McCain takes heat for immigration stance

John McCain spoke to more than 800 people at Sun City Center on Saturday, where he took some heat for his stance on illegal immigration from an audience member who described his Wimauma neighborhood as a suburb of Mexico where no one speaks English and "illegal aliens" have driven up the crime rate.

"You and Ted Kennedy have the worst record on amnesty," said Buddy Gibbs, a retired cattle farmer.

McCain answered that he's committed to securing America's borders first, and then putting a temporary worker program in place. Anyone who violates the terms of the program would be prosecuted, he said. McCain also said he would immediately deport the estimated 2-million illegal immigrants who have committed crimes. "I have never supported amnesty," McCain said. "I never will and never have." 

Gibbs said he planned to vote for Mitt Romney, "the only real conservative running," and came to the McCain event specifically to confront him on immigration.

Comments

Mitt Romney is a serial flip-flopping panderer:

He would say pretty much anything to get your votes. Look at what he did in Michigan.

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=N2ZiNTg5MTViMzY2OTU4MzAxNTRhMDM2ODY5YTFlNDc=

MITTSURFING
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgbQviUqndg

[waffffle]

can anyone believe one word that Mitt says?

[flip-polf]

Didn't Romney have illegals working on his own lawn?

I can live with John McCain stance on putting up a huge fence to stop more illegals coming in.

What I can't live with is have Hillary win the White House. Polls show Mitt Romney would lose to her bad.
Polls show McCain would beat Hillary.

I'm voting McCain

yeh.

mitt loses BIG time to billary.

mccain is the only one with a chance of beating her.

hah! 6pm is gonna actually try and compare mitt hiring a contractor who turned around and hired illegals to work on a lawn to mccain fighting arm in arm with kennedy to provide illegals social security, legal status, etc.

good luck with that one putz

and 6:02 - going to vote for mccain because of who the dems are gonna put up - so glad that soldiers fought and died for your right to allow others to determine your vote - oh, and polls don't mean squat right now, so take your amateur punditry off the blog

[more syrup pleeze]

Mitt didn't even prevent illegal immigration on his front lawn!!

How can he say he's going to protect us from shore to shore!

It's another false promise from the King of Waffles!

[Jim]

If you had followed this election you would know that once Mitt found out that the company he had hired to work at his house employed illegals he gave them a chance to change. When they did not, he asked them to stop coming.

For all those McCain lovers here's some "straight talk." He's got you all fooled. See link below.

http://www.therealmccain.com

PAY ABSOLUTELY NO ATTENTION to the real problems facing us:

recession
stock market dropping
housing market dropping
stupid, wasteful war

etc
etc
etc

and spend a lot of energy on a "manufactured" crisis of immigration!

jerks!!!!

i love how Mitt looks sooo sincere when he's flipping:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_w9pquznG4

[Mitt -]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFMdK0TWtks&feature=related

I wonder if Buddy Gibbs is even registered to vote.

I also wonder who is working on his cattle ranch, comprende'

Is Romney really pro-choice ?

[Mike Huckabee for President!]

Mitt "Flip Flop" Romney;

"English needs to be the language that is spoken in America."

"This is a nation which should never become a bilingual or multilingual nation."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pst6rJhhZo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6kePH7p5X4

John McCain is, quite simply, not a Republican. He is old, devoid of new ideas, and reflexively liberal. These traits, couple with his open contempt for anyone who disagrees with him, make him completely unsuitable to bear the Republican standard.

Plus, he keeps running his high school yearbook photo on Sayfie Review so we forget how old he truly is.

7:03pm, that was hilarious

Lots of strident anti-Mitt stuff from the chattering class.

Classic overcompensation.

So the real question is do the Republicans want Hillary or John McCain in the White House.

Mitt & the other candidate cannot beat Hillary nor Obama.

NO WAY I WILL LET THAT SOCIALIST HILLARY GET IN.

MCCAIN IN 08'

Back to the subject matter of this blog.

McCain never has supported amnesty for illegal aliens? He is just flat out lying to the people of Florida. This is how the McCain-Kennedy bill was described by the National Review:

....the most far-reaching amnesty program in American history.

Better McCain than Bill & Hill restored to the White House.

[Beltway John]

**NEWS ALERT: Senator John McCain will get the endorsement of popular Florida Governor Charlie Crist for the Republican nomination

[Reed]

McCain is currently affiliated with open borders advocate Juan Hernandez. Check this out:

http://michellemalkin.com/2008/01/25/john-mccains-open-borders-outreach-director-the-next-dhs-secretary/

[linda]

are you kidding me?

