John McCain and Barack Obama each to address major Latino gathering

San Diego usually is a fine place to be under any circumstances, but for a couple of days this July the political world will flock there for clues about one of the crucial questions in the John McCain-Barack Obama matchup: Whither the Latino vote?

The National Council of La Raza, a leading Latino civil rights and advocacy organization, announced today that both presidential contenders have accepted invitations to speak at its July 12-15 convention in San Diego. No details yet on when each will speak, but their appearances likely will be among the most important they make during the month.

For Obama, the mission is straightforward: Woo an ethnic group that is absolutely essential to his hopes of carrying several key states in November but which heavily supported his rival, Hillary Clinton, during the just-completed Democratic primary season.

Presumably his campaign already will be hard at work on this task before the La Raza get-together, but his speech will offer him a golden opportunity to try to connect with a voting bloc that so far has generally resisted his appeals.

McCain will face more of a balancing act when he takes center stage ...

... at the convention.

As an Arizonan who last year was one of the few prominent Republicans on Capitol Hill pushing for controversial legislation that would have created a path to citizenship for most illegal immigrants in the nation, McCain is primed to build upon the inroads President Bush made four years ago in attracting Latino votes to the GOP banner.

But many conservatives who strongly opposed the 2007 immigration bill -- and whose turnout McCain needs on his behalf this fall -- will be listening carefully to his remarks. And it won't take much for them to renew their criticism of him on the immigration issue (witness this recent Michelle Malkin post).

-- Don Frederick

Comments

[DS]

Compared to Barak Obama who has zero experience on Latino issues, and being John McCain is from Arizona I would give him the edge on this debate.

[heyrey]

John McCain thinks Vladimir Putin is the president of Germany: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfealLrWLIY ; sorry, but after 8 years of that idiot Bush, we don't need another dunce in the White House.

[NoMoreBlatherDotCom]

For those who want the truth about the NCLR, see the links here:

http://lonewacko.com/blog/archives/007678.html

For the short version, they gave an award to the guy who said the following, *after* he said it:

"We have got to eliminate the gringo, and what I mean by that is if the worst comes to the worst, we have got to kill him."

The NCLR gave the person who said that an award, once again *after* he said it.

In addition to telling the truth about the groups he mentions, Don Frederick should consider trying to figure out that not all Hispanics support the NCLR.

[TXCourtney]

What this article doesn't tell you is that McCain has flip-flopped on immigration since "pushing for controversial legislation" in 2007.

In a February 7 speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), McCain asserted that "we failed" on immigration, and he continued to say: "I accept that, and have pledged that it would be among my highest priorities to secure our borders first, and only after we achieved widespread consensus that our borders are secure, would we address other aspects of the problem in a way that defends the rule of law and does not encourage another wave of illegal immigration." This is a clear shift away from his original position on immigration!! It's a concession made to the conservative majority that opposed the McCain-Kennedy bill.

Furthermore, McCain said during CNN's debate on January 30 that he "would not" vote for his original proposal if it ever made it to the Senate floor.

So which one will have the advantage with the Hispanic community--the senator who has consistently supported sensible immigration reform (including the DREAM act) or the senator who changes his position from day to day depending on what crowd he's talking to?

[Brittanicus]

Obama already promised he would give the millions of illegal aliens , squatting in this nation AMNESTY? McCain will do likewise to get the vote in November. We must pass the SAVE ACT before this happens. Afterwards will be too late for overburdened taxpayers, who will have to support them.

Plus the millions more who will think it's 'open day' from the third world countries. America is in a state of crisis, and adding more to the population will cause major turmoil in the near future.

If it's something to do with enforcing our immigration laws, the special interest lobby will crawl out of the sewer to stop its enactment. Just like the SAVE ACT (H.R.4088) a Federal bill, the laggard Democrats don't want voted into law. Corruption has manifested itself, as house Speaker Nancy Pelosi has used intimidation to stop her clan from endorsing this legislation. Ice has a free Tipline: 1-866-DHS-2ICE for intelligence to locate illegal aliens, or predatory businesses that employ them.

Predatory employers would be arrested, fined and possibly imprisoned and millions of illegal aliens would leave of their own accord. It would give (ICE) more funding and build the US border patrol up to 20.000 more agents in strength, build the fence as originally intended. This national law would also begin to remove criminal aliens from our society.

It would give extra teeth to all immigration laws now on the books. Demand the SAVE ACT! (2022243121 ) Unsuppressed details at NUMBERSUSA.

[Chrissie Le]

I am very interested in attending this debate. Does anyone have any information on how to get tickets. I went to La Raza's site and McCains site I cannot find any info. Thanks!