Heard the one about how Barack Obama misleads the public about a position staked out by John McCain?
You don’t often hear the question above because the McCain campaign has shredded and diced Obama’s tax position so badly people really do believe the Democrat’s going to raise everyone’s taxes (not so).
But in the Spanish-language ad down below, the Obama campaign is trying to tie McCain to the Republican closed-border approach to immigration, even connecting McCain to Rush Limbaugh. In fact, two of Limbaugh’s quotes (”stupid and unskilled Mexicans” and “You shut your mouth or you get out”) are prominently spread across this television ad:
There’s just one problem … actually a few … It was McCain who was bucking the GOP by drawing compromise legislation to deal with the millions of illegal immigrations in the United States. His stance on the issue is a major cornerstone of his “maverick” mantra. Yet here’s what the narrative says in the Spanish-language, according to ABC News:
“John McCain and his Republican friends have two faces. One that says lies just to get our vote…and another, even worse, that continues the policies of George Bush that put special interests ahead of working families. John McCain…more of the same old Republican tricks.”
And Limbaugh and McCain are not friends. Not by any stretch. Limbaugh opposed McCain’s immigration position, and the Limbaugh comments are taken out of context, according to an analysis done by ABC News.
So why did the Obama campaign go for this low blow? With the economy reeling and Wall Street operating like an anvil is waiting to drop (wait, it already did), Obama’s surging ahead in the polls, erasing any post-Sarah Palin bounce McCain benefitted from.
I’d suggest, and this is just a suggestion, that Obama’s looking to raise the issue because the immigration legislation nearly sank McCain’s campaign during the GOP primary. It’s a reason why so many staunch Republicans were not particularly enthused about McCain as the Republican nominee, and using this ad raises the profile of this issue and attempt to drive a wedge not between liberal and conservative but between moderate and conservative. In other words, divide and conquer.
And remember … Obama approved the message.
