John McCain

Hijos de Dios

El New York Times publicó un artículo hoy sobre el nuevo aviso televisivo que Mc Cain lanzó en Colorado, Nevada y Nuevo México- estados a los que aquí en NDN hemos prestado mucha atención por su porcentaje del electorado hispano y por la importancia que tendrán en las próximas elecciones.

Verán en el video de Mc Cain que su estrategia es hacer precisamente lo opuesto a lo que el GOP ha estado haciendo hacia ahora con respecto a los hispanos- glorificando a los latinos, señalándonos como héroes de guerra dispuestos a dar su vida por un país que aun no les ha concedido la ciudadanía. Todo cierto, pero ¿en serio Señor McCain? si le importa tanto a usted que se reconozcan la buena obra de los inmigrantes hispanos en ésta nación ¿por que es que no lucha por nosotros? ¿por que retiró su apoyo por el proyecto de ley que nos hubiese dado un sendero a la ciudadanía?. Cuando se asustó de haber enojado a los conservadores de su propio partido retiró su apoyo por su proyecto de ley, y en las últimas entrevistas en que se le ha preguntado sobre inmigración, usted ha dicho que no apoya su propio proyecto, mi pregunta es ¿como piensa usted, Señor McCain, reconocer las virtudes de los inmigrantes hispanos?

"Del dicho al hecho hay un largo trecho". Estos nuevos avisos televisivos son solo parte de una estrategia para volver a ganar el apoyo de las comunidades hispanas en ciertos estados claves, pero su voluntad hacia ayudar a los hispanos es poco creíble. Por eso no me sorprende que Obama aún lleve el liderazgo en cuanto al voto latino.

NDN's Andres Ramirez to Speak on Latino Voters at the National Council of La Raza Annual Conference

NDN's VP for Hispanic Programs, Andres Ramirez, will speak as a panelist during the National Council of La Raza's (NCLR) Annual Conference Andres will address NCLR members, affiliates, individuals and corporations from across the country during the following panel, which is part of NCLR's Latino Empowerment and Advocacy Project (LEAP):  

Latino Voters:  Making Their Mark on the 2008 Election

Tuesday, July 15

8:30 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.

San Diego Convention Center, San Diego, CA

Andres will present analysis of Latino demographics, registration and voting patterns, the issues that motivate Latino voters, as well as the potential impact of the Hispanic vote on this election cycle.

To learn more about the the Latino vote in the 2008 elections and this year's NCLR Annual Conference, continue to follow our blog in English and Spanish as write more on this throughout the weekend.

Old Man McCain: Updated, Revised and Worrisome

Over the last several months, I've written a series of essays about how U.S. Sen. John McCain was turning out to be one of the worst candidates we've ever seen run for President (for the latest see here and here). His montrous flip flops, the serial mistatements about enormous issues like the difference between Sunni and Shiite, the number of troops in Iraq, his position on Social Security, his vote on the 1986 Immigration Act, his position on Immigration Reform today, his admission that he doesn't know how to use a computer. The list seems endless now.

Add that he loaded up his campaign with active lobbyists, certain to draw negative attention, his bumbling of the rehiring of Mike Murphy, and the new extraordinary set of things this week - well chronicled here by Max Bergman on the Huffington Post - and it all adds up to a man simply not up to the job of running for -- or actually being -- President of the United States. In a recent appearance, I even surmised that the GOP would become so concerned with his performance that there would start to be a quiet movement to replace him at the Convention with another candidate. This moment may be upon us as the media, and the public now has no choice but to confront that there is a man running for President who seems so out of touch with basic facts, reality, his own voting record that one might even conjucture that it would be a grave risk for the United States to put him in charge of the country.

After a Republican era where governing always played 2nd fiddle to politics and power - resulting in one of the worst governments in our history - we all hoped McCain would represent a break from the truly disapointing politics of the Bush era. But his performance these last few months shows that his lack of seriousness and knowledge about policy - even running an ad saying that his energy and drilling proposals would immediately address high gas prices when everyone knows this to be, let us say, not true - shows that the McCain candidacy has itself become an extension of this awful Republican era that did so much to harm the national interests of the United States, leaving us less prosperous, less powerful in the world and certainly less free here at home.

