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McCain camp announces 'jobs first' plan from Mexico

by Nick Juliano
Published: Thursday July 3, 2008

Some grim US employment data emerged Thursday, showing 62,000 jobs were lost in June. Meanwhile, Republican presidential candidate John McCain responded with his proposal for a "jobs first" economic plan. The statement was released while McCain was wrapping up a trip to Mexico.

Not missing an opportunity to slam the GOP candidate for his support of open trade that many blame for lost US manufacturing jobs, Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean said the candidate was "hurting America."

"On the same day John McCain is in Mexico promoting NAFTA, we find out America lost another 62,000 jobs last month because of the failed Bush-McCain economic policies that have been a disaster for our country," Dean said in an e-mailed statement. "How much longer must this go on before George Bush and John McCain realize their economic policies are hurting America? What we need is a President who will put American workers first and give hard-working families a tax break."...

Complete article here: http://rawstory.com/news/2008/McCain_camp_leaks_details_on_jobs_0703.html

'Mushy middle' hard to reach for Obama, McCain

Associated Press
Published: Thursday July 3, 2008

They're the most fickle voters, and potentially the most powerful. Thus, with party nominations secure, John McCain and Barack Obama now are pushing toward the center to win them over.

Meet the "mushy middle," a complex chunk of people likely to decide the presidential election but difficult to reach and hard to please.

"Yes, we can!" isn't floating their boat. Nothing much is, from either candidate.

They aren't uniformly conservative or liberal, and they don't fit strict Republican or Democratic orthodoxy. They aren't typically engaged in politics, and they don't much care about the campaign. And like so many others, they are extraordinarily pessimistic.

"To me, it's not about the party, it's about who is the best person for the job," says Pam Robinett, 47, from Wellington, Kan., who always votes. Then again, "they'll all lie, cheat and steal to get what they want."

Talk about a tough sell.

"The country's going to go to hell in a handbasket with this election," seethes James Nauman, 55, from Lutz, Fla. "I don't think Obama's qualified and McCain's another Bush. Neither of them really have impressed me."

Both will try.

A recent AP-Yahoo News poll finds that 15 percent call themselves moderates and aren't solidly supporting a candidate. More than half of this still-persuadable middle is made up of independents...

Analysis: Presidential rivals hide immigration similarities

By DAVID ESPO
Jun 30, 5:33 PM (ET)

(AP) Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.,stands onstage as he is introduced to...
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WASHINGTON (AP) - When it comes to immigration, Barack Obama and John McCain generally agree. It's just that they don't want to say so.

Instead, the White House rivals accuse one another of flinching when it mattered most, during and after last year's Senate debate on a bill that would have given millions of illegal immigrants a path to citizenship.

McCain "was a champion of comprehensive reform, and I admired him for it," Obama said Saturday in an appearance before The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials. "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."

McCain had spoken earlier in the day to the same group, and his campaign swiftly countered his rival's charge. "Obama put politics first and supported 'poison pill' efforts to kill the immigration reform compromise last year," it said in a written rebuttal.

(AP) Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and his wife Cindy walk down the...
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If the disagreement seems somewhat forced, the motives behind it are straight forward.

The issue is important to Hispanics, who make up a large and growing minority of the electorate, and may hold the balance of power this fall in the potential battleground states of Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico as well as Florida.

Obama is out to win over as many as possible of the 75 percent of Democratic primary voters who chose Hillary Rodham Clinton over him, and then begin attracting Latino voters who went for President Bush in 2004.

As a Republican, McCain has a somewhat more complicated challenge. He can't afford to have conservatives who view immigration legislation as amnesty sit out the election. But he also can't allow his share of the Hispanic vote to recede to pre-Bush levels.

Based on McCain's words and Obama's voting record, there is a measure of truth in what both sides say, even though the two men supported the bill with provisions to secure borders, crack down on employers who hire illegal immigrants, expand guest worker programs and provide a path to citizenship for millions in the country illegally.

McCain and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., were leading advocates of the measure, which died in the Senate amid criticism that it offered amnesty to illegal immigrants...

Meet McCain's VP Pick

Poor Bastard

Our Troubled Country: Trashing America by Endless Immigration

By Frosty Wooldridge
June 29, 2008

The more America imports millions of illegal alien migrants from the third world as well as legal immigrants from ancient cultures, the more the third world manifests itself within the United States. California features in excess of four million illegal aliens as well as millions of immigrants arriving from third world countries. The predominant aspect of those cultures allows careless and endless tossing of trash anywhere at anytime. Across America today, by adding 2.1 million third world new comers, mostly poor, uneducated and without any background for personal responsibility--America’s highways, cities, rivers, beaches, parks and most pristine areas suffer soiled baby diapers, tossed junk, used oil, chemicals and worse--tossed indiscriminately across our land. Today, Los Angeles suffers 200,000 cubic yards of trash thrown everywhere annually without concern that must be cleaned up at a cost of millions of dollars. The video below presents a grim picture of what every community faces with massive immigration loads.

