John McCain Wishes Hispanic Americans ¡Feliz Cinco de Mayo!

Posted by Enrique on 05.08.2008

This week, we celebrate Cinco de Mayo by looking at John McCain’s Hispanic outreach efforts. Remember that McCain guy? He’s the “maverick” GOP Senator and Republican presidential nominee-in-waiting who has a reputation for being kind of a Lefty. Case in point – McCain plans to attend the La Raza Annual Convention in July.



While poor Hillary keeps trying to justify her existence, John McCain has been trying to make productive use of his downtime. With the MSM and blogs focused primarily on the never-ending Obama/Clinton saga, McCain has been quietly raising money, giving policy speeches, and hosting town hall events, as if he has a shot in hell of winning in November. As part of this process, he's launched a Spanish language web site to celebrate Cinco de Mayo and reach out to Hispanic American voters. McCain also plans to attend La Raza's annual convention in San Diego. ¡Qué curiosidad!

The story so far…

Monday was Cinco de Mayo, a Mexican holiday that commemorates the victory of Gen. Ignacio Zaragoza Seguín in the Battle of Puebla in 1862. You'll never believe which country's forces Seguín defeated – France. Isn't that awesome? In Mexico, Cinco de Mayo is mainly a regional holiday in Puebla, but in the U.S., it's an ethnic celebration. As a political matter, it's an excuse for our elected officials to suck up to the Hispanic American electorate. There's a swank White House ceremony every year in which the POTUS makes a few pro forma remarks about how much America (hearts) Mexico. Observing the final Cinco de Mayo of his administration, President Bush pretty much mailed it in:

WASHINGTON - President Bush wished a gathering of dinner guests a "Feliz Cinco de Maya" Monday in his final White House celebration of the Mexican holiday — slightly erring in his Spanish, but serving up a reminder of how he snared Hispanic votes in the last presidential election…

"We share an interest in making sure our people are prosperous and safe," Bush said of Mexico. "In America, we deeply value the culture and contributions of Mexican Americans. The United States is a richer place, a more vibrant place because people who claim Mexican heritage are now called United States citizens. ... We consider ourselves fortunate that Mexico is a friend and a neighbor."

First of all, Suzanne Gamboa of the Associated Press is such a twerp. She just had to point out Dubya fucked up the Spanish in the goddamned lede, didn't she? This asshole has a 28% approval rating, and everyone who ever carried water for him now hates his guts, but she just had to rub his bumbling idiocy in our face JUST ONE MORE TIME. Vete al carajo, Gamboa. Secondly…okay, I don't actually have a second point. Look, we're sorry we voted for him, okay? Is that enough, Gamboa? We can't go back and change it. He's gone in less than nine months, and then we can all put the whole sordid affair behind us. No need to be petty about it.

In recent years, celebrations of Cinco de Mayo have been marked by rallies for amnesty for illegal aliens immigration reform. This year, there were marches in major U.S. cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, Houston, Chicago, and my hometown Milwaukee:

This year's event drew fewer than the throngs that turned out last year, when Milwaukee had one of the largest May Day immigrant marches in the country.

Nationally, the marches and rallies that have been staged coast to coast for three years have dropped in attendance each year as efforts to reform immigration laws have stalled in Congress and enforcement efforts have picked up.

Speaking of stalled laws, you may recall that Sen. McCain was a booster of the widely-opposed "comprehensive" immigration reform bill of 2007. His campaign cratered last summer, leading many pundits a few internet columnists to write his candidacy off. (What a bunch of idiots, huh?) But in the end McCain came back to defeat the Baptist ‘n' Mormon combo in a maverick-y fashion, without ever having to surrender his open borders cred.

Although polls consistently show that a majority of Americans (even Democrats) favor stricter border enforcement, McCain has a more nuanced view. In October 2006, McCain angered conservatives with some comments that still infuriate talk radio and rightwing blogs to this day.

[I]n Milwaukee, in front of an audience of more sympathetic businessmen, McCain had been asked how debate over the immigration bill was playing politically. "In the short term, it probably galvanizes our base," he said. "In the long term, if you alienate the Hispanics, you'll pay a heavy price." Then he added, unable to help himself, "By the way, I think the fence is least effective. But I'll build the goddamned fence if they want it."

(Confidential to my center-left readers – isn't this what you like about McCain? It's almost as if he secretly agrees with you. Sure, he says he'll appoint judges like Roberts and Alito, but he doesn't mean it.) Despite McCain's apparent contempt for the idea of a border fence, he had to move to the right during the primary. On McCain's official web site (the one in English), the "Border Security & Immigration Reform" page says a lot about protecting our border, and not a word about a guest worker program. Even so, conservatives have no reason to think McCain will be anymore serious on border enforcement than Dubya. They view McCain's current emphasis on border security as lip service designed to reassure the GOP base. The Democrats did the same thing when they paid lip service to their anti-war base in 2006, only to continuously pass supplemental spending bills to fund operations in Iraq once they were in power.

As further evidence that McCain's heart doesn't belong to the anti-amnesty wing of the GOP, he announced this week that he'll attend the La Raza Annual Convention in July. Many rightwingers consider La Raza to be a racial supremacist organization, and a bunch of whiny grievance-mongers to boot. McCain is really sticking it to his base by going to La Raza, which is exactly the maverick-y goodness that has earned him the respect of center-left America and the MSM. Remember this when the New York Times editorial board portrays McCain as an arch-conservative all summer.

Bush won over 40% of the Hispanic vote in 2004, and McCain sees the opportunity to build on that. But even if McCain gets 50% of the Hispanic vote, it probably won't replace the conservative voters who will politely decline to participate in the 2008 election. There is no motivation on the GOP side to vote for McCain, as opposed to the Democrats, who are exhilarated at the idea of electing America's first black POTUS. Even though I've written McCain off once before, I can't see how he overcomes Obama's money and turnout advantages. Plus, I get the sense that most people want to keep Republicans out of the government for the next few years. Electing McCain simply won't allow us to move on.