I'm starting to think McCain is an easier target than Obama to take shots at.
What a buffoon.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/06/title----mcca-1.htmlMcCain Double-Talk on Immigration?
June 20, 2008 12:26 PM
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., met Wednesday evening with Hispanic Republicans in Chicago.
In an Associated Press story about the meeting, one quote jumped out at me: "He's one John McCain in front of white Republicans. And he's a different John McCain in front of Hispanics," Rosanna Pulido, a Latina who heads the Illinois Minuteman Project, told the AP. "He's having his private meetings to rally Hispanics and to tell them what they want to hear," she said. "I'm outraged that he would reach out to me as a Hispanic but not as a conservative."
Pulido seemed to be in a rather interesting position to talk about McCain and immigration, so I gave her a call.
An advocate and escort for seniors professionally, Pulido told me that she's one of the original Minutemen who stood on the border between Arizona and Mexico in 2005 and she's also Illinois spokesperson for "You Don't Speak For Me, American Hispanics Speaking Out On Illegal Immigration."
Her parents were from Mexico, but she was born in the U.S. (She spent a year in Mexico in the 1980s as a Christian missionary.) Pulido says her activism against illegal immigration stems from her Christian belief system and sense of right and wrong, as well as the unmet needs she sees in the senior population through her work.
"What they're doing is stealing from the American people," she says of illegal immigrants.
Pulido found out about the McCain meeting from a local newspaper, the Beacon News. She called the McCain campaign contact and let them know where she stood on the issue of illegal immigration, but said as a conservative and a Hispanic, she wanted to attend the meeting. She was curious as to what McCain was going to say.
"I have friends in Washington, DC, on this issue," she says. "We've had conversations on this issue." After comprehensive immigration reform was killed in the Senate and McCain changed his rhetoric on the subject on the campaign trail, Pulido says, "we were hopeful after John McCain started saying, 'I understand where the American people are coming from, there's gotta be enforcement first,' we thought great, he's had a change of heart."
So she went to the meeting, a room full of 150-200 people. "Sure enough," Pulido says, "his mantra at the meeting was comprehensive immigration reform.' And there were cheers and applause whenever he mentioned comprehensive immigration reform."
"Then he said, 'I bet some of you don't know this -- did you know Spanish was spoken in Arizona before English?' And the crowd roared. I was appalled," Pulido said. "He was
pandering to these people -- that's what they wanted to hear."
The meeting was jammed up because McCain had attended the Tim Russert funeral that day, and had a fundraiser to attend. He was about 45 minutes late, and only spoke for approximately 15 minutes, she recalls. Originally the plan was for him to take questions, but there didn't appear to be time, she said.
Which is just as well, as far as she was concerned. "The truth of the matter is, I was in the room with 150-to-200 people, and if I'd spoken out I would have been disruptive, which was not what I wanted to do."
"He was telling one group of people one thing and the Hispanics another," says Pulido. "I'm a conservative and I think he's throwing conservatives under the bus."Pulido doesn't know who she will vote for and says she may not know until election day. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, is not an option. "I'd never ever vote for Barack Obama," she says. "He was an Illinois state senator and unlike the rest of the nation, I know who Barack Obama is, he's too liberal for me."
What she saw of John McCain Wednesday night, however, makes her inclined right now to support Constitution Party candidate Chuck Baldwin.
- jpt
UPDATE: Some posters have inquired about what McCain says that contradicts the message above. The Obama campaign on a conference call just now suggested it might be the January GOP debate at the Reagan Library where the following exchange took place. (You can watch it HERE.)
JANET HOOK, LA TIMES: Senator McCain, let me just take the issue to you, because you obviously have been very involved in it. During this campaign, you, like your rivals, have been putting the first priority, heaviest emphasis on border security. But your original immigration proposal back in 2006 was much broader and included a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants who were already here. What I'm wondering is -- and you seem to be downplaying that part. At this point, if your original proposal came to a vote on the Senate floor, would you vote for it?
MCCAIN: It won't. It won't. That's why we went through the debate...
HOOK: But if it did?
MCCAIN: No, I would not, because we know what the situation is today. The people want the border secured first. ...We will secure the borders first when I am president of the United States. I know how to do that. I come from a border state, where we know about building walls, and vehicle barriers, and sensors, and all of the things necessary. I will have the border state governors certify the borders are secured. And then we will move onto the other aspects of this issue, probably as importantly as tamper-proof biometric documents, which then, unless an employer hires someone with those documents, that employer will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. And that will cause a lot of people to leave voluntarily. There's 2 million people who are here who have committed crimes. They have to be rounded up and deported. And we're all basically in agreement there are humanitarian situations. It varies with how long they've been here, et cetera, et cetera.
We are all committed to carrying out the mandate of the American people, which is a national security issue, which is securing the borders. That was part of the original proposal, but the American people didn't trust or have confidence in us that we would do it. So we now know we have to secure the borders first, and that is what needs to be done. That's what I'll do as president of the United States.
