Senator Obama has been courting the Hispanic vote, and inflating his resume at the same time. Anyone who followed the Republican primary last year, knows that Senator McCain's campaign virtually imploded because of his work on the bi-partisan immigration bill. His campaign did have money problems, and faced difficulties with Senator McCain's full-throated support of the surge strategy in Iraq. However, the reaction of conservatives to the immigration bill was overwhelming and decidedly clear. They didn't want it, and they didn't want anyone associated with it. Senator Obama, while being of little help at the time is now taking credit for the bill, while trying minimize Senator McCain's role.
One difficulty with this approach is that the previous year's attempt at immigration reform was titled McCain/Kennedy. Can the Obama campaign name any legislation with his name in the title? Can the campaign name any bipartisan legislation worked on by Senator Obama besides ethics reform, which far from controversial? Can they name any association Senator Obama had with a Republican? McCain's association with Kennedy is routinely sited by Republicans as proof that he's 'not really one of us'; anything like that from Obama? Did Senator Obama receive death threats like Senator McCain did for his work on the immigration bill? Can the Obama campaign site just one politically risky move that Senator Obama has ever made? For Senator Obama to misrepresent himself and Senator McCain in this way is in incredible act of hubris and deception.
Obama Overstates His Role On Immigration - Chicago Sun Times
No matter if you are—or are not — voting for presumptive GOP nominee Sen. John McCain (R-Az.), he deserves credit for trying to forge a bipartisan deal on immigration in 2005 and 2006 at great personal political risk, a situation unfamiliar to rival Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.)Editor's Note: I typically save my most blatant pro-McCain rants for the blog McCain Independents
McCain put his comeback presidential bid in peril because of his leadership role with Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) to find a path for millions of illegal immigrants to stay in the U.S.
In the meantime, Obama on the campaign trail inflates his leadership role — casting himself as someone who could figure out how to get something done. Obama “did not absolutely stand out in any way,’’ said Margaret Sands Orchowski, the author of “Immigration and the American Dream: Battling the Political Hype and Hysteria,” and a close follower of the legislation.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a McCain ally and a key player on immigration, said Obama was around for only a “handful” of meetings and helped destroy a 2007 compromise when he voted for making guest worker visa programs temporary. A permanent guest worker program was to be a trade for a legalization program to cover many illegal immigrants.
On Thursday in Fairfax, Va., Obama was asked about his qualifications to understand Latino needs. After noting his work as a community organizer and state senator — he spoke of McCain. “John McCain bucked much of his party and worked with Ted Kennedy, worked with me and others to help shape comprehensive immigration reform legislation in the Senate. And I thought that was courageous of him.” Obama, in a sly verbal stroke, made himself an equal on immigration leadership to Kennedy and demoted McCain to a helper.
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