McCain's Mixed Messages on Immigration

This campaign season, Republican presidential candidate John McCain has revised, recanted and then revived his longtime support for comprehensive immigration reform. Now, critics say he's cynically putting out one message in English, and another in an intensifying Spanish ad campaign.

"It's disturbing to me, as a Hispanic, to have someone who feels he can blatantly deceive and think people won't pay attention," says Andres Ramirez, vice president for Hispanic programs at NDN, a pro-Democrat research group.

For several weeks, McCain and Democratic candidate Barack Obama have had a tit-for-tat air war en espanol over last year's Senate bill to overhaul immigration. Each campaign has been accused of making misleading statements in the ads, but McCain's clear, implied message to Latinos is that he -- and only he -- supports a large-scale legalization.

Here's McCain's latest salvo:

Last weekend, though, McCain issued a contradictory message -- in English. It came after Obama campaigned in North Carolina, a state where a fast-growing Hispanic population has made immigration a red-hot issue. Obama repeated his support for a pathway to citizenship for undocumented workers, and for allowing undocumented students to have in-state tuition at public colleges.

Barack Obama gave this interview on NPR member-station WUNC.

The McCain campaign was quick to respond. In a statement, it said Senator McCain does not support "amnesty" or in-state tuition. (Again, this was in contrast to the Senator's actual record. In past years he -- like Obama -- has co-sponsored the DREAM act, which would allow immigrant students without legal status to pay in-state tuition.)

Critics say McCain has also been sending different messages depending on which part of the country he's in, speaking more moderately about immigration in the Hispanic-heavy southwest, while taking a harder line in the southeast, where opposition to illegal immigration runs strong. Obama, by contrast, has consistently supported a comprehensive approach, even if he hasn't pushed the topic much on the campaign trail.

Polls show Latinos overwhelmingly support Obama, a significant shift since 40% of the Hispanic electorate voted for President Bush in 2004. Analysts believe the large Hispanic vote in Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada and Florida could be decisive in those swing states.

--Jennifer Ludden

4:37 PM ET | 10- 2-2008 | permalink

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In Michigan, Obama Focuses on Jobs

Jobs jobs jobs....that is the mantra for the Obama camp today. They are campaigning in Michigan where the unemployment is almost double the national average. Plus he's taking advantage of the new federal jobs report due for release today that is expected to show a continuation of the last 8 months of decline.

In Grand Rapids, Obama hammered away at McCain for once upon a time saying that the "fundamentals of the economy are strong." But he wasn't getting too cocky. At one point Obama started to say, "If I'm president," and some people in the crowd started to shout "When! When!"

His reply? "I'm superstitious, folks."

Kerry won the state in 2004 but Grand Rapids is Republican territory. And McCain has been targeting the state.

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12:10 PM ET | 10- 2-2008 | permalink

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Bill Clinton Turns It On

Bill Clinton took to the stump for Obama in Florida today, in his first trip on behalf of the Democratic nominee. After being both criticized and mocked in recent days for his tepid enthusiasm for Obama, Clinton finally seems to get the lead out here -- though AP reports that Clinton still reserved his highest praise for VP nominee Joe Biden. Here's an excerpt from the event:

-- Evie Stone

h/t Jonathan Martin

5:08 PM ET | 10- 1-2008 | permalink

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Economy Stinks Up An Otherwise Pleasant Rally

Unemployment has hit a 4-1/2 year high. That announcement helped to ensure that the economy would play a big role on the campaign trail today. John McCain said tax cuts and free trade are the answer to the rising unemployment. NPR's Scott Horsley said the numbers were the dark spot of an otherwise upbeat rally in Cedarburg, WI. McCain told the crowd he knew what they were facing;

"All you ever asked of Government was to stand on your side. Not in your way. That's what I intend to do. Stand on your side and fight for your future."

-- Michael Olson

4:23 PM ET | 09- 5-2008 | permalink

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Obama Woos Big Sky Vets

Obama Woos Big Sky Vets

Don Gonyea/NPR

 

Senator Obama met with military families and veterans in a bucolic setting in Billings, Montana today. In front of a backdrop of a lazy river, trees, and a mountain, he pledged to do more for Americans veterans. Veterans' programs need to be better funded for the long term, he said. And veterans' hospitals need the resources to be able to provide the care and benefits vets have earned.

Despite the outdoor setting, this was a town-hall meeting. And overall it was a friendly crowd. The questions mainly focused on vets issues...but other topics came up too. One elderly gentleman suggested a higher gas tax to help fund infrastructure improvements like better roads and more passenger railroads. He noted that many veterans in a wide open place like Montana have a hard time getting to a veterans facility for care.

