...McCain's raw emotions burst forth recently as he heatedly told Hispanic business leaders that they should now look to Obama, not him, to take the lead on immigration.Well, yeah they should look to Obama, because he's the president. But the idea that Hispanics owed the GOP, and McCain specifically, anything is laughable. Moreover, the idea that any voter owes any candidate anything is laughable. Immigration reform shouldn't be a "favor" to Hispanics--it should be good policy.The meeting in the Capitol's Strom Thurmond Room on March 11 was a Republican effort led by Sens. McCain of Arizona, John Thune of South Dakota, and Mel Martinez of Florida to reach out to Hispanics. But two people who attended the session say they were taken aback by McCain's anger.
What began as a collegial airing of views abruptly changed when McCain spoke about immigration, according to these sources, who asked not to be identified for fear of retribution. Anonymity was also requested by a third source, who was not at the meeting but was told, independently of the other two, that McCain had displayed his notorious temper.
"He was angry," one source said. "He was over the top. In some cases, he rolled his eyes a lot. There were portions of the meeting where he was just staring at the ceiling, and he wasn't even listening to us. We came out of the meeting really upset."
McCain's message was obvious, the source continued: After bucking his party on immigration, he had no sympathy for Hispanics who are dissatisfied with President Obama's pace on the issue. "He threw out [the words] 'You people -- you people made your choice. You made your choice during the election,' " the source said. "It was almost as if [he was saying] 'You're cut off!' We felt very uncomfortable when we walked away from the meeting because of that."
Voters are customers, and the merchant who gets pissed off at a customer who shops elsewhere is in the wrong business. Everything we've seen from McCain and Palin, post-election, simply verifies the results. They were not ready for the big leagues, and they lost not simply because of the conditions of the field, but because they were matched against a better team.
The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood 
And when your team has Tom Tancredo on it you may have some trouble recruiting.
Symbolism only counts for so much, but this is really just rich. This increasingly white/rural/southern party chose to meet with Hispanic leaders in a room named after one of their party's most famous bigots?
You sure you didn't pull this shit from The Onion?
Besides, is he saying that this is beyond his powers, as a legislator, to do anything about? Is there a single Republican who understands the part of the Constitution that describes the structure of the government?
No, he's not saying that. He's saying that, like a little kid who lost the game, he's taking his ball and going home.
What a small, pathetic little man.
This is the best article I've read that really illustrates how much we dodged a bullet by not electing such a petty, angry, tiny man:
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/23316912/makebelieve_maverick
The fact that McCain was the Republican nominee shows the dire state of that party. All of the Democratic candidates were better than all of the Republicans. How about a President Huckabee, or Romney, or Guiliani? All of them are unthinkable.
McCain's tantrum about immigration is probably because when he takes a moderate position, he catches hell here in Arizona with the wingnuts he depends on for political support.
Of course, he'll get re-elected to the Senate in 2010 no matter what he does. Napolitano is gone, and she was his only threat. The Democrats just haven't got anyone else.
McCain then proceeded to stamp his feet and hold his breath.
McCain is a raving lunatic and needs to retire to his 11 or 12 homes.
So I guess he doesn't want the Hispanic vote in Arizona when he's up for re-election either.
This incident reflects poorly on McCain, who, like Bush, never seemed to understood the politics or the economics of immigration, but Ta-Nehisi:
"Moreover, the idea that any voter owes any candidate anything is laughable. Immigration reform shouldn't be a "favor" to Hispanics--it should be good policy."
The devil is in the details, no? McCain's plan, of offering amnesty to current illegals and then importing even more unskilled immigrants as "guest workers" is bad policy. It's bad for America, because we really can't afford to import millions more unskilled immigrants who will consume more in government resources than they pay in taxes. It's also bad for American unskilled workers, because more unskilled immigrants means higher unemployment and lower wages for them. As an African American, aren't you a little skeptical about the claims by Chamber of Commerce types that they need those immigrant workers to work in their restaurants, etc., when African American unemployment rates have long been significantly higher than those of the general population? Even before unemployment rates shot up with the current recession, it seems like there was a largely untapped labor force right here at home.
Fine point, generally. But can we please move away from the "voters are customers nonsense? Government is not a service provided to voters by some abstract outside force. Voters are citizens, with responsibilities to share in the creation of our government.
Plenty of public officials would like us to think we're customers-- because that means they're the "owners." But they're not-- we are.