Thread: McCain's Immigration Gamble

McCain's Immigration Gamble

Fri Jun 1, 2:54 PM ET



The Nation -- The road to immigration reform for John McCain has been a windy one. He originally drafted the proposal with Senator Ted Kennedy that passed the Senate last year. Then after taking serious heat from GOP primary voters he was largely awol from the current version, delegating responsibility to Arizona's junior Senator, Jon Kyl. Now McCain has decided to reemphasize his support for immigration reform in advance of Tuesday's GOP debate with a highly-publicized speech on Monday in Miami.

It's a risky gamble for McCain's campaign--and one that isn't likely to pay off. McCain points out that 66 percent of Republicans in a recent New York Times poll support the Senate's immigration proposal. But anecdotes among grassroots conservatives tell a different story. As the head of the Arizona Republican Party described to the Times recently, "Not a single county chairman, not a single legislative district chairman reported having a single call from a grassroots individual saying, 'Please pass this immigration bill.'" According to an April Pew poll, 68 percent of self-described conservative Republicans believe that "the growing number of newcomers from other countries threatens traditional American customs and values."

McCain is particularly angry at Mitt Romney, who supported McCain-Kennedy last year and now opposes the similar bill. Romney may be a flip-flopper but he's got a pulse on the Republican electorate. Despite three years of cozying up to the GOP base, McCain remains unpopular with many conservatives and is stagnant or sinking in the polls. It's hard to see how embracing a bill that many of these very same conservative despise will make him any more popular.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/thenation/20070 ... 45201317_1

Well, as far as I'm concerned I won't vote for any of them on the current Republican traitor list, and then Democrat side doesn't look any better.

Wasn't that "recent" poll McCain cites shown to actually tell a very different story?