Mexicans Spurn McCain’s Pandering

Memo From Mexico, By Allan Wall

Mexicans Spurn McCain’s Pandering—Prefer Hillary (But They’ll Settle For Obama)

Who do Mexicans want as the next U.S. president?

All three major candidates (John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama) have appalling records on immigration (see here) which must make Mexico’s elite happy. All three have pandered to Hispanics—by, among other things, appearing in the Spanish-language Univision debates. And any of the three can be expected to push for an amnesty.

Nevertheless, of the three, John McCain has pandered more, and longer, and has proven again and again his contempt for US immigration laws. McCain defended the illegal alien marches of 2006. He opposed English Only laws and efforts to assimilate immigrants generally. He also seems fonder of Hispanic culture than traditional American culture: in one speech, he said the U.S. is better off not having a common culture, while in another, to Hispanic congressmen, he said that the Hispanic blood and culture was a "noble cause" that enriched the country. McCains’s Hispanic outreach director, Juan Hernandez, a longtime amnesty agitator, is actually a U.S.-Mexican citizen and a former Mexican cabinet minister!

So by any objective standard, McCain has pandered more to Mexico and Hispanics than either Hillary or Obama.

Then McCain must be very popular in Mexico, right?

Maybe he should be—but he’s not.

A recent poll reported March 21 by El Universal, Mexico’s paper of record, asked which of the three candidates—John McCain, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama—would be better for Mexico.

The results: Hillary Clinton got 41% of the Mexican vote. Obama was in second place, with 27% of the vote.

And John McCain? He got a whopping 8% of the vote!