Maloney, McCain: Immigration & Demagoguery

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Hi everyone. Welcome to today's visitors from Hobbs, NM, Omaha, Concord and Camirillo, CA, Knoxville, Ewa Beach, HI, Venetie, AK, Wasilla, AK (hi Sarah!), Juneau, AK, Washington, DC, Rome, Italy, Chesham, UK, Southfield, MI, Rome, GA, Gaithersburg, MD, Pittsburgh, PA, Winston Salem, NC, and Beggs, OK.

Please visit the John McCain for POTUS site at: http://disc.yourwebapps.com/discussion.cgi?id=240445

LATER TONIGHT (SUNDAY), I'LL PUT UP MONDAY'S COLUMN, WHICH WILL DEAL WITH THE (LONDON) ECONOMIST MAGAZINE'S VERY POSITIVE WORDS ABOUT JOHN MCCAIN.


Also, read the terrific opinion piece by Jack Kelly on "McCain is NOT the Enemy." You can find it by going to: http://post-gazette.com/forum. If you have a blog, please recommend this fine essay to your visitors.


I wrote the following to a radio friend (J.) who asked me about the Bill Russell campaign and expressed the view that John McCain’s immigration approach amounted to supporting “criminal invaders” of the U.S. My problem is that a term like “criminal invaders” is talk-show demagoguery. It’s just plain evil. It doesn’t distinguish an impoverished Guatemalan mother sneaking across the border from, say, Muhammed Atta. If I lose J. as a friend, well, maybe that was a friend I don’t need. Here’s what I said:

I support Bill (and gave him 400 bucks) but he appointed a new campaign manager and the strategy seems to be to wait for a miracle. Bill Russell is a good guy and maybe a great guy, but he doesn't seem to want to wage the hand-to-hand combat necessary to make real inroads into Murtha's big lead. Sad to say, but I'm trying to tell the truth a lot these days.

In politics, J., half a loaf is the equivalent of a five-tiered wedding cake. There are no perfect candidates, and those who claim to be send up a "hold-onto-your-wallet" signal.

There are also some fine "conservative" (sorta/maybe/coulda/woulda) candidates, like Duncan Hunter and Jim Gilmore (now a trivia question) who attract more flies than voters. Hunter was a good man with status in the House and a presence in Moneyland, USA. He raised $1.8 million and never got up to 1% in the national polls. Murtha has probably raised more money by now.

And then we had the "ideal" conservative, Fred Thompson, the laziest man in the history of American politics. Besides having a stomach problem and belching four times per minute, he finished behind Ron Paul in every state except South Carolina (where Fred finished a weak third).

Is immigration really the issue that most staunch conservatives believe it is? Gee, how did Tom Tancredo (who also came out against legal immigration) do? How did Duncan Hunter do? How does immigration rate (about sixth or seventh) on the issues people care about?

Immigration -- "criminal invaders" notwithstanding -- is a non-issue, J. Ask Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, one of whom will be the next President, "resolve the issue?" Check out the Dem debate, and you'll find exactly what their commitment to border security -- nonexistent -- is.

A lot talk show hosts (not referring to you of course) got rich on immigrant-bashing, but it is not an issue that is going to play any significant role in elections. Some of the Republicans who were the most anti- lost badly, including Hayworth in AZ and Santorum in PA. People in PA (outside Hazleton) don't care about immigration. They care more about getting Hispanic votes, which McCain, Clinton, and (to a lesser degree) Obama did in FL.

Ann Coulter has come out and endorsed Hillary, and, perhaps for the first time in her life, she's being honest. (Now that I say that, about her honesty, I don't believe it). She's a political whore who makes money by saying offensive things about other people. The big-time talk show people are squealing now because it's become clear that they are irrelevant -- they're profoundly stupid, relentlessly glib individuals.

I hope they follow Ann's lead and endorse Hillary. I sure as hell don't want them on my side.