Ruben Navarette at Real Clear Politics posts an interesting question via McCain’s appeal (or lack thereof) to the Latino community.  Going so far as wonder aloud “How can McCain be losing Latino voters?”

Recently, I was on a Latino-themed radio show defending John McCain. The defendant was accused of abandoning comprehensive immigration reform, turning his back on Latino supporters, and associating with a bad crowd (read: Republicans).

[...]

“During the immigration debate,” he said, “it’s very clear that a lot of the language and rhetoric that was used (by Republicans) made Latino citizens believe that we were anti-Latino.“

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“Yeah,” McCain said, “we were in a restaurant and he just sent over a plate of nachos. What do you say to something like that? I just said, ‘Thanks very much.”‘

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“Throughout our history, we have had people who stoked nativist instincts,” he said.

Still, McCain’s following among Latinos is evaporating. A poll by Zogby International found that 21 percent of Latinos support McCain, compared to 70 percent for Barack Obama; the Pew Hispanic Center ranked it 23 percent McCain and 66 percent Obama.

Seeing as how McCain has been the highest profile pro-Amnesty Senator out there, how can anyone look at the complete lack of support by someone who has put his career on the line for illegal aliens be construed as anything less than a tactical error of Rumsfeldian proportions?

These people, who are in  our country illegally, are going to throw you overboard as soon as someone promises them a free ride.  McCain being the biggest example of this.  That certain cocooned Republican interests think that Mexican Catholicism is going to translate into a third way evangelical vote in a post-Amnesty world are huffing deeply from the gas rags of bad ideas while simultaneously causing a Mexican Standoff with their own base.

Thanks very much indeed, Senator.

“I’m confident that, as many more of those Latino voters focus in the next 14 days, we’ll do well,” he said.

Finally, I asked McCain if he had a message for those Latinos who have long been in his corner, as he has been in theirs. He simply expressed his hope that “they’ll just examine my record and my knowledge and my background and the judgments that I have made.” Whatever happens, he said, “I will respect their decision.”

It’s too bad that for the Republican Party’s candidate for President that he never respected his own people’s decision.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 26th, 2008 at 2:17 pm and is filed under Illegal Immigration. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.