Senator Obama said he doesn't want to do anything to increase the burden on people already struggling to afford high priced gasoline. But he used the moment to pitch his call for greater auto fuel efficiency and for investment in alternative energy sources.

Another man stood up and greeted Senator Obama with a deep-throated "thank you, very much" and then noted that he must sound like Elvis. The candidate asked if he was about to break into song. Instead the man launched into a statement about nuclear waste. He is opposed to nuclear power and doesn't want any more waste produced, since it could wind up being stored in a spacious state like Montana or Nevada.

Obama said he was going to disagree with the man, "slightly". The Senator said nuclear power produces no carbon emissions, so it should be a part of the mix in a new energy policy for the country.

The Senator bid everyone a farewell, after noting that Montana has been his favorite discovery of the election campaign. (And after last night's dynamic speech from a bolo-tied MT Governor Brian Schweitzer he has more than one reason to feel that way.)

And off he went. Next stop: Denver.

-- Don Gonyea

3:07 PM ET | 08-27-2008 | permalink

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Biden's Speech

Biden delivered his remarks with impressive fire -- arguably it was a better performance than Obama (who has been suffering from a cold) was able to muster today.

In the section of the speech most noteworthy to pundits and strategists, Biden acknowledged his long friendship with (and respect for) John McCain...

I'll say straight up to you -- John McCain and the press knows this, is genuinely a friend of mine. I've known John for 35 years. He served our country with extraordinary courage and I know he wants to do right by America.

...and then lengthily assailed the GOP nominee's policy positions -- establishing that he is ready to take on the traditional running-mate attack-dog role, even against a friend:

But the harsh truth is, ladies and gentlemen, you can't change America when you boast. And these are John's words, quote, the most important issues of our day, I've been totally in agreement and support of President Bush. Ladies and gentlemen, that's what he said. You can't change America when you supported George Bush's policies 95% of the time. You can't change America when you believe, and these are his own words, that in the Bush administration we've made great progress economically. You can't change America and make things better for our senior citizens when you signed on to Bush's scheme of privatizing social security. You can't change America and give our workers a fighting chance when after 3 million manufacturing jobs disappear, you continue to support tax breaks for companies who ship our jobs overseas. You can't change America and end this war in Iraq when you declare and, again, these are John's words, no one has supported President Bush in Iraq more than I have, end of quote. Ladies and gentlemen, you can't change America, you can't change America when you know your first four years as president will look exactly like the last eight years of George Bush's presidency.

Awkwardly, after several repetitions of "you can't change America if..." referring to McCain, the audience started chanting "yes, we can!" -- creating a bit of a mixed message. And there was another minor slipup, when Biden accidentally referred to Obama as "Barack America." (Though if we were Freudians we'd think that was not such a bad mistake.)

But for the most part the speech was a strong start to Biden's VP candidacy. As NPR's Ron Elving notes, Biden has a reputation for being egotistical -- but he may well be a terrific salesman if he turns his attention to a brand other than himself. Biden is a blunt guy, and in this speech he seemed genuinely enthusiastic, as in this expressive moment:

Ladies and gentlemen, I know I'm told I talk too colloquially, but there's something about this guy. There's something about this guy. There's something about Barack Obama that allows him to bring people together like no one I have worked with and seen. There's something about Barack Obama that makes people understand if they make compromises they can make things better.

The full text of Biden's remarks, as delivered, after the jump.

-- Evie Stone

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5:40 PM ET | 08-23-2008 | permalink

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Biden Cracks Wise in Speech

In his first speech as Barack Obama's running-mate, Sen. Joe Biden says people sit around their kitchen tables talking about their household budgets...but John McCain would have to "figure out which of the seven kitchen tables to sit at." Zing! And...a sign that Biden won't be pulling punches against his longtime friend and colleague during this campaign.

-- Evie Stone

3:45 PM ET | 08-23-2008 | permalink

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Obama's Speech

Obama opened with some Biden bio, including a long list of the hardships Biden has endured -- the childhood stutter; the car crash that took the lives of his wife and daughter shortly after he was elected to the Senate (Biden, then 30, was sworn into the Senate in his son's hospital room); the aneurysm that nearly killed him. It was a bit jarring -- making Biden seem a bit cursed? But all in service of this point:

Tragedy tests us -- it tests our fortitude and it tests our faith. Here's how Joe Biden responded. He never moved to Washington. Instead, night after night, week after week, year after year, he returned home to Wilmington on a lonely Amtrak train when his Senate business was done.

