You're not the only one. Warned then that Arnuld's "the other guy is worse" argument would become the sole GOP rallying cry. Seems we were right and the pic featured below is just as timely now as it was then.
Posted on 09/04/2008 10:58:17 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
ST. PAUL, MINN. - Republican John McCain's primary campaign almost collapsed last year under the weight of opponents' attacks that he backed "amnesty" for illegal immigrants.
As McCain prepares to accept his party's nomination for president tonight, past critics of the Arizona senator's position have rallied behind his candidacy.
McCain, meanwhile, has backed away from signature immigration legislation and signed off on a party platform that makes a fence along the Mexican border a priority.
The party's Twin Cities unity on immigration bridges, for now, an increasingly charged ideological rift for Republican candidates and campaigns.
"We don't go around talking about things we disagree with John on," said Jon Fleischman, a California delegate and the publisher of the Flash Report, a conservative Web site. "Even taking those into account, he's vastly better than Barack Obama."
Added Mike Madrid, a Latino political consultant: "The family feud is over now."
McCain inflamed immigration critics in 2005 when he and Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass, introduced sweeping legislation that would have provided a path to citizenship for an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants now in the U.S.
Many Republicans rejected the bill, describing it as amnesty for people who had broken the law.
Teresa Dix, a Republican delegate from Lake Elsinore, initially supported former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney for the presidency and was wary of McCain's position on immigration.
On Wednesday, Dix said she was convinced that the Arizona senator was attuned to the financial toll of illegal immigration in Inland Southern California.
"I think he understands that we're very concerned about the effects on our economy," Dix said. "It's crippling."
Added Rep. David Dreier, R-San Dimas, "He fought like a tiger for his bill, and he failed. Now he's gotten the message."
Still a Priority
Campaign spokesman Rick Gorka said McCain would quickly move to enact the more widely accepted portions of his comprehensive immigration reform plan, if he is elected. Foremost among that, he said, is a strengthened border.
He rejected the notion that McCain has flip-flopped on the issue. McCain, he said, would still favor a path to citizenship, provided that undocumented immigrants pay taxes and learn to speak English.
The GOP platform has stronger language. Adopted Monday, it refers to "illegal aliens" and rails against so-called sanctuary cities, opposes giving driver's licenses or in-state tuition rates to undocumented immigrants, and condemns any form of amnesty.
"The rule of law suffers if government policies encourage or reward illegal activity," the platform reads. "The American people's rejection of en masse legalizations is especially appropriate given the federal government's past failures to enforce the law."
Appealing to Latinos
Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia, R-Cathedral City, said a hard party line on immigrants could make it harder for Republicans to attract Latino voters. In July, the nonpartisan Field Poll found that Latinos preferred Obama to McCain 64 percent to 21 percent.
"The party's platform is written by and supported by the Republican Party activists. It's not written by the general American public," Garcia said.
McCain, she said, has tried to address the issue fairly, he said.
"Whether you agree with him or disagree with him on immigration, he's working on the issue," she said.
That McCain has remained to the left of his party's conservative base on immigration shows the bipartisan appeal that Republicans hope will bring votes to the GOP ticket in November, said Bill McLaughlin, a delegate from Upland.
"We have to reach across the aisle," he said. "McCain has been very successful at finding ways to make things work."
Democrats' View
A June USA Today/Gallup survey found Obama essentially tied with McCain on handling illegal immigration.
The Democratic platform calls for more spending on border security. It also sets out a path to citizenship for people in the country illegally. The Democrats' platform does not mention "illegal aliens."
"Passions fly on immigration, but I don't know anyone who benefits when a mother is separated from her infant child or an employer undercuts American wages by hiring illegal workers," Sen. Obama, D-Ill., said in his acceptance speech last Thursday.
During the Republican convention's first three days, no high-profile speaker had mentioned the subject.
Immigration wasn't always such a volatile topic, said Stu Spencer, a former advisor to President Reagan, who signed landmark immigration legislation in 1986.
It increasingly became one. In 1994, California voters approved Prop. 187, which would have denied social services to people in the country illegally. Courts later prevented it from taking effect.
In recent years, business groups, backed by President Bush, have tried to get Congress to approve temporary worker programs. Immigration critics, including some in the mass media, have bitterly opposed those efforts.
The debate fueled the GOP primary fight for the 2008 nomination. Romney trashed McCain for supporting "amnesty." Romney has since endorsed McCain.
Some past rivals are still unhappy.
Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., whose aborted presidential campaign centered on criticizing illegal immigration, recently told the National Journal that McCain was the "lesser of two evils" on the issue.
I posted the portion of the platform text relating to immigration yesterday:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2073455/posts
2008 Republican Platform (final) — Excerpt on Immigration
Not a ton of illegals there as hard labor pays well in Alaska courtesy of oil and fishing...
