Subject: [big campaign] Tracking Update: McCain Speech to La Raza San Diego, CA 07/14/08
From: "Cammie Croft" <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2008 17:19:50 -0400
List-Id: <bigcampaign.googlegroups.com>

Hello All,

Just off the phone with our tracker Jacob who is on the ground today in San
Diego, CA.  Below are the notes from our call.
*
BIG HIGHLIGHTS:
*

   - McCain interrupted by demonstrators at beginning of speech
   - McCain sites the relationships with Central and South America as the
   "reason why I'm an unapologetic supporter of NAFTA, the Central American
   Free Trade Agreement, and the Colombian Free Trade Agreement"
   - On education, McCain said, "I'm a big supporter of charter schools and
   so is La Raza."
   - McCain emphasized the "tragic human costs of illegal immigration" and
   called these people "God's Children"
   - McCain highlighted that he represents a border state and knows first
   hand the troubles associated with the borders and illegal immigration
   - McCain denounced hurtful comments: "I know many of you were
   disappointed and hurt by those who used the debate on immigration last year,
   not to respectfully debate the issue, as most did, but to denigrate the
   contributions of Hispanics to our great country. I denounced those insults
   then, and I denounce them today"
   - During the question and answer period, McCain committed to 'one, single
   comprehensive bill' for immigration reform that includes dealing with the
   millions of illegals currently in the country
   - In response to a question, McCain said "yes" he will lead his party and
   instruct fellow Republicans to stop immigrant-bashing
   - McCain emphasized in his speech and the Q&A that we need to secure the
   borders first

*San Diego, CA: McCain Speech to the National Council of La Raza's (NCLR)
Annual Conference 07/14/08***
*
FULL Transcript: *
LINK:
http://thepage.time.com/transcript-of-mccains-remarks-at-la-raza-convention/

[Interrupted by demonstrators]
   Thank you, Jane, for that kind introduction. Thank you, also to the
leadership of the National Council of La Raza, and its board of directors.
I'm very pleased to be with you again to discuss some of the issues in this
campaign that most concern you. As you know, this isn't my first address to
La Raza. I'm proud to have worked hard over the years with many friends here
and elsewhere to make sure Americans of Hispanic heritage are appreciated
for their contributions to the prosperity, security and culture of the
United States, and to improve opportunities for your continued success, not
for your sake alone but for the benefit of the entire nation. I also want to
thank La Raza's former CEO, Raul Yzaguirre, for being here today, and for
the privilege of over twenty years of friendship and counsel he has so
generously given me. And to my fellow Arizonans here today, who have given
me the great honor of serving you in the United States Senate, thank you
from the bottom of my heart. With your votes, advice and encouragement you
have helped me to be a better public servant and a better American, and I am
in your debt.

There are several issues I want to discuss today, but let me begin with the
one that concerns all Americans the most – our economy. Over 400,000 people
have lost their jobs since December, and the rate of new job creation has
fallen sharply. Americans are worried about the security of their current
job, and they're worried that they, their kids and their neighbors may not
find good jobs and new opportunities in the future. To make matters worse,
gas is over $4 a gallon and the price of oil has nearly doubled in the last
year. The cost of everything from energy to food is rising.

I have a plan to grow the economy, create more and better jobs, and get
America moving again. I have a plan to reform government, achieve energy
security, and ensure that healthcare and a quality education are affordable
and available for all. I believe the role of government is to unleash the
creativity, ingenuity and hard work of the American people, and make it
easier to create jobs.

At its core, the economy isn't the sum of an array of bewildering
statistics. It's about where Americans work, how they live, how they pay
their bills today and save for tomorrow. It's about small businesses opening
their doors, hiring employees and growing. It's about giving workers the
education and training to find a good job and prosper in it. It's about the
aspirations of the American people to build a better life for their
families; dreams that begin with a job.

So how are we going to create good jobs? Let's start with small businesses,
which create the majority of all jobs. A recent report says small businesses
have created 233,000 jobs so far this year while other sectors are losing
jobs. Small businesses are the job engine of America, and I will make it
easier for them to grow and create more jobs. There are two million Latino
owned businesses in America, many of them started by Latinas. The first
consideration we should have when debating tax policy is how we can help
those companies grow and increase the prosperity of the millions of American
families whose economic security depends on their success.

