McCain: Tough talk on immigration

Posted: Monday, July 14, 2008 9:18 AM by Mark Murray

At his La Raza speech in San Diego today, McCain will go after Obama today on the issue of immigration. From the excerpts: "I spoke recently at both the NALEO and LULAC conferences, as did Senator Obama.  I did not use those occasions to criticize Senator Obama. I would prefer not to do so today. But he suggested in his speeches there and here, that I turned my back on comprehensive reform out of political necessity. I feel I must, as they say, correct the record. At a moment of great difficulty in my campaign, when my critics said it would be political suicide for me to do so, I helped author with Sen. Kennedy comprehensive immigration reform, and fought for its passage. I cast a lot of hard votes, as did the other Republicans and Democrats who joined our bipartisan effort.  So did Sen. Kennedy. I took my lumps for it without complaint.

Yet critics will likely point to this debate exchange that occurred just days before Super Tuesday.
Q: If your original [immigration] proposal came to a vote on the Senate floor, would you vote for it?
McCain: It won't. It won't. That's why we went through the debate...
Q: But if it did?
McCain: No, it would not, because we know what the situation is today. The people want the border secured first. And so to say that that would come to the floor of the Senate -- it won't. We went through various amendments which prevented that ever -- that proposal. But, look, we're all in agreement as to what we need to do. Everybody knows it. We can fight some more about it, about who wanted this or who wanted that. But the fact is, we all know the American people want the border secured first…
Q: So I just want to confirm that you would not vote for your bill as it originally was?
McCain: My bill will not be voted on; it will not be voted on.

McCain's comments recently about Social Security will live in infamy with older voters later this fall in places like Iowa, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Florida. "This week, the coalition -- which began laying its plans Friday in a conference call arranged by the DNC -- will start demonstrating at McCain's events and offices, particularly in key states with many seniors. The group has ordered thousands of signs with "Hands Off My Social Security" on one side and "My Social Security Is Not a Disgrace" on the other. Although the party can work with outside groups on grass-roots organizing, campaign laws prohibit those groups from coordinating with the party on paid advertising. Some organization officials said Sunday that they anticipated acting on their own to pour money into TV and radio spots targeting McCain and other Republicans on the issue."

Bloomberg's Al Hunt writes that McCain needs a crash course on the economy. "If he wants a quick tutorial there are two useful books: ‘Unequal Democracy' by Larry Bartels and ‘High Wire: The Precarious Financial Lives of American Families,' by Peter Gosselin. They dismantle many of the policies he's espousing. These aren't ideological diatribes. Bartels, a Princeton University political scientist, says he hasn't voted in a presidential election since 1984, when he supported Reagan. Gosselin is a well-regarded national economics correspondent for the Los Angeles Times. The Gosselin book focuses on the precarious state of many American families as safety nets -- secure jobs, health coverage and pensions -- have frayed."

By the way, don't miss Carly Fiorina's interview in the column, where she admits higher taxes on the wealthiest individuals would be on the table in a McCain Administration. "In an interview, Carly Fiorina, a top adviser, explains that any tax increases on ‘middle- and working-class' Americans are off limits. She says if a bipartisan coalition is ‘creative enough' to fashion tax increases on wealthier Americans, that may prove palatable. That's encouraging, until you consider that McCain doesn't always listen to his economic advisers. A few months ago, his top advisers counseled him that any reduction in the gasoline tax was bad energy and economic policy. A short while later, he advocated suspending the 18-cent-a-gallon tax for the summer.”

Speaking of Fiorina… On Meet the Press yesterday, when asked about Phil Gramm’s controversial statements on the economy, she was quick to confirm McCain’s dismissal of Gramm’s continued influence on his campaign, NBC’s Sandy Luong notes. “I don't think Sen. Gramm will any longer be speaking for John McCain and I think John McCain was crystal clear about that this week,” Fiorina said. “I think John McCain has been very clear that Phil Gramm wasn't speaking for him and, in fact, John McCain has said now for many months that he believes the economy is in a recession”
 
“It’s clear Americans are hurting,” she continued. “They're hurting when they are filling up their cars with gas; they're hurting when they go to the grocery stores.” Fiorina went on to argue about the small negative impact Gramm’s statements had on McCain and his campaign. “Outside of Washington, where this is an interesting parlor game, I think most Americans are not really focused on what a bunch of surrogates are saying; they're focused on what the candidates are saying.”

In case you were wondering, last week wasn't exactly the perfect start for the retooled McCain effort. "This was supposed to be the week John McCain unveiled his new campaign, more disciplined and acutely focused on the economy. The goal proved elusive: The presumptive Republican nominee spent the week cleaning up after controversial statements by himself and his surrogates, and trying to counter any impression that he overlooks the pain of struggling Americans. McCain seemed to call Social Security a ‘disgrace,’ was struck wordless on video when asked whether insurance companies should have to pay for birth control and, perhaps most damagingly, had to deny his own advisor's assertion that, when it comes to the economy, America has become ‘a nation of whiners.’”

The DNC has a new Web video that brings up Phil Gramm.

A day doesn't go by without someone offering McCain advice. Here's a good piece, courtesy of National Journal's Jonathan Rauch. "To run as McCain, McCain cannot just attack Obama. ‘Offering solutions, not defining the opponent, is the key in the current environment,’ says David Winston, a Republican pollster and strategist. ‘He's got to be perceived as his own person. He's got to do a clear break with the past.’”

The Sunday New York Times had McCain comparing himself to Teddy Roosevelt again. "McCain has long admired Roosevelt, and in the interview he identified with him as a fellow reformer and environmentalist and also touched on his assertive foreign policy. The choice might to some extent be an indication of how Mr. McCain would like to position himself now that he has moved from the primary to the general election. ‘I believe less governance is the best governance, and that government should not do what the free enterprise and private enterprise and individual entrepreneurship and the states can do, but I also believe there is a role for government,’ Mr. McCain said. He added: ‘Government should take care of those in America who can not take care of themselves.’”

The Chicago Tribune’s Jill Zuckman also notes the TR comparisons. “‘If you wanted to get some insight into John McCain, what kind of figures in history that he has a good view of, Roosevelt would be at the top,’ said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). ‘He understood that Teddy Roosevelt was a flawed man, but yeah, he admires his grit, determination, taking on the special interests, his foreign policy expertise. He's a real admirer of T.R.’”

More: “‘I think what I admire most is that he had a clear vision of the role of America in the world in the 20th Century,’ McCain said in an interview, noting Roosevelt's early concerns about Japan. Asked about his own vision, McCain cited his watchfulness of China and India as they become super powers, as well as his hard posture toward Islamic extremists.”

"President Bush has left presumptive GOP nominee John McCain with a lot of problems, but the biggest may be the weak 50.7 percent of the vote that Bush received when running for reelection," the Boston Globe says. "That's a problematic number because American political parties almost always lose support when trying to secure a third term in the White House. The last time that a party improved its vote percentage after two terms was in 1928, when Republican Herbert Hoover soundly beat Democrat Al Smith, the first Catholic to be nominated to the presidency."

And: "Iran's Foreign Ministry has condemned remarks by Republican presidential candidate John McCain that exporting cigarettes could be a way of killing Iranians. The state-owned English language IRAN daily has quoted ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini denouncing the remarks as 'inappropriate' and describing McCain's attitude as 'regretful.'"

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