(snip)

Out of the heartbreak of that unspeakable accident, he did more than become a Senator -- he raised a family. That is the measure of the man standing next to me. That is the character of Joe Biden

Obama also highlighted Biden's foreign policy gravitas -- arguably the key reason for his selection.

He looked Slobodan Milosevic in the eye and called him a war criminal, and then helped shape policies that would end the killing in the Balkans and bring him to justice. He passed laws to lock down chemical weapons, and led the push to bring Europe's newest democracies into NATO. Over the last eight years, he has been a powerful critic of the catastrophic Bush-McCain foreign policy, and a voice for a new direction that takes the fight to the terrorists and ends the war in Iraq responsibly. He recently went to Georgia, where he met quietly with the President and came back with a call for aid and a tough message for Russia.

Joe Biden is what so many others pretend to be -- a statesman with sound judgment who doesn't have to hide behind bluster to keep America strong.

Full prepared remarks are after the jump.

-- Evie Stone

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3:21 PM ET | 08-23-2008 | permalink

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Oops!

Obama, introducing Biden:

Let me introduce to you the next President -- the next Vice-President! -- of the United States.

-- Evie Stone

UPDATE: The McCain campaign was all over this, immediately issuing the following statement:

Barack Obama sounded as though he turned over the top spot on the ticket today to his new mentor, when he introduced Joe Biden as the next president. The reality is that nothing has changed since Joe Biden first made his assessment that Barack Obama is not ready to lead. He wasn't ready then and he isn't ready now.

3:14 PM ET | 08-23-2008 | permalink

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McCain at the Urban League

In contrast to the warm words he had for Barack Obama before the NAACP last month, John McCain's speech to the National Urban League conference today opened with a dig at his Democratic rival:

You'll hear from my opponent, Senator Obama, tomorrow, and if there's one thing he always delivers it's a great speech. But I hope you'll listen carefully, because his ideas are not always as impressive as his rhetoric.

After that attention-grabbing start, McCain took up his topic of choice with predominantly African-American crowds: education and economic opportunity. He gave the same speech (almost word for word) that he gave before the NAACP. And I spoke to a few members of the audience who noticed.

The response to the speech was tepid, but the crowd lit up during the Q&A. Questions focused on crime, affirmative action and McCain's views on oil drilling. The "race card" debate of the past 24 hours did not come up.

There were two especially interesting exchanges:

Someone asked him why he voted against a federal holiday for Martin Luther King Jr. in 1983. McCain's answer -- "because I was wrong" -- got the biggest applause of the day.

And Urban Leage President Marc Morial asked McCain whether as President he would encourage the Justice Department to go after civil rights violations (in cases of police brutality, etc). McCain's response swiped at a recent Bush Administration scandal: "not only that, Marc, I will commit to you that that US Attorneys will be appointed strictly on the basis of qualifications and not political connections."

Also of note, McCain gave a shout-out to Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, praising him for signing a school choice (voucher) law in that state. Jindal, an Indian-American, has been a prominent contender in the veepstakes rumor mill.

-- Audie Cornish

1:15 PM ET | 08- 1-2008 | permalink

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Obama der Hoffnunghandler

In a highly-anticipated speech in Berlin this afternoon (evening, Berlin time), Barack Obama put out a call for greater cooperation between the US and Europe, and challenged his audience to bear "the burdens of global citizenship...to protect our common security and advance our common humanity."

The speech reportedly drew a crowd of more than 200,000. That's more than double Obama's previous turnout record, an estimated 75,000 in Portland, Oregon back in May. The most notable visual: the number of Old Europeans waving American flags.

Obama invoked the 1948 Berlin air lift as a symbol of the beginnings of hope for post-war Germany, along with the dawn of the Marshall Plan and the rise of NATO (perhaps as a metaphor for the potential of a postwar Iraq?). And he echoed and broadened Ronald Reagan's famous 1987 call to tear down the Berlin wall:

[T]the greatest danger of all is to allow new walls to divide us from one another. The walls between old allies on either side of the Atlantic cannot stand. The walls between the countries with the most and those with the least cannot stand. The walls between races and tribes, natives and immigrants, Christians and Muslims and Jews cannot stand. These now are the walls we must tear down.

Obama called on both Europeans and Americans to "help answer the call for a new dawn in the Middle East," to combat global warming, nuclear proliferation, and terrorism, and to address poverty, AIDS, and oppression worldwide. Adapting a refrain from his stump speech, he presented the crowd with a call to action: "people of Berlin, people of the world, this is our moment. This is our time."

-- Evie Stone

3:10 PM ET | 07-24-2008 | permalink

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