It is a terrible mistake to raise taxes during an economic downturn.
Increasing the tax burden on Americans impedes job growth, discourages
innovation and makes us less competitive. The many small business owners who
pay individual tax rates would take strong exception to the idea that
keeping them low helps no one but the wealthiest Americans. Taking more
money from small businesses deprives them of the capital they need to invest
and grow and hire. Jobs are the most important thing our economy creates.
When you raise taxes in a bad economy you eliminate jobs. I'm not going to
let that happen, I will keep taxes low and cut them where I can. For those
of you with children, I will double the child deduction from $3500 to $7000
for every dependent, in every family in America. I will reduce the estate
tax to fifteen percent, so parents who have spent long years working hard to
build a business, and provide a decent living to t heir employees, can leave
the product of a lifetime of labor and love to their children.

La Raza runs one of the largest housing counseling programs in the country
that has helped tens of thousands of Latinos become homeowners with secure
mortgages. But millions of Americans have been hurt by the mortgage crisis
and falling home values, and many in the Hispanic community have been
especially hard hit. I want to help people who genuinely need assistance in
these tough times, not speculators and lenders who contributed to this mess
and didn't follow the basics of good business practice. I am committed to
making sure families who want to hold onto their home have a chance to do
so. My HOME plan allows families who need help to apply — either at their
local Post Office or online — for a new, guaranteed, fixed-rate, 30-year
mortgage that will allow them to remain in their home, and raise their
family with dignity.

To get our economy on track again, and create new and better jobs, we need
to compete more, not less, in the global economy. We can't build walls to
foreign competition, and we shouldn't want to. America is the biggest
exporter, importer, producer, manufacturer, and innovator in the world.
That's why I reject the false virtues of economic isolationism. Any
confident, competent country and its government should embrace competition -
it makes us stronger - not hide from our competitors and cheat our consumers
and workers. We can compete and win, as we always have, or we can be left
behind. Lowering barriers to trade creates more and better jobs, and higher
wages. It keeps inflation under control. It makes goods more affordable for
low- and middle-income consumers. Ninety-five percent of the world's
consumers live outside the U.S. Our future prosperity depends on opening
more of these markets, not closing them.

I recently traveled to Colombia and Mexico [APPLAUSE] because I understand
how vitally important it is to the prosperity and security of our country to
strengthen our trade, investment and diplomatic ties to other countries in
our hemisphere. I have often traveled over the years to Central and South
America, and I have learned our relationships there are as important, if not
more important, as any relationships we have in the world. *It is the reason
why I'm an unapologetic supporter of NAFTA, the Central American Free Trade
Agreement, and the Colombian Free Trade Agreement, and why I believe a
hemispheric free trade agreement is a worthy and necessary goal whose time
has come. *And while it is surely not my intention to become my opponent's
scheduler, I hope Senator Obama soon visits some of the other countries of
the Americas for the first time. Were he to do so, I think he, too, would
see that stronger economic bonds with our neighbo rs and the closer
friendships they encourage, are a great benefit in many ways to our country.
Colombian President Uribe, a man of courage and vision, has risked much to
combat the narco-terrorists of FARC for the sake of all peoples in this
hemisphere. His recent leadership in freeing Americans held hostage for
years should earn him the respect and gratitude of all Americans. And we
should emulate his statesmanship by passing the trade agreement Colombia and
the United States have negotiated, and which both countries would greatly
benefit from.

I know that not all Americans have prospered in the global economy. And for
those who, through no fault of their own, have lost their job to foreign
competition, I have proposed a comprehensive reform of our unemployment
insurance and worker retraining programs. We will use our community colleges
to help train workers for specific opportunities in their communities. And
for workers of a certain age who have lost a job that won't come back, if
they move rapidly to a new job we'll help make up the difference in wages
between their old job and the new one.

In the global economy what you learn is what you earn. Today, studies show
that half of Hispanics entering high school do not graduate with their
class. By the 12th grade, U.S. students in math and science score near the
bottom of all industrialized nations. Many parents fear their children won't
have the same opportunities they had. That is unacceptable in a country as
great as ours. In many schools, particularly where people are struggling the
hardest, the situation is dire, and I believe poses the civil rights
challenge of our time. We need to shake up failed school bureaucracies with
competition; hold schools accountable for results; strengthen math, science,
technology and engineering curriculums; empower parents with choice; remove
barriers to qualified instructors, attract and reward superior teachers, and
have a fair but sure process to weed out incompetents.* I'm a strong
believer in charter schools [and so is La Raza]*. La Raza has helped
establish 50 new charter schools and the results they are producing are very
encouraging. Hispanics work hard and sacrifice a lot because their most
cherished dreams are the ones they hold for their children. You understand
the importance of early childhood development and the active role parents
must play in their children's education to make sure they graduate on time
and with an excellent opportunity to live happy and prosperous lives. You
deserve a greater say in deciding how your children are educated, and I am
committed to making sure you do.