Open borders advocate Juan Hernandez has joined the McCain campaign

Educate yourselves!

Huge breaking news:

Looks like Gov Crist is going to swing this big-time to John McCain!!

2 huge, huge endorsements

Sen. Mel Martinez & Gov Charlie Crist

[Pierre Legrand]

Hmmm...McCain is different from the Clintons how? He believes that Global Warming is caused by Humans. He believes that large corporations are by their nature corrupt. He believes that the Government should deny us First Amendment Rights in the most crucial reason for having the 1st amendment, politics. He runs shady non profit outfits to pay his cronies to run his campaigns. He employs Juan Hernandez at this shady outfit then declares that Juan is not working for him....

At least with the Clintons when the country gets screwed up we know to blame the Democrats. With McCain enacting the very same policies the Republicans will get blamed.

McCain considered joining the Democrats in 2000...that just about covers how idiotic it is to consider him our savior against the Clintons. Heck if he doesnt get the nomination he is likely to run with Hillary as her Vice President.

[PTN]

Mr. crooked talk McCain and his team amnesty of Martinez,Grahm,and Juan Hernandez may win a nomination but thousands of border security folks will sit out this election!!McCains amnesty bill was the biggest piece of junk ever.I read the whole thing at the Heritage Foundation web site.What a give a way.His bill would not have deported criminal aliens and allowed gang memebrs to stay.

If you see no difference between McCain and the Clintons, I'm not going to waste my time trying to explain it to you. Some brain pans stay flushed.

[Juke]

John McCain is a lying traitor. He actively tried to give our children's birthright away to the 3rd world & to this day have pro-amnesty/anti-sovereignty people working on his campaign.

I'll never vote for that back stabber.

NO WAY WILL I LET HILLARY TAKE THE WHITE HOUSE!!

JOHN MCCAIN 08'

Juke, you are an idiot

[Principal Chair]

If you're dim enough to believe that current head to head polls about Mitt's electability vs. Hillary or Obama mean anything, you were also probably dim enough to believe that Rudy Giuliani had the GOP nomination locked up six months ago.

Mitt's got the complete package and is the only viable candidate not trying to redefine the Reagan coalition and re-make the GOP in their own image.

Mitt cannot beat any Dems.
We need independent & moderates to secure a victory.

I will not risk losing the White House to Hillary.

President John McCain

i like the sound of that

[Pierre Legrand]

If you see no difference between McCain and the Clintons, I'm not going to waste my time trying to explain it to you. Some brain pans stay flushed.

On immigration there is no difference. On gay marrige no difference.
On Freedom of Speech not enough difference.
On Freedom in general McCain is not that different. They are both big government folks.

What kills it for me is McCain lying about his support of amnesty and his alliance with Juan Hernandez. Immigration is a big deal...

[Pierre Legrand]

Mitt cannot beat any Dems.
We need independent & moderates to secure a victory.

Nothing more dangerous than a Republican Moderate...Nixon is your best example of the sort of foolishness that gets done by those twits.

Btw what is your deal with posting anon?

[Davep.]

Do I want Hillary or John McCain in the White House?
When the Clintons shred the Constitution, engage in massive corruption, and sell out their country to foreigners, we expect it of them.

McCain for President... OF MEXICO! He likes them better anyway!

[truth seeker]

hello mexico John McCain is gonna invite you to take over our country, spend my s.s., and take jobs that americans will do but can't as cheap as you because they have families they need to support rather than living 10 to a rented house and send back to mexico what they dont spend on liqour guns and drugs.

[disgusted]

I thought the point of having two parties was to allow the electorate to have a choice?

The party hacks are all coming our for McCain. The same folks who were working on the Shamnesty bill.

The upshot is there will be no choice in November we can vote for Amnesty for illegals, or Amensty for illegals.

Viva Los Estados Unidos de Mexico!

Sorry McCain. You keep saying you will secure the border, but you still don't address the issue of illegal aliens. We want them out of the country and at the back of the line to get back in!

[Former Marine]

I can't believe all these people voting for McCain simply to keep The Shrew out of the Oval Office. Haven't any of you dimwits ever heard of McCain/Feingold, McCain/Lieberman, the gang of 14, the Keating 5, etc, etc. Do you honestly think he's any different from her? In any respect at all? Please.

McCain served in Vietnam and was a true war hero, but that's all he's got. As a senator he votes like a liberal democrat. I will never vote for that man for a whole host of reasons, including his attempt to destroy free speech, and his attempt to destroy America with his Shamnesty bill. If he's the nominee, I'm not voting - even if it means Hitlery wins. If we're going to have a Democrat in the White House, may as well be someone who has a (D) after thier name.