“In the late 1990s I co-owned wrought iron fabrication business located in the heart of this area,” said Robert Spence. “It was just as disgusting and depressing as shown in this video, particularly after a weekend, when the industrial areas were deserted, and the 3rd worlders dumped unopposed. It was rare that we did not start a week on Monday without a dead dog or other animal, many of which we saw alive on Friday, littering the area.

“Large amounts of rotting garbage, obviously from the local catering trucks, was routine. Perhaps the most disgusting find was a full sized green plastic garbage can, full of what appeared to be human excrement. “And one of the cruelest was a cardboard box full of baby kittens. We had ”factory cat" that had adopted us, and she had found the box of kittens and was in the process of carrying them, one by one, back into our factory. This is an ever expanding 3rd world cesspool that will rise like a flood until it eventually consumes those who now express apathy toward the illegal invasion, and even those who think that supporting the illegals will somehow buy them immunity. “Let's see if our politicians and religious leaders are quite so smug when seas of rotting filth are lapping at the boundaries of their homes. Better yet, let's sentence L.A.’s Mayor Villagarosa's and Vance's of this world to relocate into the festering areas of South LA and Townsite. Kinda’ like making slumlords live in their own decaying apartments.”...

McCain: Immigration reform �top priority� for first 100 days

by Mosheh Oinounou
FoxNews

June 28th, 2008 1:44 PM Eastern

WASHINGTON, DC — Boldly declaring that he will make comprehensive immigration reform his “top priority,” during his first 100 days in office, Sen. John McCain today assured Latino leaders that they will have an ally in the White House.

“It will be my top priority yesterday, today, and tomorrow,” McCain told the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Saturday. “Immigration reform will be my top priority because we have the obligation to address a federal issue from a federal standpoint. I will reach across the aisle again and work in a bipartisan fashion. We will resolve the immigration issue in America and we will secure our borders.”

McCain made the statement in response to a question about his Oval Office priorities after mainly focusing on the economy during his opening remarks to the group. He addressed NALEO this morning just before his Democratic rival spoke, noting at the top of his remarks that he was hoping the conference could have served as a forum for his joint-town hall proposal.

While McCain mostly avoided attacks on Obama—not even taking his usual shot at the Democrat’s support for a labor-backed amendment that hurt last year’s Senate immigration effort—the Illinois Senator exercised no such restraint.

Instead, McCain noted the battle he had with his own party during the failed comprehensive immigration reform effort...

Report: McCain meets with president of Log Cabin Republicans

posted at 7:27 pm on June 25, 2008 by Allahpundit

Unconfirmed as yet by the campaign, but the LCRs say it’s so:

A source with close ties to the Log Cabin Board of Directors provided information about the meeting to GayPatriot earlier this week. This source disclosed that the Log Cabin meeting was not reflected on Senator McCain’s published schedule in advance and the meeting…

Log Cabin President Patrick Sammon confirmed the meeting with Senator McCain in email correspondence with GayPatriot earlier today…

Based on published news reports, the meeting with Senator McCain would be the first between any national-level gay Republicans and a Republican Presidental nominee since “The Texas 12″ met with then-Governor George W. Bush in 2000.

One of Maverick’s more appealing mavericky qualities during the campaign has been his attempt to expand the tent by reaching out to minority voters. The rift’s not going to be healed anytime soon and he surely realizes it, but this gets us a tiny bit closer to healing it eventually. It’s commendable that he’s willing to devote resources to the task. What’s especially impressive — or insane, from the strict Machiavellian point of view — is that meeting with the LCRs could actually cost him votes among the most strident members of a social conservative base that’s not real keen on him to begin with and even less so after he dumped Hagee and Parsley. Surely there aren’t so many gay Republicans and independents that winning them over will offset the potential loss in votes among evangelicals, so what’s McCain’s game here? Or is there no game at all and he’s simply acting out of decency towards a GOP constituency?...

"Shit, he makes ME look conservative"

Obama holds 12-point lead over McCain, poll finds

Laura Rauch / Getty Images, LM Otero / Associated Press

According to a Times/Bloomberg Poll, 49% of registered voters favor Sen. Barack Obama while 37% support Sen. John McCain.

A Times/Bloomberg Poll says that in a two-man contest, 49% of respondents favor Barack Obama, while 37% support John McCain. With Ralph Nader and Bob Barr added to the mix, Obama holds 15-point edge.

By Doyle McManus, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
2:00 PM PDT, June 24, 2008

WASHINGTON -- Buoyed by enthusiasm among Democrats and public concern over the economy, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) has captured a sizable lead over Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) at the opening of the general election campaign for president, the Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg Poll has found.

In a two-man race between the major party candidates, registered voters chose Obama over McCain by 49% to 37% in the national poll conducted last weekend...