Let me address one other issue important to all of us. As you know, I and
many other colleagues twice attempted to pass comprehensive immigration
legislation to fix our broken borders; ensure respect for the laws of this
country; recognize the important economic contribution of immigrant
laborers; apprehend those who came here illegally to commit crimes; and deal
practically and humanely with those who came here, as my distant ancestors
did, to build a better, safer life for their families, without excusing the
fact they came here illegally or granting them privileges before those who
have been waiting their turn outside the country. Many Americans did not
believe us when we said we would secure our borders, and so we failed in our
efforts. I don't want to fail again to achieve comprehensive immigration
reform. We must prove we have the resources to secure our borders and use
them, while respecting the dignity and rights of citizens and legal
residents of the United States. When we have achieved our border security
goal, we must enact and implement the other parts of practical, fair and
necessary immigration policy. We have economic and humanitarian
responsibilities as well, and they require no less dedication from us in
meeting them.

Several years ago, the leading newspaper in my state published an article
putting faces on the tragic human costs of illegal immigration, and I would
like to briefly quote from it:

"Maria Hernandez Perez was No. 93. She was almost 2. She had thick brown
hair and eyes the color of chocolate.

"Kelia Velazquez-Gonzales, 16, carried a Bible in her backpack. She was No.
109

"John Doe, No. 143, died with a rosary encircling his neck. His eyes were
wide open."

We can't let immigrants break our laws with impunity. We can't leave our
borders undefended. *But these people are God's children,* who wanted simply
to be Americans, and we cannot forget the humanity God commands of us as we
seek a remedy to this problem.

I spoke recently at both the NALEO and LULAC conferences, as did Senator
Obama. I did not use those occasions to criticize Senator Obama. I would
prefer not to do so today. But he suggested in his speeches there and here,
that I turned my back on comprehensive reform out of political necessity. *I
feel I must, as they say, correct the record. At a moment of great
difficulty in my campaign, when my critics said it would be political
suicide for me to do so, I helped author with Senator Kennedy comprehensive
immigration reform, and fought for its passage*. I cast a lot of hard votes,
as did the other Republicans and Democrats who joined our bipartisan effort.
So did Senator Kennedy. I took my lumps for it without complaint. My
campaign was written off as a lost cause. I did so not just because I
believed it was the right thing to do for Hispanic Americans. It was the
right thing to do for all Americans. Senator Obama declined t o cast some of
those tough votes. He voted for and even sponsored amendments that were
intended to kill the legislation, amendments that Senator Kennedy and I
voted against. I never ask for any special privileges from anyone just for
having done the right thing. Doing my duty to my country is its own reward.
But I do ask for your trust that when I say, I remain committed to fair,
practical and comprehensive immigration reform, I mean it. I think I have
earned that trust.

Let me close by expressing my respect and gratitude for the contributions of
Hispanic-Americans to the culture, economy and security of the country I
have served all my adult life. *I represent Arizona where Spanish was spoken
before English was, and where the character and prosperity of our state owes
a great deal to the many Arizonans of Hispanic descent who live there*. And
I know this country, which I love more than almost anything, would be the
poorer were we deprived of the patriotism, industry and decency of those
millions of Americans whose families came here from other countries in our
hemisphere. Latinos are among the hardest working most productive people in
our country. The strength of your religious faith and the strength and
closeness of your families are a great force for social stability and
individual happiness. In my recent visit to Mexico, I visited the Shrine of
the Virgin of Guadalupe, and was greatly moved by the experience, and came
to appreciate all the more your deep devotion to the God who created us and
loves us all equally. I will honor your contributions to America for as long
as I live. We would not be the special country we are without you.