On Iraq and security issues: big difference between McCain and Clinton.

The difference between Pierre Legrand's brain and a cinder block: not so much.

Not a big difference between Pierre Legrand's brain and McCain's.

[Richard]

For all you airheads that keep claiming Romney can't beat Clinton, your being dragged thru life by the MSM.
That's the story they paint because they soooo desperately want you fools to vote for THEIR choosen Republican nominee, RINO McCain.
It makes no difference to them who wins the presidency because they get a Democrat in either case.

[thevor]

McCain is Mr Amnesty. The bill he pushed with Kennedy was amnesty. He is so open borders, that he doesn't even know what amnesty is.

I remember too well having to light up the phones in Washington in order to stop McCain, Kennedy et al from giving this country away to illegal aliens.

McCain must not be the nominee for the GOP or it will be the final nail in the coffin for the party.

I will vote democrat before I vote for someone who served his country valiantly only to become a traitor to the middle class. What one does now is much more important than what one did 50 years ago.

[Dee]

As a lifelong conservative I can tell you there is no way I would vote for McCain now or ever. Hitlary can win and Republicans in Congress will just have to Suck it Up, unite and fight for what is right for a change.

I cannot vote for:
McCain-Feingold anti-free speech
McCain-Kennedy AMNESTY & DOMESTIC INSECURITY
McCain who is against Tax Cuts and does not get spending cut.
McCain who is for cap and trade.
McCain the war monger who supports 100 years in Iraq and all the spending on foreign bases then talks about wanting to cut spending. Speaks with forked tounge. Screw Iraq Americans are getting killed and victims of crime by illegal aliens here in this country every day. Defend us here at home!
McCain who has that mexican bigot juan hernandez as part of his campaign not to mention Senator Grahmnesty and now the other amnesty supporters Martinez and Crist.

With the political elitist who supported amnesty and the papers endorsing him it is bad news for the average person. How much of your social security do you want to give illegals, how much lower do you want your wages to be, how much higher do you want your property taxes to be in order to send illegal alien children to school, how many hospitals do you want closed because the illegal aliens do not pay their medical bills, how much do you want the gangs and crime to increase? How much do you want McAmnesty now?

Bottom line is I can support Romney or Huckabee but no McAmnesty, not now, not ever.

[Dave]

Agreed Dee. We will gladly take your vote in the Romney camp. I know he isn't the perfect candidate, but he is better then McCain't.

[Vote Rudy]

Rudy is the complete candidate. He is great on the economy. Great on national security. Vote Rudy. Not too late

[DON'T SETTLE FOR A FAKE CONSERVATIVE]

Romner will be a disaster in the general election. He has no national security credentials. He has a very weak economic record while governor of Massachuttes. He implemented Hillarycare while governor.

VOTE RUDY!

[sheryl]

Won't vote for McCain in California or in the general election....and I don't care if he's up against Hillary or Obama....I will never vote for him or Huckabee.

McCain has Juan Hernanadez advising him for heavens sake....McCain is never going to secure our border ever....he's been on a border state for eons and hasn't done a damn thing.

McCain is old, doesn't have new or fresh ideas....he is Washington to the core and I will never vote for him...and could care less who endorses him. He is a loser for the GOP.

[Phil]

I would rather have the libs in office for 4 years while our party gets its act together than vote for McCain.

[Orlando]

I'm glad to see someone confront McCain on his bull crap. He's such a freaking lyer.

Also these head to head polls right now don't mean crap. Less than two weeks ago Romney had no chance in Florida and now he's probably is going to win it.

Just like Obama didn't have a chance in South Carolina 3-4 weeks ago and now what happened.

Give me a break, you guys sound like these polls are set in stone. You sound like a bunch of idoits.

Romney is going to win this election and fix this country because these so called great leaders from Washington haven't done crap since Reagan left office.

[ADC]

If Willard Zombie is the nominee, values voters will stay home. A vote for Willard is a vote for Billary.

[mary]

The Illegal Immigration crisis is not manufactured. If you think it is then you need to do your homework and learn ecatly why your health insurance costs have gone up as well as your property taxes. These 20 million illegals are getting a free ride on your dime. WISE up because if you allow this influx to continue you will no longer have a country,Mitt Romneys main reason for running is to preserve this great nation for his sons and grandchildren. That is the same reason I have gotten involved in this fight. The elites who want us to subsidize their slave labor have no right to sell this country out. I live in mA and Romney held the line against illegals despite being in the liberall LA LA land created by ted Kennedy and friends. Wise up or start learning SPANISH and become a muslim!

