Tuesday, September 16, 2008

McCain AD Revives Immigration Debate

John McCain went fishing for Hispanic votes in New Mexico, Nevada and Colorado by releasing a TV ad that accuse Barrack Obama of being no friend of them. The Democratic candidaye holds a substantial lead among Hispanic voters. But if the Republican candidate could shave a 5% or 10% of those votes in these critical states, McCain could carry them.

The ad attributes the failure of last year's comprehensive reform bill in the senate to Obama's support of some "poison pills" -- amendments that caused some on one side or the other to abandon the whole reform effort. Specifically the ad singles out the Democrats' support for a system of family preferences over education and skill for allotting visas and Obama's support for restrictions on the guest-worker program.

Immigrant advocacy groups were quick to denounce the ad, saying the real cause for defeat of reform was the wave of nativist hatred created by talk radio and spoked the Republicans. (See Arizona Republic article and NY Times analysis of the ad.)

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