Posted by
Cary Wesberry on Sunday, July 13, 2008 11:29:38 PM
WASHINGTON (AP) - John McCain says he has earned the trust of Hispanic voters by championing an immigration reform bill that nearly killed his presidential bid.
The Republican presidential candidate also says, in remarks prepared for delivery Monday in San Diego, that Democrat Barack Obama failed to take a similar stand on the politically explosive issue of illegal immigration.
McCain will speak to the annual convention of the National Council of La Raza. Obama appeared before the group on Sunday, another indication of the fierce jockeying for a critical pool of voters, a quarter of them undecided in a recent poll.
McCain, a senator from Arizona, saw his White House bid nearly collapse from conservatives' anger over his effort to pass comprehensive immigration reform, which opponents branded "amnesty" for millions of illegal immigrants.
"I took my lumps for it without complaint. My campaign was written off as a lost cause. I did so not just because I believed it was the right thing to do for Hispanic Americans. It was the right thing to do for all Americans," McCain said in the prepared remarks.
"I do ask for your trust that when I say, I remain committed to fair, practical and comprehensive immigration reform, I mean it. I think I have earned that trust," McCain said.
Since the defeat of the immigration reform bill, McCain has tried to make peace with critics in his party by stressing the need for border security before creating a path to citizenship.
While he worked with Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy on immigration reform, McCain said, "Senator Obama declined to cast some of those tough votes. He voted for and even sponsored amendments that were intended to kill the legislation."
Hispanics could play a critical role in the voting in such battleground states as Nevada, Colorado and New Mexico.
A recent AP-Yahoo News poll showed Obama leading McCain among Hispanics, 47 percent to 22 percent, with 26 percent undecided.
On Sunday, Obama told La Raza he would push a tax credit for small businesses that provide health insurance to their employees, a program he hopes has special appeal to Hispanics and other minority groups.
"Make no mistake about it: The Latino community holds this election in your hands," Obama told the group.
Is it possible for John McCain to not be offensive to conservatives? Just for once. Just to see what it's like. Barack Obama is not the only candidate who can easily throw supporters under the bus. McCain has managed to do the same thing to his entire base of conservative voters.
Obama has a twenty-point lead over McCain with Hispanics and amnesty supporters. Is John McCain's campaign driving blind? He can pander to and appease the amnesty crowd all he wants, but it won't get him the vast majority of their votes. Most of them are socialist liberals and will support Obama no matter what for that reason alone. What is McCain going to do, try to be more of a socialist than Obama in order to get a fraction of the votes his opponent will receive with the very same group of people? What kind of idiotic strategy is that!?!?!?
Every time conservatives think McCain is done playing both sides, every time we think McCain is done trying to get the votes of every person in America but the people who could actually support him; he does something like ingratiate himself before La Raza's "reconquista" movement. Does John McCain even know his own state belongs to Mexico? I hope so because that's what La Raza believes. For either candidate to be seen appeasing a radical fringe group like La Raza is beyond inappropriate. It spits in the face of every American Citizen... you know, the ones who can actually vote!