McCain to Hispanics: Trust Me
by Associated Press
Monday, July 14, 2008
elections.foxnews.com
WASHINGTON — Republican presidential candidate John McCain, trying to win the support of a key voting block, says he — not his opponent Barack Obama — has earned the trust of Hispanic voters by championing an immigration reform bill that nearly killed his presidential bid.
Both McCain and Obama have lavished attention on the Hispanic community recently as they grapple for votes in key states such as Florida, Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico where large Latino populations could swing the election on Nov. 4.
McCain’s comments came in remarks he was to deliver Monday in San Diego at the annual convention of the National Council of La Raza. Obama appeared before the group on Sunday. It’s the third time in weeks that the two candidates have made appearances at the same events to reach out to the Hispanic community, an indication of the fierce jockeying for a critical pool of voters, a quarter of them undecided in a recent poll.
The AP-Yahoo News poll showed Obama leading McCain among Hispanics, 47 percent to 22 percent, with 26 percent undecided.
McCain, a senator from Arizona, saw his White House bid nearly collapse partly 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.
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.”
As part of his bid to win votes in the Hispanic community, McCain has also issued a new television ad, titled “God’s Children,” in which he lauds the military service of Hispanics.
For his part, Obama has accused McCain of abandoning the immigration effort after protests from within his party contributed to the legislation’s collapse in Congress last year.
Both McCain and Obama support an eventual path to citizenship for millions of immigrants in the country illegally, although McCain, a senator from the border state of Arizona, has shifted his emphasis to securing the U.S. border.
On Sunday, Obama told La Raza he would push for a 50-percent tax credit to small U.S. businesses that provide workers with health insurance, a program he hopes has special appeal to Hispanics and other minority groups particularly hard hit by the economic slowdown.
“Make no mistake about it: The Latino community holds this election in your hands,” Obama told the group Sunday.
On his way to San Diego Saturday, Obama made some of his strongest comments about the direction the U.S. economy is heading, asserting there is “little doubt we’ve moved into recession” and said decisive government action is needed to right the listing U.S. economy.
The precise cost and details of his tax credit program were not immediately available, but a campaign statement said the “credit would be fully available to small firms, and would be phased out for medium-sized firms. It would also be phased out for small firms with high-income employees.”
As Obama vows government action to battle the deepening American economic slump, McCain has been less sure-footed in attempts to convince voters he understands their struggle with raging energy costs, home mortgage foreclosures and growing unemployment.
The McCain campaign was badly undercut on the economic issue last week when the Arizona senator’s chief economic adviser said Americans were suffering a “mental recession” and had become a nation of “whiners.” McCain quickly rejected the remarks of former Texas Sen. Phil Gramm.
While McCain has struggled to gain traction on proposals for handling the economic downturn, he has maintained confidence that his experience with security and military affairs leave him better placed in voters’ eyes than Obama, a first-term senator.
Obama vows to quickly withdraw American forces from Iraq to free up troops and resources to fight Taliban and al-Qaida extremists in Afghanistan and along the Pakistan border. McCain wants to keep U.S. soldiers and Marines in Iraq indefinitely, drawing them down only when the survival of Iraq’s democratically elected government is assured.
After speaking in San Diego, Obama met with reporters to express condolences to the families of nine American soldiers killed in a militant attack Sunday in eastern Afghanistan. It was the deadliest single attack for the United States in Afghanistan since June 2005. Fourteen more U.S. troops were injured.
“The main thing I want to communicate is that our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of these extraordinary heroes,” Obama said. “And we need to make sure that we’re providing them with every bit of support that we can.”
The Obama and McCain positions on Iraq were put in stark contrast last week when the Iraqi government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said he wanted to link a new status of forces agreement with a three- to five-year timetable for America’s withdrawal.
Speaking with reporters on his campaign plane Saturday, Obama detailed his plans to travel to European capitals and U.S. battlefronts in Iraq and Afghanistan, revealing he would be accompanied by Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel and Sen. Jack Reed, a Democrat.
Hagel served as an Army sergeant in Vietnam and was twice wounded in 1968, earning two Purple Hearts. Reed, a West Point graduate, was a former Army Ranger and paratrooper.
In discussing the war and his journey to Iraq, Obama said he hoped both the United States and Iraqi governments would soothe Sunni fears of reprisals by the country’s Shiite majority.
He also said removing American combat forces from Iraq, which he promises to do within 16 months of taking office, will not be “perfectly neat.” |
