Oppenheimer's Straight Talk on John McCain
Posted by Matt Ortega on May 5, 2008 at 01:20 PM
Columnist Andrés Oppenheimer ripped John McCain over his embrace of the right-wing on immigration in Sunday's Miami Herald. Oppenheimer, an award-winning journalist, writes that following an interview with the presumptive GOP nominee, "I left with the distinct impression that he is moving steadily backward from his once progressive stand on immigration."
Hmmm. I smelled a significant shift in McCain's position. From what I recalled, McCain's 2005 immigration reform bill, which he sponsored alongside Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., called for simultaneous measures to secure the border with Mexico and an earned path to legalization for millions of undocumented workers who are already in the United States.
Later, when he was running for the Republican nomination and faced an outcry from the anti-immigration wing of his party, he backpedalled to a two-step immigration approach: He said we must first secure the border, and only then deal with undocumented workers.
Now, it seems, he has retreated even further from his original stand and is proposing a three-step process, in which providing for a path to legalization of millions of undocumented workers would come at the very end.
Oppenheimer concludes:
McCain will be making a historic mistake if he continues caving in to immigration hawks in his party: He will never convince them that he is one of them, and he will lose the Hispanic vote that he needs to get to the White House. Worse, he will undermine his own claim that he is a straight-talk candidate and a true leader.
Comments - 6 »
Comments - 6 «
What is his real position and can anyone trust him to do what he is saying now? Or will McCain change his mind again and stab the Far Right in the back? He's done it before and thumbed his nose at them.
Posted by SandyH on May 5, 2008 at 01:37 PM
"Worse, he will undermine his own claim that he is a straight-talk candidate and a true leader."
Huh! Too late, he has already undermined any claim he has ever might have had towards any type of leadership.
The only thing left is to tattoo a bar code on his forehead.
Posted by Butte on May 5, 2008 at 01:42 PM
So far the only thing straight in McCains talk is right to another point of view.You can`t be all things to all people pal.He`s doomed.On one believes anymore.
Posted by virgo on May 5, 2008 at 04:57 PM
How do we know WHO the person of McCain is? He is constantly transgressing or changing colors like a camelion. He wants people to see him as a "maverick" but talks like a Hawk.
Hillary is also making a mistake when she changes back and forth from being for the war, to being progressive and back again for being a "fighter" and threatening obliteration of Iran. It seems she is trying to be McCain and do it better.
Posted by leftrebel on May 5, 2008 at 06:10 PM
How do we know WHO the person of McCain is? He is constantly transgressing or changing colors like a camelion. He wants people to see him as a "maverick" but talks like a Hawk.
Hillary is also making a mistake when she changes back and forth from being for the war, to being progressive and back again for being a "fighter" and threatening obliteration of Iran. It seems she is trying to be McCain and do it better.
Posted by leftrebel on May 5, 2008 at 06:11 PM
I remember thinking, before 2004, I could vote for John McCain. I watched him buck his party and the president on torture and tax cuts to the rich. Then one day I was sitting there and saw him hugging on Bush in an airplane and I declared out loud, "He sold his soul to the devil." He is a ghost of the man he used to be. The NRC must be a tough group - Do as we say or forget the nomination.
Posted by newsjunkie on May 5, 2008 at 11:57 PM
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