McCain, Obama, and La Raza
By Chad Groening
OneNewsNow, July 10, 2008
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Election2008/Default.aspx?id=171852
California-based immigration reform activist doesn't think either Barack Obama or John McCain will say anything critical of La Raza when they address the Hispanic rights group's annual convention in the next few days.
San Diego will host La Raza's national convention July 12-15. Senator Obama is scheduled to address the group on July 13, with Senator McCain on tap the next day. Rick Oltman, national spokesman for Californians for Population Stabilization, doubts either candidate will say anything against La Raza's agenda that favors illegal immigration.
'I think that's a fair assumption that neither Obama nor McCain will be critical of La Raza,' he observes.
But Oltman still expects to gain some insight from the candidates' appearances. '[I]t will be interesting to hear how they dance around the fact that we should have immigration enforcement,' he says. 'I think the days are long past that a candidate can go into a group like this and just tell them exactly what they want to hear — [such as] that there's going to amnesty for all — because we're all going to be watching.'
Neither candidate, says Oltman, will be able to ignore the immigration issue and will have to address it at some point during their remarks.
Speaking on Tuesday before the League of United Latin American Citizens in Washington, DC, Obama pledged to push through immigration reforms that would give America's 1.2 million illegal immigrants a form of citizenship; while McCain said he remains committed to passing the kind of immigration legislation that angered many Republican voters last year, but underscored his intention to first secure the nation's borders.