John McCain will crush Hillary in the general election.

I've heard a lot of Obama voters will switch over to McCain if Hillary is nominated. Lets say these democrats balance out the Republican who would not vote for McCain. What do we have left, the INDEPENDENTS who will flock to McCain & will put him in the White House.

I don't care how we do it, as long as Hillary will not win.

go mccain

[Nraendowment]

"I have never supported amnesty," McCain said. "I never will and never have." Be careful, John... a lie that blatant could attract a lightening bolt from the heavens. McAmnesty: just a closet Democrat.

[Nraendowment]

"I have never supported amnesty," McCain said. "I never will and never have." Be careful, John... a lie that blatant could attract a lightening bolt from the heavens. McAmnesty: just a closet Democrat.

Sen. John McCain just got the endorsement of 3 major newspaper:

Chicago Tribune
Philadelphia Inquirer
St Petersburg Times

[Chico]

"and spend a lot of energy on a "manufactured" crisis of immigration!"

Say that to the people living on the border or have lost a job to illegal immagrants!

JERK!

[shreyl]

John McCain 2008 = Bob Dole in 1996 pure and simple....he's going to get slaughtered. Independents were only voting for him in NH because the polls had Obama ahead by double digits, that's why they didn't break for him.

[lis]

McCain is older than dirt and has had a private life that the Clintons’ would find delectable to exploit. Huckabee still thinks that the earth is 6000 years old and that free thinking is not that great of an idea; and his inner circle meetings within the white house would consist of freakishly radical Christians. Giuliani is definately to liberal morally.

Mitt maybe a mormon, but ironically he’s the only candidate that has been married to only one wife.

Mitt is a financial genious that could really the American economy roaring. How are we going to fight a war and take care of our own needs with out a thriving economy.

Should we elect Mccain for his war experience and then hope for the best regarding the economy? I think that we should elect Mitt to secure our economy; a thriving economy is a great strategy to fund a war.

[BD]

juan mc cainnedy IS THE WORSE In GOP extreeem liberal just like billary worse far flip flop ,his economy disaster ,expert in security but let OPEN BORDER WIDE OPEN ..take the gun from US citizen and let all criminal ms 13 have machine gub

[BD]

ANY POLITICS SUPPORT JUAN MC CAIN CUZ LA RAZA AND TYSON FOOD PAY THEM.

WHERE IS LA RAZA FOR JUAN MC CAIN.

he is dangerous just real arrogant and stupid

[sally]

He is totally evil at that.

1. he wants to stay in the middle east for as long as possible, he's a warmonger

2. he's pro-immigration, pro-open borders. he is a member of the council on foriegn relations. the CFR is "the American branch of a society which organized in England... (and)... believes national boundaries should be obliterated and one world rule established." - - from WITH NO APOLOGIES by Senator Barry Goldwater, Berkley Books, NY, p. 126

3. he's pro-gun control

4. he has alleged mafia ties, he was part of the Keating 5 Scandal

5. his first marriage ended due to adultery on his end , leave dying wife for rich hairy

[sally]

Vote mc cain just like vote billary , mc cain record worse than john kerry , LIBERAL LOVE M CAIN ,he tied with soros and will sell out this country to china since he is coward giving away SUPER NAFTA OPEN BORDER AND bring cheaplabor to US and let all 100 million illegal stay even cost 6 TRILYUN not clue about economy bring US dollar same rate wwith peso

[BOB]

ANYBODY FOR MC CAIN MEAN LIBERAL AGENDA OPEN BORDER AND anything goes real WORK ! bye bye USA hello mexicooooooooooooooooooooooooo

[BOB]

He wants the 60 million illegal invasion and other cheap labor to have ALL of our middle class jobs and, since all young American will be DYING on the other side of the world, these low-life scum bags might just as well have their women too.

ALL HIS GROUP he is TREASON

romney not perfect 100 5 BUt juan mc cain is the WORSE of ALL,he never gonna win cuz WE conservative not worth to vote JUAn

blah, blah, blah, blah

[Brad]

"I'll vote for McCain cuz he can win"

What unprincipialed BS. There is no difference between McCain and Hillary. I will not jump on the slow boat to socailism over the fast boat to socialism. They both arrise at the same place.

Mitt changed. Yes, but at least he is not a downright liar.

[Jim]

One of the curiosities of American politics is the media's ongoing infatuation with John McCain. A bit of this is based on things such as McCain's opposition to torture (unfortunately, we can no longer treat opposing torture like opposing child molestation, i.e., something one assumes is standard equipment in a presidential candidate rather than a luxury upgrade). Yet most of the journalistic love affair with the Republican senator from Arizona is based on other factors.