In putting Steve Schmidt, a Bush/Rove protege, in charge of his campaign, McCain has told us all exactly what kind of man he has become, and what kind of Presidency we can expect.

Lincoln Díaz-Balart ataca a Obama

El Congresista Republicano Lincoln Díaz-Balart acusó abiertamente ayer a Obama de no tener idea del problema migratorio. Declaró también que es absurdo que Obama trate de tomar crédito por su lucha por reforma migratoria, ya que -según el- Obama trabajó en contra de la reforma migratoria integral.

Lo que es absurdo es que se critique a alguien que - a diferencia de McCain- ha mantenido su posición a favor de una reforma migratoria desde el principio. Es ridículo también que se le acuse de ir en contra de la reforma cuando fue verdaderamente un líder en buscar una reforma balanceada, presionando al Congreso para que encontrara una solución que reflejara un acuerdo o término medio entre las dos posiciones, introduciendo enmiendas que hubiesen priorizado mantener la unidad de los inmigrantes con sus familias y castigado a aquellos empleadores que contrataran inmigrantes ilegales.

Asímismo, Obama, conjuntamente con el Representante Demócrata de Illinois Luis Gutierrez, introdujo el Acta de Promoción de Ciudadanía (el cual controla los precios de las solicitudes de ciudadanía para asegurar que sean justos y razonables). Obama también introdujo legislación que fue aprobada en el Senado para mejorar tanto la rapidez como la exactitud de las investigaciones de antecedentes que realiza el FBI como parte del proceso para obtener la ciudadanía.

¿Cómo, entonces, puede tener la osadía el Sr. Díaz-Balart de denunciar a un candidato que ha mantenido su posición firmemente sobre una reforma migratoria integral, produciendo respuestas y soluciones genuinas a uno de los problemas que más incomoda a nuestra nación? Y especialmente cuando el candidato al que el Sr. Díaz-Balart respalda, el Sen. Mc Cain, ha cambiado su posición notablemente. Consideremos principalmente que dicho cambio de opinión cumplió un rol instrumental en que el proyecto de ley McCain-Kennedy (su propio proyecto), que presentaba una reforma migratoria amplia e integral, no fuera aprobado en el Senado. Mi pregunta es; ¿Cómo podemos apoyar a un candidato que no se apoya a sí mísmo?

Energy and Climate Take Center State in Campaign

It's official, energy is now at the very heart of the 2008 Presidential election. While it is unfortunate that it took $4 gas prices, America, all the way to oilman T. Boone Pickens (except, of course, for President Bush), has woken up to a new energy reality. The RNC has responded with "balance," a $3 million ad buy coming on the heels of an ad series from the McCain campaign touting his energy security credentials.

Balance: 

McCain has chosen to make energy security his central issue in this year's campaign. And, while his policies do not match his rhetoric - drilling offshore and suspending the gas tax would do nothing "now" to lower energy prices and would ultimately exacerbate climate change - he has seized what is now the number one issue of the campaign and one of the only issues he has a shot on, running ads in battleground states and forcing Obama to respond. The ad is especially ironic as it features the Republican Party criticizing the Democratic candidate for President for being "just the party line" in a year in which Democrats have a 10 to 15 point party ID advantage.

Obama's response, "New Energy," debunks the RNC/McCain promise of action "now," announces the Obama plan, and actually has some particulars that would make a difference in both energy prices and climate change:


The fact that energy and climate change are at the center of this election, with a sitting President who does not even acknowledge any real need to act on climate change, represents a fundamental shift away from Bush politics and the Bush era. The candidate who wins this election will be the one who shows the American people they best understand it.

Tomorrow morning at 8a.m. in room 325 of the Russell Senate Office Building, NDN will host Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Jeff Bingaman for an address on climate change. This is the first in a series of events this month from the NDN Green Project's effort to understand this new energy and economic era. For more information on this event and to RSVP, click here.

Obama y McCain hablan hoy en Conferencia de LULAC.

Los Senadores Obama y McCain hablarán en la Conferencia de LULAC (la Liga de Ciudadanos Latino Americanos Unidos, por sus siglas en inglés), celebrada ésta semana en el Hotel Hilton de Washington DC. Cabe destacar que ésta es la segunda vez en un período de dos semanas en que dichos Senadores se dirigen hacia el electorado latino (y lo harán pronto otra vez en la conferencia de NCLR-Consejo Nacional de La Raza, que se celebrará en San Diego). El New York Times publicó un artículo hoy que contiene más información.

