Your reactions to our Presidential Hopefuls immigration grades

From: Roy Beck, President, NumbersUSA
Date: Thursday 20JAN2011 9:30 a.m. EST

PAWLENTY LEADING THE PACK (such as it is)

Presidential Hopefuls' Immigration Grades Stir A Lot of Comments from YOU

Here Are Some of Them -- With Our Responses

We posted the Prez Grid Tuesday and already have gotten a few hundred emails about it. https://www.numbersusa.com/hub?action=r ... 4574&lid=9

Join the spirited on-line discussion about the potential 2012 Presidential candidates at:
http://www.numbersusa.com/content/nusab ... uls-lots-r

YOU DON'T LIKE OUR GRADE FOR YOUR FAVORITE CANDIDATE?

Some of you are pretty disturbed by the ratings we are giving to the candidate(s) you are supporting.

"If you are going to become another (name of candidate) BASHING SITE, kindly remove my name and never call on me again. I will send this on to everyone I know . . . Until you talk directly with (name of candidate), you have no right to rate (so low). . . . You are going to find out just how many people you (make really angry)!"

-- Wayne

Our rather snippy answer to these responses would be this:

DON'T BLAME US FOR YOUR FAVORITE CANDIDATES' BAD IMMIGRATION STANCES. IF YOU WANT THEM TO HAVE A BETTER GRADE, START PUSHING THEM TO DESERVE ONE.

But that response from us would be a little sharp.

Please understand that NumbersUSA is interested only in immigration stances. We have no interest in promoting or demoting any candidate. We just want to provide the immigration positions in as fair and accurate of a manner as possible.

We do not purport to tell you what is in the heart of the Hopefuls or what they might privately tell somebody they plan to do.

Our Prez Grid is about what they are willing to say in public and the real actions they have taken.

If you don't like the grade and ratings that your favorite candidate has right now, you have two options: Send us a link to a quote on a news site or the candidate's site that provides evidence that the candidate is better on an immigration issue than we have stated.

Contact your candidate or his/her campaign and repeatedly urge him/her to take better immigration positions.

Later today, we will post ways for you to contact these potential candidates.

You will find the contact information on the Individual Candidate pages that you see when you click on a candidate photo on the Grid. Or you can click on their name links below in this email. As time passes, we will be finding improved ways for you to communicate with these, including faxes you can send to them through our NumbersUSA system.

We know from past experience with Presidential and congressional candidates that it generally is when their supporters start bugging them about their insufficient immigration promises that they start paying attention.

YOU'RE DEPRESSED BY THE SORRY GRADES?

Most people are depressed that not one of the Hopefuls rates even a "B."

When we added everything up, we found that as of this week of Jan. 17, 2011, Tim Pawlenty (of the 8 highest-polling Hopefuls) has the best overall platform on immigration.

But the platform is missing a bunch of planks (as are the platforms of all the others except Pres. Obama and former Arkansas Gov. Huckabee).

Here are the grades for this week of Jan. 17 (listed in point order, from best to worst):

C Tim Pawlenty (GOP--former governor of Minnesota) https://www.numbersusa.com/hub?action=r ... 4574&lid=9

C-minus John Thune (GOP--Senator from South Dakota) https://www.numbersusa.com/hub?action=r ... 4574&lid=9

C-minus Ron Paul (GOP--Representative from Texas) https://www.numbersusa.com/hub?action=r ... 4574&lid=9

D Mike Huckabee (GOP--former governor of Arkansas) https://www.numbersusa.com/hub?action=r ... 4574&lid=9

D Mitt Romney (GOP--former governor of Massachusetts) https://www.numbersusa.com/hub?action=r ... 4574&lid=9

D-minus Sarah Palin (GOP--former governor of Alaska) https://www.numbersusa.com/hub?action=r ... 4574&lid=9

D-minus Newt Gingrich (GOP--former Speaker of U.S. House) https://www.numbersusa.com/hub?action=r ... 4574&lid=9

F-minus Barack Obama (DEM--President of the United States) https://www.numbersusa.com/hub?action=r ... 4574&lid=9

Please don't accept our grades at face value. Be sure to go to the Grid to see the ratings on 12 immigration issues that led to each of those grades.

Then, click on the photo of a Hopeful to see detailed information on why each rating was given.

"I agree with your ratings and grades and that is the prime reason I could not support any of these so called front runners. Not that Im a one issue voter, just that I believe this is critical to employment of American Citizens and any equivocation shows a lack of sincerity and understanding of the illegal and legal immigration issue."

-- Tom S.

"None of your candidates is acceptable. They still aren't hearing what Americans are telling them."

-- Audrey P.

"My goodness, we don't have any other Hopefuls? I'm 67 years old and the current list makes me want to rent a boat and sail to an island."

-- Tom H.

CANDIDATES ARE PROBABLY GOING TO BE BETTER THAN THEIR GRADES CURRENTLY INDICATE

One reason for hope is that the first Primary and Caucus elections are a year away. That leaves a lot of time for voters to help these Presidential Hopefuls to understand the urgency of reducing all immigration in order to benefit unemployed Americans and taxpayers.

A second reason for hope can be seen in the 3 top-graded Hopefuls -- Pawlenty, Thune and Paul.

Their low grade is not the result of doing anything or saying anything wrong about immigration. (Note that they do not have any red symbols on their Grid.)

