McCain's Spanish Strategy

The New York Times reports that the McCain campaign has been running Spanish radio and TV ads blaming Obama and the Democrats for the failure of immigration reform. The Times notes that while a couple of the amendments offered by the Democrats were indeed not helpful, Obama has by and large been supportive of immigration reform. Ultimately four Republican senators were blamed for the demise of the bill. McCain led the efforts to pass a comprehensive immigration bill but backed down following furious protests from his own party. In fact, he’s played down any support for immigration reform throughout the primaries. This new push is an attempt to attract Hispanic voters and if successful, could hurt Obama especially in New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada, and Florida. Obama’s strength in Colorado, for example, is in large part due to strong support from Hispanic voters. The interesting thing about McCain’s attempts to lure Hispanic voters is that it must be done under the radar for the fear of raising the wrath of the nativist wing of his party. McCain cannot afford to antagonize his base. Still, Obama needs to counter any attempts by the McCain campaign to make inroads here with great forcefulness.