Consider this typical endorsement from the Orlando Sentinel: While McCain "has stuck to his principles at the risk of sinking his campaign," Mitt Romney "has abandoned positions that would have alienated his party's conservative base." (Indeed, I checked a computer database and discovered that, in the national media, Romney is at least six times more likely to be described as a flip-flopper than McCain.)

This does not merely ignore but actually inverts the truth. The fact is that no presidential candidate in either party has flip-flopped as egregiously as McCain on such a wide range of issues. Here's just a small sample of Sen. Straight Talk's recent series of remarkable conversions to politically convenient stances:

-- On abortion rights, McCain has done a 180-degree turn, from favoring only the most minor restrictions and opposing the overturning of Roe v. Wade, to supporting an almost total ban, while advocating that the Supreme Court reverse Roe immediately.

-- McCain has transformed himself from a deficit hawk who mocked supply-side economics into someone who sounds like he's drunk deeply from the wackiest vats of supply-side Kool-Aid, to the point where he now claims raising taxes decreases revenues (a claim so wildly in conflict with the facts -- for example, federal tax revenues almost doubled in real terms after the Clinton tax increases -- that it's either a shameless lie or a product of astounding ignorance).

-- In regard to ethanol subsidies, McCain has gone from treating them as the worst sort of pork to becoming a strong supporter of a program despised by economists, but beloved of Iowa farmers and the good people at Archer Daniels Midland.

-- Six years ago, McCain sternly condemned Jerry Falwell as "an agent of intolerance." Eighteen months ago, he gave the commencement address at Falwell's university, while openly embracing one of the most noxious figures of the religious right.

These are just a few examples from a far longer list. On topics ranging from immigration, to campaign finance reform, to gay marriage, to accepting support from various sleazy characters he previously shunned, McCain has either completely reversed his views or seriously equivocated regarding what they are this week.

Yet the media continue to lavish him with worshipful paeans to his supposedly uncompromising commitment to principled leadership no matter what the political cost etc., etc.

Part of this is accounted for by lazy autopilot journalism, which stops people from bothering to check whether the story line they've repeated for years still has any relationship to reality.

But part of it is something worse. When it comes to McCain, many of the sophisticates at the top of the media pyramid are like a masochistic spouse who treats open infidelity as a twisted sort of faithfulness. They love McCain because when he lies to their face he doesn't even pretend to be doing otherwise. According to the pretzel logic of a certain kind of journalism, that counts as candor.

All this would be merely amusing if McCain were not a genuinely tragic figure. The young man who showed such exemplary courage in the face of his North Vietnamese tormenters has become an old man whose courage abandoned him when subjected to the more subtle tortures of worldly ambition.

"Count no man happy," noted the Athenian statesman, "until he is dead."

[Old j e rk]

McCain is a looney liar. His record and his rhetoric is comprable to H. CLinton.

McCain did not vote for the tax cuts. There would be little difference if either of these two were president. I think people of the US are so stupid top think McCain would be stong in defense.

It is laughable in a really bad way. McCain wants to hand over all enemy terrorists the same rights as a US citizen. He wants to give all legal US jobs to illegal immigrants and make the US a third world country except for the wealthy elite. He left his first wife who nearly died for a rich heiress.

He was not a hero because he was a prisoner. In fact he hates this country and has a vendetta to destroy America. Both McCain and Huckabee (dog torturing son) are the slimiest politicians and as conservative, H Clinton would probably be safer than the two of them.

Romney is the only GOP that is tolerable and that could beat the beast (H CLinton)

Juan mc cainnedy just as worse like bush will be act like DICTATOR jerk old man no brain , he will loss by democrats at least he is campaigne in Tijuana he will win.

[Old jerk]

BILLARY VS MC CAIN nothing matter they both very very bad , finnaly chinese and open border WON!!

[old idiot jerk]

200,000 additional manufacturing jobs have been lost. 1.8 million jobs have left the U.S. for China. This fracturing of the U.S. industrial base is a long term threat to America and LET BORDER PRATROL GET KILL BY DRUG dealer ilelgal alien and MC Cain cheeers with mexicans criminal advocate vicente crony,scums crook

The only thing that matter is that John McCain can/will beat Hillary while Mitt Romney would get wiped out by Hillary.

So the real question is, Would Republican rather have John McCain or Hillary in the White House.

As a Republican, it is super clear to me. We cannot let the democrats control both houses of Congress & the presidency.

John McCain has my full support.