Tuesday, September 16th, 2008...7:02 am

Lost in Translation

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One of the things that has frustrated me about the media is that they continue to credit John McCain for advocating moderate immigration reform, even though he failed to support his own bill when the pressure came down on him.

Now he’s running this ad:

For the monolingual among you (or those that took French in high school because you thought the teacher was good looking), the ad is blaming Barack Obama and his Democratic allies for the lack of comprehensive immigration reform. Funny thing, he doesn’t run the ad in English where the folks that were trying to rip him down a few months ago can see and understand it.

Another funny thing, McCain and at least one other Republican liked Obama’s work on this bill at the time. This from the New York Times:

Still, after the bill’s failure, Senator Mel Martinez, Republican of Florida and a major backer of the bill, thanked Mr. Obama for his help, saying in a note that it “meant a lot to me personally.” And in May 2006, Mr. McCain complimented Mr. Obama for his “commitment to this issue,” and for “working to ensure this bill moved successfully intact through the legislative process.” Mr. McCain, however, said during a Republican primary debate in late January that if the legislation came back for a vote he would not support it because, “We know what the situation is today — people want the borders secured first.”

Wait, does that mean McCain is criticizing Obama for supposedly torpedoeing a bill that McCain now says he’d vote against? Now, that’s a maverick.

Folks who have been following events here in Arizona know that this is not exactly a new tactic for Republicans. Back in 2006, the Republicans were running ads on Spanish language radio claiming that they were the party standing up for immigrants. Not exactly the message the “base” wants to hear.

To paraphrase what I said then: if this is the message McCain wants to send, then he should be willing to run the ads in English during NASCAR races, doncha think?

Written by: Tedski on 16 September 2008.

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Filed under 2008 Republican Race, John McCain

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