June 11, 2008

Hispanic Caucus has excellent advice for Obama: Hillary as Veep, immigration reform in 1st hundred days

In the past, I've considered the Congressional Hispanic Caucus to be simply a group of mostly vile racial demagogues whose only interest is in support of others of their race even if that's done at the expense of everyone else.

But, I was wrong! In actual fact, they're keen observers of the political scene who are now offering extremely valuable advice that Barack Obama is urged to follow (link):

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) must commit to helping illegal immigrants achieve citizenship or else risk losing the vital Latino vote in the general election, Hispanic Democratic lawmakers are warning.

If he does not promise so-called comprehensive immigration reform, the lawmakers say, the only other way to win over Hispanic supporters of his erstwhile rival, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), may be to pick her as his running mate...

...[CHC Chairman Rep. Joe Baca (D-Calif.)]... said that the CHC will be looking — but not necessarily asking — for Obama to make as strong of a pledge as Clinton did to putting comprehensive immigration reform on his "first 100 days" agenda...

Obama’s campaign coordinator for Spanish-language media, Vince Casillas, said that while Obama has promised to take up immigration reform in his first year in office, he has not yet laid out his detailed plan for comprehensive reform...

If anyone has a blog at Obama's site, please use it to help Obama see the light on this issue. Just don't let it be known that I suggested it, the BHO campaign might think I was trying to hurt their chances or something.

Also mentioned: Cuauhtemoc “Temo” Figueroa (National Latino Vote Director for Obama), who'll be meeting with the CHC.

In addition to Baca, those quoted include Reps. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) and Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.)

Note also this "interesting" comment:

"But Latinos are brand-loyal, and after the Clinton brand, the McCain brand is the second-strongest among Latinos because of his military service and his immigration record," [Cecilia Munoz, the senior vice president of research, advocacy and legislation with the National Council of La Raza] said.

Posted to Immigration2008a at June 11, 2008 07:51 PM