I know many of you are Democrats, and many of you would usually vote for the
presidential candidate of that party. I know I must work hard to win your
votes, but you have always given me a respectful hearing, and I appreciate
it.* I know many of you were disappointed and hurt by those who used the
debate on immigration last year, not to respectfully debate the issue, as
most did, but to denigrate the contributions of Hispanics to our great
country. I denounced those insults then, and I denounce them today.* My
friends, you know me. One of my proudest achievements as a politician is to
have won 75 percent of the Hispanic vote in Arizona in my last re-election.
I believe I'm the only member of the Senate to have twice won your
Congressional Leadership Award, a distinction I am also very proud of.
Senator Obama is a fine man, and an inspiring public figure. All Americans
should be proud of his success. I also greatly admire Senator Hillary
Clinton, and value her friendship. She, too, would have been a very worthy
opponent. But I intend to compete for your votes by continuing to earn your
trust.

When I was in prison in Vietnam, I like other of my fellow POWs, was offered
early release by my captors. Most of us refused because we were bound to our
code of conduct, which said those who had been captured the earliest had to
be released the soonest. My friend, Everett Alvarez, a brave American of
Mexican descent, had been shot down years before I was, and had suffered for
his country much more and much longer than I had. To leave him behind would
have shamed us. When you take the solemn stroll along that wall of black
granite on the national Mall, it is hard not to notice the many names such
as Rodriguez, Hernandez, and Lopez that so sadly adorn it. When you visit
Iraq and Afghanistan you will meet some of the thousands of
Hispanic-Americans who serve there, and many of those who risk their lives
to protect the rest of us do not yet possess the rights and privileges of
full citizenship in the country they love so well. To love your country, as
I discovered in Vietnam, is to love your countrymen. Those men and women are
my brothers and sisters, my fellow Americans, an association that means more
to me than any other. As a private citizen or as your President, I will
never, never do anything to dishonor our obligations to them and their
families or to forget what they and their ancestors have done to make this
country the beautiful, bountiful, blessed place we love.

Thank you.
 *Questions and Answers*
1 Q)  Will your have immigration reform so that the millions of undocumented
immigrants are included in one bill and will you do what Obama has promised
to do and make this a top priority?
MCCAIN: I thank your father for this service.  If I didn't think this was a
priority, I would not have alienated my party to take the positions I have.
I think my actions speak for themselves.  My friends why did we fail twice?
Because many Americans remembered that in 1986 we gave amnesty for a lot of
people and then didn't secure our borders.  Now, the American people don't
trust us.  You can have confidence it was my highest priority a couple years
ago, it's a top priority now and will be a top priority tomorrow.
FOLLOW-UP: The answer is one single bill.  Will you make sure it's one
single bill?
MCCAIN: Yes, Yes, Yes! One single, comprehensive bill.  But we have to
assure to the American people that we'll secure the borders first.

2 Q) I am ashamed of these raids that are separating children from their
parents from one day to the next. As president, will you stop making me
ashamed and stop making these inhumane raids?
MCCAIN: You are talking about the symptom of the problem and not the problem
itself.  Anyone who comes from a border state like myself and has seen the
terrible things that happen, I know it's a failure of the system.  I will do
everything I can so that this issue is treated in as a humane and
compassionate way as possible. We have to protect all of God's children.
FOLLOW-UP: Many are U.S. citizens -- but they are not treated in the same
way.
MCCAIN: I agree with you.  Last 4th of July, I was with Lindsay Graham in
Iraq and experienced something similar.  But yes, I agree with you.

3 Q) Will you refrain from immigrant bashing?
MCCAIN: Yes, ma'am.  I will not do that.
FOLLOW-UP: I know you have committed to do this.  But your party has not.
Will you as the leader of your party instruct your members to stop
hate-bashing immigrants?
MCCAIN: Yes.  I want a respectful campaign.  The American people are tired
of this fighting.  I asked Obama to be here, so he could make the same
commitment to you when I did.  But he has said no to being part of joint
town halls.

4 Q) Will you support humanity all-around the world and will you support
humanity, including the Dream Act?
MCCAIN: Yes.  But I will also support our laws.  And we have to secure our
borders and reward those who have followed the rules and have been waiting
for citizenship already.

5 Q) People who are crossing do not have any legal means for crossing --
your parents got to come without any legal process.  Everyone was welcome at
Ellis Island.  We want comprehensive immigration reform.  We want people to
be able to come into this country legally.
MCCAIN: I understand your issues, I come from a border state.  But drugs are
coming across the borders as well and killing Americans.  We have to secure
our borders first.  I want to do this in a humane way, but we have to secure
our borders.

-- 
Cammie L. Croft
Tracking/Media Monitoring Director
Progressive Accountability Office
[email-masked]
202-609-7679 (office)
206-999-3064 (cell)

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