Mc Cain habló hoy al mediodía y Obama lo hará a las 4:30 PM, en el evento titulado “Diálogo Abierto con Obama”. También la Senadora Clinton hablará este Viernes a las 7 p.m en el Banquete de los galardones congresionales.

El tema principal de la Convención de LULAC será la importancia del voto latino en determinar al próximo presidente de los Estados Unidos. Los candidatos saben que necesitan contar con el respaldo de la comunidad latina para poder ganar la presidencia, y por eso es que están compitiendo tan activamente por el voto latino, que no hace más que crecer en importancia. En cuatro de los seis estados en que Bush ganó por un margen de 5% o menos en el año 2004 (Nuevo México, Florida, Nevada y Colorado) los hispanos representan una minoría con mucha importancia (en Nuevo México son un tercio de la población), y estos estados serán territorio de competencia una vez más en las próximas elecciones.

Para más información sobre dicha conferencia visite www.lulac.org/convention.html

UPDATE: McCain's Weak Candidacy - Becoming Conventional Wisdom?

Over the last few months, I've been making the case that McCain is one of the worst candidates we've seen run for President in modern times. On the two most important issues in the campaign - the economy and the war - he provides unambiguous support to the wildly unpopular and failed positions of President Bush. He trails Obama by mid single digits in most national polls, is only running in the high 30s or low 40s, is 15 points or so behind where Bush ended up with Hispanics, is not ahead in any of the 17 states that make up the Democratic base of 248 electoral college votes, and is not definitively ahead in the Southerwestern states around Arizona that supposedly know him best (in fact Obama has solid leads in CO and NM). He is an erratic and often boring beyond imagination public personality, and has been making regular and routine mistakes on the stump that I believe should be getting more attention than they have to date, as they raise questions about his basic command of facts, his own voting record and the world around him. His repeated flip-flops on major issues makes it clear he is much more ambitious pol than virtuous reformer.

Yes, Simon, we know you think this is a bad campaign and McCain a bad candidate. But why then is Obama only ahead of him by 4-6 points? Remember, my friends, that Democrats have only broken 50.1% in the national popular vote once in the last 60 years of politics, and a 4-6 point win in Presidential politics is a landslide. McCain has been on the national stage for many years, is a true war hero and his party still controls the White House. Obama only burst on the stage four years ago, has that unusual name, got quite beat up during a very tough primary, and of course is the first bi-racial candidate in our history. That Obama is ahead at all at this point to me is surprising.

Dan Balz captured some of this emerging convention wisdom yesterday in this post on McCain's Colombia trip.

By November (probably even by August), McCain's trip to Latin America will have been long forgotten, but it is a symbol now of a campaign that has yet to find its cruising speed. The time spent in Colombia and Mexico matters less than the message it sends -- or perhaps more correctly, the absence of a message that it sends. What is McCain trying to tell voters by this visit?

McCain could not have made this trip because he needs to burnish his foreign policy credentials. That may be part of the motivation for Obama's upcoming trip to the Middle East and Europe: Obama wants to demonstrate that he is not intimidated by going head-to-head with McCain on international issues. He will use the overseas trip as well to bask in some of the glow that his candidacy has created abroad.

Obama's trip makes political sense. McCain's doesn't. McCain's strongest suit already is national security. Virtually every poll shows that Americans regard him as fully experienced on those issues. Voters may disagree with McCain's policies, which means there is an opening for Obama to challenge the presumptive GOP nominee on foreign policy. But demonstrating familiarity with foreign leaders or regional issues won't do much for McCain at this point. People assume he has that.

Public opinion shows deep skepticism about the value of free trade agreements. Is McCain's purpose in going to Colombia and Mexico designed to show how willing he is to buck public opinion, to demonstrate that he is prepared to take unpopular stands? That seems unlikely. Every politician this year is looking for ways to feel the pain of their constituents. McCain is no exception. He may be for free trade but he isn't looking to flaunt it to struggling workers.

Instead, take the trip as a metaphor for a campaign still not quite through its long shakedown period. McCain has had months to make the transition from nomination battle to general election, but still appears to lack the kind of cohesive operation he will need to win in a very difficult environment for the Republicans.