Sarah appears to have common sense about politics and real-life issues.
The border issue is a no-brainer for many Americans, but politicians are either getting money from donors or wanting to mint new voters for their personal re-election.
I think she could have some impact on McCain.
“the platform text relating to immigration yesterday”
If el McCain subscribes to that tonight, it looks like little Sally gets a pony, I get my Red Ryder BB gun and all the conservatives in Whoville have a very Merry Christmas!
Even if McCain wanted to put a stop to illegal immigration and kick out those who are here, could he do it with a Dem congress?
susie
Obama would not be better on the issue and he’s so much worse on others.
susie
Believe it. I've seen more than one Alaskan hit the 'aliens' threads with comments about illegals in Alaska. They're there. They're in Hawaii, too. They aren't all Mexican/Central/South American, but they're there alright.
Hernandez told Cong Tancredo that "The Ministry" exists is to increase the flow of Mexicans to the US TO SERVE Mexico’s needs including: $10 billion annual remittances to Mexico (30% of Mexico's GDP); employment for Mexico's exploding population, to alleviate Mexican social instability, and to provide job training for Mexicans THAT THEY WILL BRING BACK TO MEXICO.
Hernandez told Tancredo: ‘’By Mexico populating the US with millions of Hispanics tied economically, politically and linguistically to Mexico, our government is able to exert enormous influence and pressure on US policy and its dealings with Mexico.’’
Get ready for a massive transfer of US wealth to greedy federales in the Mexican hellhole. The sap-happy whining about "hopeless people" looking for a "better life" here is nonsense. Hernandez and other Third World gov't agents have infiltrated the US political system for ONE REASON: to effect a massive transfer of US wealth. Third World federales are salivating at the thought.
History shows the Huns, the Vandals, and the Barbarians used force to taleover a country to loot its resources. Third World parasites like Hernandez use the US political system to divide and conqueur. They seek to conquer without firing a shot. We can look forward to lettuce pickers stripping down to camouflage and shoulder holsters, roaming our streets, shooting to kill anyone who dares to speakout.
The invaders violated our borders for a "better life" (sarc) and while flipping hamburgers, they cleaned out the US Treasury, looted SS, UI, Disability, EITC, Workmen's Comp, welfare; they shut down numerous hospitals, sued everything in sight, and made big bucks selling drugs to American youth. Now they'll retire in luxury at beachfront condos with multiple US govt checks rolling in.
More reasons to declare these agents of corrupt Third World governments invading our country "enemies of state."
This costly insanity is destroying our country and should not be romanticized by silly drivel designed to perpetuate the internal chaos illegal immigration is creating here.
TELL JOHN MCCAIN Americans are not willing to surrender our country to the destructive forces of illegal immigration.
A FENCE IS NOT ENOUGH:
1) end the anchor baby policy
2) end welfare benefits for non-citizens
3) end subsidized health care and public education for non-citizens
4) swift and harsh jailtime for employers of illegals, plus seizure of assets
5) end voting with forged documents and stolen SS nos
6) if all else fail, declare illegals "enemies of state," overthrow the anti-American
Mexican regime in favor of a non-corrupt, capitalistic government.
Give up if you want to, I don’t intend to.
susie
Good list. One that is certain to be ignored regardless of who is elected president.
Washington ignores the will of the American people at their own peril. Patience is wearing very thin.
There---fixed it---with your help.
A FENCE IS NOT ENOUGH:
1) end the anchor baby policy
2) end welfare benefits for non-citizens
3) end subsidized health care and public education for non-citizens
4) swift and harsh jailtime for employers of illegals, plus seizure of assets
5) end voting with forged documents and stolen SS nos
6) place U.S. military force at the border
7) if all else fail, declare illegals "enemies of state," overthrow the anti-American
Mexican regime in favor of a non-corrupt, capitalistic government.
That means the illegal entrants in the United States are not "immigrants" of any kind.
At best they are simply tourists without visas.
“We don’t go around talking about things we disagree with John on,” said Jon Fleischman, a California delegate and the publisher of the Flash Report, a conservative Web site.”
And thats precisely the problem. If not now, when?
You're not the only one. Warned then that Arnuld's "the other guy is worse" argument would become the sole GOP rallying cry. Seems we were right and the pic featured below is just as timely now as it was then.
Thanks for putting up with me, Liz. Just couldn’t let it go without inserting our troops. After all, they’re the only ones in our Mickey Mouse federal government who know how to get the job done, and done right.
You mean enforce laws, the Democrats don’t do that...
They certainly don’t enforce laws that get in their way.
susie
McCain promises to remove himself from public office on January 21, 2009 regardless the outcome of the general election this year.
The angry little liberal may choose either resignation or self destruction.
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