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McCain and Obama Slammed for Spanish-Language Immigration Ads
By the DiversityInc staff
September 19, 2008
Keywords: McCain, Obama, immigration, Spanish language, advertising,
presidential election, Senate, reform, Bush, Rush
Limbaugh
Presidential
candidates Sen. John McCain and Sen. Barack Obama both have been running
deceptive ads about each other's positions on immigration, according to an
editorial in The New York Times.
McCain
fired the first salvo in a Spanish-language ad accusing Obama of "helping to
kill immigration reform last year by voting for amendments that supposedly
doomed a bipartisan bill," according to The New York Times. "The ad lamented the
result: 'No guest worker program. No path to citizenship. No secure borders. No
reform. Is that being on our side?'"
In
fact, according to the editorial, it was the GOP--unhappy with the path to
citizenship in the bill--that led a filibuster that ultimately killed the bill.
McCain at first supported the bill, but conservative outrage caused him to
change his mind and distance himself from any type of path to
citizenship.
Obama's
ad--also in Spanish--is similarly misleading, stating that McCain is "a friend
and full-bore ally of restrictionists like Rush Limbaugh, even though Mr.
Limbaugh has long attacked Mr. McCain's immigration moderation," the editorial
states. "It quotes Mr. Limbaugh as calling all Mexicans stupid and ordering them
to 'shut your mouth or get out,' which he never did."
For
the record, Obama supports the three "pillars" of immigration reform: tougher
enforcement, expanded legal immigration and a path to citizenship for illegal
immigrants already in the United States. McCain also supported those pillars and
at one time crafted a bill that included them, but pressure from his party has
caused him to change his message to tighter border security as the country's
highest priority in addressing immigration, according to the editorial.
Click here to read the full editorial in The New York Times.
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