The problem is that while they ranked well (green symbols) in 4 to 6 immigration categories, they have done/said virtually nothing in all the others. Pawlenty, for example, rates an Excellent in two categories, a Good in three, and a First Steps in one. But those don't give him enough points to even get into B-Territory. Voters need to help him both understand the national importance of dealing constructively with the other 6 categories of immigration and the political importance for him to do so. He has to understand that doing the right thing on those 6 other immigration issues would gain him more votes than he would lose.

The same can be said for Thune and Paul. And for the other candidates whose grades are weighed down by having more than one red symbol each. That means Huckabee, Romney, Palin, Gingrich and Obama currently are taking some or several stances opposed to our low-immigration/high-enforcement solutions.

But it is possible to move a candidate out of "red" territory. Many candidates -- especially early in a campaign -- have slips of the tongue or let themselves get trapped into carelessly saying something they haven't really thought through.

This is why we want you to help your favorite candidates avoid digging themselves into a hole as they get started on the campaign trail this year.

OUR GRADING IS TOO TOUGH & 'UNHELPFUL'?

A number of people think our grading is too tough. Their disagreement with us tends to focus on the "Unhelpful" rating.

"Your rating of a D-minus for someone who had taken no stance at all is absurd. Your overall grades are far too harsh, and provide nearly no differentiation between candidates. We can agree that each of the candidates could and should be a lot better than they are, but there is a world of difference between some of the candidates, and your ratings lump them all way down. But for starters, the 'unhelpful' category needs to be changed to incomplete. I do not believe it should be held as either a plus or a minus YET."

-- Mickey F.

For the most part, the black circle symbol and "Unhelpful" rating goes to a politician who has done or said virtually nothing about that immigration issue. https://www.numbersusa.com/hub?action=r ... 4574&lid=9

How should doing nothing be rated?

Some think it should have a neutral effect. But let's take the example of the category of Chain Migration that adds around a quarter-million permanent immigrant worker visas to the country each year. For the 22 million Americans who want a full-time job but cannot find one, is a candidate merely "incomplete" by failing to do anything about potentially a quarter-million more foreign job competitors each year? Or is that candidate at the least "unhelpful?"

When it comes to the status quo, the damage is done to the American people whether a candidate aggressively supports the status quo or just silently allows it to happen.

That's why we grade silence and do-nothingness as "Unhelpful." And why a candidate who does nothing bad but also does nothing good and merely does nothing at allabout the 12 immigration issues will get a D-minus under our grading system.

Our ratings and grades reflect an urgency about the 22 million Americans who can't find that job. And about the families who are depending on them.

And our Prez Grid reflects the urgency about the federal government continuing to force massive population growth while the nation is unable to meet its infrastructure and environmental goals with the current population size.

YOU WANT OTHER HOPEFULS ON OUR GRID

Many of you have suggested others whom you would like to see us rate and put on the Grid. Feel free to use the email link underneath the Prez Grid to nominate other Hopefuls.

The 8 we are showing currently were selected based on the interest they have shown in potentially running for President, and in the interest that the news media has in them, plus their standing in the rather thin preference polling thus far.

We will be adding other people to -- and removing people from -- the Grid as these levels of interest shift. We expect to add 3 more to the Grid in the next week without taking anybody off.

But we won't consider including a person who doesn't show up in the polls unless that person has indicated at least an interest in running and unless that person already shows signs of earning a good immigration grade.

MOST GRID VIEWERS ARE PLEASED

I'm happy to report that the vast majority of you who have looked at the Prez Grid have found it helpful, credible and fair.

For example:

"If you have ever used Consumers Report to help evaluate a major purchase, then you will be familiar with the format of this Presidential Hopeful chart. In my opinion, this chart shares a striking resemblance to those early years of Consumers Reports American made autos evaluationlots of Red inkand Americans flocked to the higher quality imported cars. I think the analogy is remarkablelike the leaders of the Domestic Auto Industry, the leaders of our Federal Government just dont get it when it comes to judging what the Public wants. Or the case could easily be made that they may get it, but dont give a (flip) because we will buy it anyway. Right!!? I mean, we will buy the load of BS from one of these Hopefulsright? We dont have a choice, do weno competition from a better source seems to be part of the problem.

-- James L.

"The Prez Grid is a wonderful aid to differentiating candidates regarding their stand (or lack thereof) of immigration issues. Thank you for posting it."

-- Douglas7649 of NC

"When candidates and their campaigns see these grades, and I'm sure they will, they will realize that they have an enormous opportunity to differentiate themselves from the others by taking a stand on this important issue. I think this year one of the prominent candidates will do that, and make a name for him or herself as a leader and spokesperson for the American people."

-- Thomas2924 of IN

This will be a major effort by NumbersUSA for the next 12 months to be the prime arbiter for voters and media nationwide in weighing the immigration positions of all the candidates.

Our Prez Grid will prevent any candidate from appearing to take a stand that he/she really isn't taking. https://www.numbersusa.com/hub?action=r ... 4574&lid=9 The specificity of breaking the immigration issue down into 12 categories and in drilling down deep in each of those protects all of us from obfuscaton and campaign BS.

Thanks for any help you can give to this process,

received by e-mail from Numbers USA on Thu, Jan 20, 2011 3:04 pm.

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