Presumptive presidential nominees Republican Senator John McCain and Democrat Senator Barack Obama are battling for votes in the Hispanic community, the fastest-growing minority group in the US and one that is expected to be an important bloc in the November election.
Each candidate sought to capitalize on an issue important to the Hispanic community — immigration reform — with McCain calling it his “top priority,” and Obama accusing the Republican of caving in to conservatives on the issue.
The two spoke separately on Saturday to some 700 Hispanics attending the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials conference. It is the first of three such appearances each candidate is scheduled to make to Hispanic organizations in less than a month, underscoring the importance of a voting bloc that is expected to carry a great deal of weight in such battleground states as Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico and others with large numbers of Spanish-speaking voters.
Both McCain and Obama support an eventual path to citizenship for millions of immigrants in the country illegally, and, the issue is therefore not expected to be a major point of differentiation in the campaign. Still, Hispanics will be paying careful attention to what is said on the subject.
McCain cosponsored broad bipartisan Senate legislation last year that would have overhauled the immigration system and improved border security; the legislation split the Republican Party as critics pushed for a border-enforcement only approach.
After the measure failed, and in the heat of the Republican nomination race, McCain emphasized the need to secure the borders first before enacting other reforms, which he said were still needed.
McCain drew applause after answering the question of whether “comprehensive immigration reform” — and not just enforcement — would be a top priority in his first 100 days in office.
“It will be my top priority yesterday, today and tomorrow,” McCain said. “We have to secure our borders ... but we also must proceed with a temporary worker program that is verifiable and truly temporary. We must also understand that 12 million people are here, and they are here illegally, and they are God’s children.”
Appearing later, Obama accused McCain of walking away from comprehensive immigration reform.
“One place where Senator McCain used to offer change was on immigration. He was a champion of comprehensive reform, and I admired him for it. But when he was running for his party’s nomination, he walked away from that commitment and he’s said he wouldn’t even support his own legislation if it came up for a vote,” Obama said as the crowd interrupted him with applause. “We can’t vacillate. We can’t shift.”
Like McCain, Obama also was asked how broad immigration reform will rank in importance at the outset of his presidency.
“It will be one of my priorities on my first day because this is an issue that we have demagogued,” Obama said.
Responding to Obama’s criticism, McCain’s campaign issued a statement that said Obama “worked to kill” last year’s Senate legislation by voting for amendments to it that Democratic sponsors opposed.
A recent AP-Yahoo News poll showed that Obama leads McCain among Hispanics, 47 percent to 22 percent with 26 percent undecided.
Still, Obama, who is trying to become the first black US president, does not have a lock on the diverse group. During the Democratic primary, Hispanics preferred rival Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton to Obama by nearly two-to-one.
McCain is hoping to build on recent Republicans’ inroads with Hispanic voters. US President George W. Bush captured about 40 percent of the Hispanic vote in 2004, the most ever for a Republican presidential candidate.
Also on Saturday, McCain met privately with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani. Afterward, McCain said the war-ravaged country is making significant but fragile progress.
He expressed confidence about prospects for the two countries completing a complex agreement that would keep US troops in Iraq after a UN mandate expires at year-end. McCain also attended an evening fundraiser in Kentucky.
Earlier on Saturday, Obama made a previously unannounced stop at Walter Reed Army Medical Center to visit wounded war veterans. His campaign also announced that Obama would be visiting the Middle East and Europe this summer. He’ll likely go to Jordan, Israel, Germany, France and Britain.
Obama has said previously that he intends to visit Iraq and Afghanistan this summer but his campaign would not say whether those stops would be part of the trip to the Middle East and Europe.
Eleven people, including a former minister, were arrested in Serbia on Friday over a train station disaster in which 16 people died. The concrete canopy of the newly renovated station in the northern city of Novi Sad collapsed on Nov. 1, 2024 in a disaster widely blamed on corruption and poor oversight. It sparked a wave of student-led protests and led to the resignation of then-Serbian prime minister Milos Vucevic and the fall of his government. The public prosecutor’s office in Novi Sad opened an investigation into the accident and deaths. In February, the public prosecutor’s office for organized crime opened another probe into
RISING RACISM: A Japanese group called on China to assure safety in the country, while the Chinese embassy in Tokyo urged action against a ‘surge in xenophobia’ A Japanese woman living in China was attacked and injured by a man in a subway station in Suzhou, China, Japanese media said, hours after two Chinese men were seriously injured in violence in Tokyo. The attacks on Thursday raised concern about xenophobic sentiment in China and Japan that have been blamed for assaults in both countries. It was the third attack involving Japanese living in China since last year. In the two previous cases in China, Chinese authorities have insisted they were isolated incidents. Japanese broadcaster NHK did not identify the woman injured in Suzhou by name, but, citing the Japanese
YELLOW SHIRTS: Many protesters were associated with pro-royalist groups that had previously supported the ouster of Paetongtarn’s father, Thaksin, in 2006 Protesters rallied on Saturday in the Thai capital to demand the resignation of court-suspended Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and in support of the armed forces following a violent border dispute with Cambodia that killed more than three dozen people and displaced more than 260,000. Gathered at Bangkok’s Victory Monument despite soaring temperatures, many sang patriotic songs and listened to speeches denouncing Paetongtarn and her father, former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, and voiced their backing of the country’s army, which has always retained substantial power in the Southeast Asian country. Police said there were about 2,000 protesters by mid-afternoon, although
MOGAMI-CLASS FRIGATES: The deal is a ‘big step toward elevating national security cooperation with Australia, which is our special strategic partner,’ a Japanese official said Australia is to upgrade its navy with 11 Mogami-class frigates built by Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles said yesterday. Billed as Japan’s biggest defense export deal since World War II, Australia is to pay US$6 billion over the next 10 years to acquire the fleet of stealth frigates. Australia is in the midst of a major military restructure, bolstering its navy with long-range firepower in an effort to deter China. It is striving to expand its fleet of major warships from 11 to 26 over the next decade. “This is clearly the biggest defense-industry agreement that has ever
RSS