The McCain campaign can point to national polls that show the race with Obama is still close. Most polls have the margin in single digits. But Republican strategists outside the campaign worry that, unless McCain develops a more coherent strategy and message, he'll have difficulty winning in November. They are not in despair, but the concern is rising. McCain is aware of these concerns, but it's not clear how much he shares them.

It is useful to recall that a year ago, McCain's campaign imploded, with chief strategist John Weaver and campaign manager Terry Nelson handing in their resignations and the top level of the communications shop following them out the door. Almost no one gave McCain any real chance of winning. Seven months later he had clinched that nomination.

His situation now is hardly comparable. But he can't count on the mistakes of his rival to boost him in the general election the same way he was able to do in the primaries. When he returns from Colombia and Mexico and hunkers down for the holiday weekend, he will no longer have to answer questions about where he was. But will he have the answer to the question of where he goes from here.

 

And of course, yesterday Old Man McCain acknowledged this corrosive weakness himself, when he replaced his 2nd campaign manager of his Presidential campaign with his 3rd. The Post covered it this way:

Facing growing dissatisfaction both inside and outside his campaign, Sen. John McCain ordered a shake-up of his team yesterday, reducing the role of campaign manager Rick Davis and vesting political adviser Steve Schmidt with "full operational control" of his bid for the presidency.

Schmidt becomes the third political operative in the past year to take on the task of attempting to guide McCain to the White House. A veteran of President Bush's political operation, Schmidt will be in charge of finding a more effective message in the Arizona Republican's race against Democratic Sen. Barack Obama, who leads in most polls.

In a telephone interview, Schmidt said that McCain faces a difficult challenge, given the overall mood of the country, but that he is encouraged by the race remaining relatively tight.

"There are 125 days left until the American people will decide the next president," he said. "Senator McCain is the underdog in the race. We suspect he is behind nationally five to eight points but well within striking distance. I will help run an organization that exists for the purpose of delivering John McCain's message to the American people." Schmidt is also expected to abandon Davis's plan to put roughly a dozen regional campaign managers in place around the country.

The abrupt shift in leadership, announced to McCain's staff yesterday morning, came after weeks of complaints from Republicans outside the campaign and growing concerns within it about the lack of a clear message, the cumbersome decision-making process, the sloppy staging of events, and a schedule driven largely by fundraising priorities rather than political necessity.

"There's not a cogent message," one Republican strategist said yesterday, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "They've been attacking Obama every day, but it doesn't tie back to an overarching theme that McCain believes in."

The problems crystallized this week, with McCain on a three-day trip to Colombia and Mexico, where he is talking about trade and drug trafficking, an exercise even some insiders considered a waste of the candidate's time.

"They've been playing this ripped-from-the-headlines game. Whatever is hot or interesting for the day is what they've been talking about," said one former McCain adviser who is no longer with the campaign.

 

So far I think the press has not been as nearly as tough on McCain as they could have been. It will be interesting to see if we are headed towards a big political elite downward arrow for McCain and his merry band of men, a downward arrow they certainly deserve.

For more on McCain, view these recent essays: The Story of the Race So Far - The Surprising Weakness of John McCain, Senator McCain, Clarify Your Position on Immigration, Old Man McCain and Senator McCain, Careful What You Wish For or click on the McCain tag and see what you else you can find from the rest of the very able NDN team.

Saturday, July 5, update - The New York Times has a new story this afternoon which looks, gently, at McCain's struggles as a public speaker.

Saturday, July 5, 6 p.m. update - Just found a piece in this vein, this one from Liz Sidoti at AP.

Monday, July 7, update - The WaPo has a major front page story looking at how organized conservative interests will challenge McCain at the GOP convention this fall.

Sen. McCain, Clarify Your Immigration Position

When John McCain returns from his trip to Colombia and Mexico, he needs to clarify where he stands on the very important issue of how to best fix our broken immigration system. Once a great leader on immigration reform, his recent statements make clear that to win the Republican nomination and appeal to the anti-immigrant sentiment in his own party, he abandoned legislation that he himself authored and has now betrayed the immigrant community he once championed.

For someone like myself, who has worked hard, in a non-partisan way, to fix the broken immigration system these last few years, I find it incredible that John McCain would not just abandon his strong advocacy of comprehensive immigration reform, but attempt to mislead people about his record. This past weekend, we saw him - at a very important gathering of Hispanic leaders - misrepresent his position on the last great immigration reform bill in 1986.

