also an outside chance there will be trouble at the convention over the DNC primaries committee decision to only seat half delegates. In the worst case scenario the State party Reps could refuse to give Obama certification. Thats not probably going to happen, bt it could make a huge difference if it goes to a floor fight with multiple balloting. After the first round delegates are no longer bound by state committee rules, and if it goes that far, things could get really interesting.
Hmmmm.
Frankly as far as the Fred! is concerned I’m really coming to the opinion a few of my friends share. That he was a stalking horse for McCain.
They’re close friends and have been for many years. Plus Fred!’s actions, in retrospect, sucked up all the oxygen from conservative candidates denying them any traction. And Fred! stayed in the race only until it was pretty apparent that McCain would be the nominee.
I’m not going all conspiracy theory nutball. It’s a working theory I’m going to bring up in 2012 in case Fred! decides to dick around again as a candidate. But let’s face it. Fred!’s campaign was very very odd.
If Fred runs again and does like he did this time around, I won’t even bother with him in the first place. Running kind of calls for at least a smidge or two of wanting to win.
[…] work by his reorganizing campaign staff, in part because he cannot be bothered to give such groups straight talk about the fact that Obama killed the immigration bill McCain — and LULAC — […]
[…] criticized McCain for not taking this approach before NALEO and LULAC, I give him his due now, though he should not have had to be provoked to do it (though it […]