McCain's immigration dilemma

[Joanne98]

by kos
Fri Sep 19, 2008 at 09:10:13 AM PDT
Duke1676, on Obama's recent ad attacking McCain's immigration squishiness:

Up until now, McCain has been totally unwilling to define his current position on immigration. Having run as rapidly as possible from his previous record on reform during the primaries, he has lately managed play both sides of the field according to who he's pandering to at the moment without firmly taking a stance.

He talks about enforcement first and governors certifying the borders as hermetically sealed before there can be any talk of reform to his base (knowing, as they do, that that will never happen), while telling Latinos not to worry, Tio Johnny will take care of everything (wink, wink).

It's reached the point that earlier this week during the conference call sponsored by the leading Latino and immigrant–rights advocates, NCLR, MALDEF, and Americas Voice to discuss McCain's bogus ad, the majority of time was spent not on the ad, but rather trying to figure out just where McCain stands at the present time. ...and in the end, no one could definitively answer the question.

It appears that Obama has done us all a favor.

He has forced McCain into a corner where he must make a choice between two very unpleasant options.

He must either defend his previous record, reminding those who nearly denied him the nomination why they hated him in the first place, negating all the Palin picking, ass-kissing, and soul-selling he's done over the last year to win over the base ...or .... Leave the ad unanswered and give up any hope whatsoever of getting the 40% Latino vote he has to have to even stand a chance at getting elected. ...Tough times for Tio Johnny Huh?

McCain might as well ignore it and concede the Latino vote. He ain't gonna get 40 percent. I'm doubtful he can get 30 percent. The community feels sold out, and they know exactly who is to blame in the defeat of last year's immigration bill. Remember, they followed that debate as closely as we followed the FISA one. The notion that Obama had anything to do with its defeat just doesn't match the reality they watched with their own eyes in real time.

And while McCain may try to bamboozle them in their own media, they see him pandering on the enforcement issue. And they don't like it.

Half (50%) of all Latinos say that the situation of Latinos in this country is worse now than it was a year ago, according to a new nationwide survey of 2,015 Hispanic adults conducted by the Pew Hispanic Center.

This pessimism is especially prevalent among immigrants, who account for 54% of all Hispanic adults in the United States. Fully 63% of these Latino immigrants say that the situation of Latinos has worsened over the past year. In 2007, just 42% of all adult Hispanic immigrants--and just 33% of all Hispanic adults--said the same thing.

These increasingly downbeat assessments come at a time when the Hispanic community in this country--numbering approximately 46 million, or 15.4% of the total U.S. civilian non-institutional population--has been hit hard by rising unemployment and stepped-up immigration enforcement.

It's no accident that Obama is hovering close to 70 percent support among the Latino community. Like the vast majority of Americans, their personal situation has worsened in the Bush years, and they know exactly who deserves the blame.

So really, McCain shouldn't have much of a dilemma. He already sold out immigrants pandering to his party during the primaries, vowing to vote against his very own bill. Latinos won't give him a mulligan. So he might as well stick with his xenophobic base.

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http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/9/19/0432/96137/672/603420