In this 2008 interview with Tim Russert, McCain said his own legislation was dead. In this presidential primary debate in Los Angeles, McCain said he would not vote for his own bill.

Once for comprehensive immigration reform, now against it. Once against the 1986 immigration bill, now for it. John McCain, when you come home this week from your travels, it is critical that you clarify just exactly where you stand on the important issue of immigration reform.

Quick '08 Update

- Happy July!

- In The Fix, Chris Cillizza takes a look at the speech U.S. Sen. Barack Obama delivered on patriotism.

- Via Andrew Sullivan and Peggy Noonan, The Next Right takes a look at how stories in Google news mention Obama and not U.S. Sen. John McCain by a 3:1 ratio. Not to mention the similar advantage in Google searches. So what does all this mean? More internet traffic and more money for Obama. The GOP could learn a thing or two...or more.

- Eric Alterman thinks U.S. Sen. Barack Obama could be the most effective President since Franklin Roosevelt and is running the most progressive campaign since Jimmy Carter. (via PrezVid.)

- In a look at how online strategy can mix with messaging, the Obama campaign is embracing its critics online. (I'm just waiting for the "Wall Street Wants Change" group...)

- Even though he can't pay taxes on his properties, John McCain wants everyone to have a mansion.

- Ben Pershing at the Washington Post's Capitol Briefing blog shines light on the PAC activity of a handful of folks on Barack Obama's potential VP list, particularly Gen. Wesley Clark.(Note: if you want to try to ask Clark about his comments, he'll be on CNN's Situation Room so submit your video now.)

- Speaking of VP candidates, Mike Allen writes in the Politico that Mitt Romney tops McCain's list.

- Bill Clinton and Obama spoke. Shocking. Marc Ambinder has the statements from both campaign spokesmen.

- In light of his trip to Colombia, John McCain is up with a new web ad in support of the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement. (Check out NDN's letter to President Bush on the Colombia FTA.)

- Meanwhile, Dan Restrepo, Obama's chief adviser for Latin America, commented on a possible Obama trip to Colombia, saying that Obama has said he's thought about visiting Latin America during the campaign, but that it's not easy. (via Economists for Obama.)

No Country for Old Mavericks

The last couple weeks have seen copious coverage of John McCain's inconsistency on energy policy. These discrepancies have been noted with some curiousity, but with a series of ads on energy security, McCain is clearly attempting to assume the energy security mantle in this campaign, and perhaps it is worth taking greater notice of them. After all, climate change is his signature "maverick" issue - the main issue that he claims not to follow President Bush on.

The problem is that his biggest maverick endorsers - those that he can use to paint himself as bipartisan (or as putting "Country First," his new slogan) - don't really agree with him on his maverick issue. Arnold Schwarzenegger, one of the most progressive executives in the country on energy issues and a McCain endorser, criticized McCain's offshore drilling plan as "blowing smoke." From the Los Angeles Times:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger made a veiled swipe at Republican presidential hopeful John McCain on Thursday when he said at a climate conference here that anyone suggesting offshore oil drilling could bring down gas prices was "blowing smoke."

The remark was also a dig at his host, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, who riled environmentalists, tourism promoters and the state's political leaders on both sides of the aisle last week when he voiced support for McCain's proposal to lift bans on exploring for oil off the coasts of California, Florida and the Eastern Seaboard.
...

From his podium at the conference, Schwarzenegger said, "Politicians have been throwing around all kinds of ideas in response to the skyrocketing energy prices, from the rethinking of nuclear power to pushing biofuels and more renewables and ending the ban on offshore drilling," Schwarzenegger said. "But anyone who tells you this would bring down gas prices any time soon is blowing smoke."

Another issue McCain faces is that Joe Lieberman, sponsor of the leading climate change legislation in the Senate this year, supports McCain, but John McCain's climate change goals are far more modest than Lieberman's legislation. In fact, McCain skipped the Senate vote on the issue, and indicated that he did not support the legislation.

So, if McCain is a maverick on energy, why don't his two signature maverick endorsers - both leaders on his signature maverick issue - agree with him on fundamental aspects of that very issue?

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