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McCain "Straight Talk" Hispanic Issues
By Camille Q. Solberg
Special to the Spanish Journal
http://www.spanishjournal.com/
Racine, WI.- During a closed door interview with several local reporters in Racine, Wisconsin presidential candidate John McCain shared his positions and solutions regarding issues concerning the Latino community and the state of Wisconsin.
Responding to the fact that President Bush narrowly lost the state by approximately 5,000 votes dur ing one of his presidential runs, Senator McCain recognizes it is an up hill battle to win this state but feels his campaign is very competitive against his opponent Senator Barack Obama. I know that I have an up hill battle here and I know I have a lot of work to do. I also think that Wisconsin is one of those states viewed by some of the expe rts as a Battle Ground? state," said Senator McCain. According to McCain several national gallop polls show him trailing by one p oint, 44% to Senator Obamas 45% and in some polls Senator McCain is ahead by 3 points. He has seen their campaign close the gap in others states and feels they are close enough that we can compete. U.S. Senator John McCain's presidential campaign recently released its latest web video entitled "Barack Obama Forgot Latin America." The web video points out that during Barack Obama's speech in Berlin as a citizen of the world did not mention a city or country in Latin America.
The Senator believes that he has something going for him against his opponent here in Wisconsin. He spoke of a belief in ethics that leads to good and clean government. "I have reached across the aisle and worked to reform government. Right now Amer icans want government reform very badly. So I think I have that going for me. But my challenge is to portray a positive plan of action to fix the economy so I can make a case for reform. I have to make a case for prosperity and then I have to make a cas e for peace as well," stated20the Senator. Senator McCain expressed his support for offshore drilling. The Republican candidate for President of The United States shared that during his talks with oil executives he has been told that we could see increased supply within months using existing facilities and (more) within a relative short time if there allowed to explore the areas that they wan t20to. Offshore=2 0drilling is an absolute national security requirement!," added McCain. Within the issue of drilliing there are environmental and state concerns that need to be satisfied.
In responding to questions that affect Hispanics, McCain responded to immigration reform first. We have been asked a lot of questions about that and thought it is a federal responsibility and we failed. We failed when we didn t enact comprehensive reform which meant securing our borders, temporary worker program, addressing 12 million people that are here illegally. So we failed twice. So what do we need to do? We need to have comprehensive reform but we have to assure the American people that the borders are secure. We have to secure the borders then address the issue of the temporary workers program and who is truly temporary. Then we have to address the 12 million who are here illegally and it has to be done in a humane and compassionate fashion. Then you have the local and state government trying to take up the slack and its a federal responsibility. I believe in states rights but when we talk about securing our borders, thats a federal responsibility. I will work very hard on this issue," said Senator McCain.
McCain believes that the drug cartels have taken control temporarily or from time to time of the Mexican border. He believes there is corruption throughout. He applauds President Calderon of Mexico for his leadership in taking on these drug cartels.
Senator McCain recently visited Columbi a and Mexico City. First of all, President Caldero n is a fine President. As you know the Merida Initiative? between the United States and20Mexico is the collaborative effortto help control drugs cross across the border," continued McCain.
Senator John McCain was in Columbia the day before s everal hostage were rescued from the terrorist cell called FARC?. The defeat of FARC is very important and that is the good news. The bad news obviously is that we have populous movements in some of these countries that manifest themselves, ranging from (Presidents) Chavez to Morales. We have to do a better job of opening our markets to their goods and products.
I think it is disgraceful that countries that grow sugar, are not able to have that sugar come into the United States where a huge tariff is going to be slapped on them thanks to the power of the special interest of the sugar in dustry in the U.S. So I would I believe in free markets and open markets in trade. That will help this contradiction between the very rich and the very poor in some of these countries which produces these populous groups. We need to work with our neighb ors, cooperate with them, establish the personal relationships with them that are necessary for us to work together in a cooperative fashion, so all those drugs will not end up in the Unites States that come from Columbia, concluded Senator McCain.
McCain was in Racine for one of his national presidential campaign Straight Talk tours in which a townha ll style meeting was held. Approximately 1,000 people were in attendance.
Solberg-Quiros is a nationally published political columni st, Hispanic activist and former federal drug free communities commissioner. She resides in New London, Wisconsin. |
