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McCain's Mixed Messages on Immigration?

NDN has followed U.S. Sen. John McCain's track record on Immigration. The latest is John McCain's second ad on immigration in Spanish. Andres commented on the ad during an interview with NPR:

"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..."

Marisa wrote about the ad, and NDN has long advocated on: 1) the importance of the Hispanic vote (this demographic could very well swing several southern and western states in this election), and 2) the issue of immigration as a motivating factor in the way many Hispanics vote regardless of whether they are native or foreign born - this is thanks to the GOP strategy of turning the debate on immigration into a debate on whether Hispanics should be in this country.

Actually, McCain's message on immigration is not mixed at all - since 2006 he's been consistently against immigration reform. The first and second ads focus on misrepresenting Obama's position on immigration, but at no time do they state McCain's position - much less go as far as saying that McCain supports immigration reform. Instead, since the GOP now recognizes that Hispanics respond negatively to these anti-Hispanic attacks, they created the same kind of degrading ad except this time they (inaccurately)attribute the comments about Mexico and immigrants to Barack Obama.

So will McCain's attempt at making Obama seem anti-Hispanic work? Andres is right - it's not working. NDN and analysts across the board believe the large numbers of Hispanic voters in Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada and Florida could be decisive in those swing states. Our latest polling in these states showed that Barack Obama is ahead of John McCain by at least 30 points among Hispanics in the Southwest, and specifically on the issue of immigration, Hispanics believe Barack Obama would do a better job than John McCain. Even in Florida, where the candidates were even among Hispanics (42%-42%), when asked about immigration, 42% of voters trusted Barack Obama to better handle the issue over 37% preferring John McCain. The largest difference was in Nevada, where 60% of Hispanics trusted Barack Obama more on the issue of immigration, while only 18% preferred John McCain.

And the latest ad makes no sense when put in context - on the one hand, the McCain campaign launches this ad to attempt to portray Obama as anti-immigrant, while on the other hand, they create another ad in English and Spanish that attacks Obama for allegedly voting against allowing people to own guns in order to defend themselves from these "criminal aliens" who are "crossing illegally into our country." So which is it?

In a year when the Hispanic electorate has nearly doubled from what it was in 2000 (from 7.5 million to approximately 14 million this year), given that Hispanics make up a large part of the electorate in key Southern and Western states, and given that Hispanics are mobilizing to get out the vote, to vote early and vote absentee in those states, it does not bode well for John McCain.

 

 

Hey Buddy, Spare a Trillion?

A trillion here, a trillion there... A new ad from Barack Obama  critiques John McCain for his profligate spending plan. Obama wonders: Can we afford John McCain?

Obama Sits Down to Talk to You About the Economy

The Obama campaign released yesterday the third in a series of long-form ads in which he sits down and talks to the camera about the economy.  This one is the most effective yet.  Barack is more natural than in the first, and provides more, clearer detail than in the second. He's very clear about the strengths of his tax plan-- particularly the benefits it offers to the middle class. It's a shame these longer spots so rarely make it to TV...

New Obama Ad Attacks Golden Parachutes

The Obama campaign put out a new ad this morning riffing on the main Democratic triumph in the bailout bill: caps on executive severance pay. The primary target is McCain campaign advisor Carly Fiorina, who walked away from HP with a $42 million goodbye gift. Barack Obama says that's got to change.

New 1-Minute Obama Ad on the Economy

Barack Obama just released a minute-long ad not unlike his two-minute spot last week.  He sits down, looks you in the eye and tells you what he's going to do about the economy. 

Obama talks about keeping people in their homes, about investing in new clean energy and infrastructure, and about putting the middle class first.  It's a powerful statement:

Do You Believe We Should Talk with Chavez?

US Sen. John McCain seems to have gotten pretty tired of talking about the economy, and understandably so. After a week of losing on economics issues,  McCain's latest ad attempts to bring the discussion back to foreign policy, where he has a percieved advantage.

The ad hammers Obama for a comment he made in a primary debate, saying he would meet with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, among other less-than-friendly world leaders, without precondition.  Obama has since backtracked on that point

 

This may begin to set the stage for Friday, when the two candidates face off in a foreign policy-themed debate.

 

New Ads from McCain Hit Obama on Economy

A pair of ads from the McCain campaign attempt to recover some of the losses that McCain has suffered in the polls this week after getting thrashed by the Obama campaign on the economy.

"Advice" criticizes Barack Obama for taking advice on the economy from Franklin Raines, former chairman and CEO of Fannie Mae.  You can guess why that might be a bad thing, but  the Washington Post-- the source cited in the ad's attacks on Raines-- reports that the connection between Obama and Raines is much more tenuous than the add would lead you to believe.

 

 

"Patriotic Act" goes after Joe Biden for his suggestion that paying higher taxes was a patriotic thing to do. This ad, at least, is based on something Biden actually said.

 

 

Seems to me that after landing a lot of punches last week, John McCain has been forced to backpedal all week, and is playing defense on the economy.

New Two-Minute Obama Ad on the Economy

U.S. Sen. Barack Obama on the economy, in two minutes:

 

As Simon wrote, Obama does just what he needs to do here: Sit down, look at the camera, and tell the American people how he plans to fix our economy. This is an issue on which he should be dominating, and I have a feeling he's about to pull ahead.

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