McCain Campaign Conference Call On Barack Obama's LULAC Remarks

"I as a House member was intimately involved in many of the meetings where Senator McCain was leading the effort to try to get comprehensive immigration reform passed. And Senator Obama was consistently and absolutely AWOL, nowhere to be seen in any of the meetings that we held on this issue of immigration. It's absurd for him now to try to take credit on that issue when he was nowhere to be seen." -- Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart

Today, U.S. Senator John McCain's presidential campaign held a press conference call with U.S. Representative Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL) on Barack Obama's LULAC remarks:

Rep. Diaz-Balart: "Senator Obama has a steep hill to climb with regard to the Hispanic community, not only because Hispanics basically do not know him, but because of a number of aspects of his record.

"His pattern of voting present when he was a state legislator is going to be of concern to voters throughout the country, including Hispanics. When voters learn about the fact that on very important issues, even very important issues, Senator Obama had a pattern of voting present. That will be of concern with regard to an evident lack of preparation, lack of leadership for a position as important as president of the United States.

"And the issue of taxes and the economy obviously are going to be very important to Latino, to Hispanic voters. The Hispanic community includes about 2 million small businesses. It is, to a great extent, a small business community. An overwhelming portion of Hispanics are employed in those 2 million small businesses and other small businesses in the country. And Senator Obama is going to have a problem with regard to his support for massive tax increases on small businesses."

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"And Hispanic small businesses are growing. It is estimated that there will be over 3 million Hispanic small businesses, certainly by the year 2010. We're approaching, already, 3 million Hispanic small businesses. So, to support massive tax increases, that Senator Obama did, by voting in favor of a budget that included the largest tax increase in history, and that includes very large tax increases on small businesses, that is going to be an issue in the Hispanic community that, as I say, is very much a small-business community, and growing, in terms of the small businesses in the Hispanic community.

"Senator Obama also has a very significant problem when the issue of the free trade agreements with our friends in this hemisphere is dealt with. He opposes the Colombia and Panama free trade agreements. He opposed the free trade agreement with our friends in Central America and the Dominican Republic. He supports the renegotiation of the free trade agreement with Mexico, our closest neighbor."

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"So, on all of these issues -- taxes and the economy, the free trade agreements with our friends and democracies in this hemisphere, Senator Obama's on the wrong side of the issue. And it's going to be of importance when trying to woo, trying to persuade a community that is as important in so many swing states, as is the Latino community.

"Let me say some final remarks with regard to the issue of immigration. Apparently, Senator Obama now is talking about the fact that he was involved in trying to make that legislation that died in the Senate a reality, to try to pass that legislation.

"I as a House member was intimately involved in many of the meetings where Senator McCain was leading the effort to try to get comprehensive immigration reform passed. And Senator Obama was consistently and absolutely AWOL, nowhere to be seen in any of the meetings that we held on this issue of immigration. It's absurd for him now to try to take credit on that issue when he was nowhere to be seen. He was an absolute non-player. He was absolutely AWOL on the issue of immigration. It's absolutely absurd now to try to take credit for having tried to save that bill.

"Now, that bill basically was a three-legged stool: border security first -- that was the first chapter; a temporary worker program; and then dealing with the undocumented in the United States -- a three-legged stool.

"Senator Obama joined up with one of the most anti-immigrant senators, Senator Dorgan, to try to kill the second leg of that stool, the temporary worker program was an absolutely indispensable ingredient, and will be in the future, to immigration reform. And Senator Obama tried to kill the temporary worker program. He voted for the reduction from 400,000 to 200,000 temporary workers.

"And with regard to the global issue, whether on border control or whether on dealing with the people who are here, he was absolutely AWOL. So it is absurd for him to try to take credit now.

"Again, it's part of the pattern of the problem he's going to have going into the Hispanic community to try to persuade the Hispanic community that he's a leader, because he has -- basically he is not known, he's not known by the Hispanic community."

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"So whether it's on the issue of immigration, where he was absolutely AWOL, opposition to the free trade agreements with our friends in this hemisphere, his support for massive tax increases on the over 2 million small businesses that are Hispanic in this country and growing in number, on all those issues Senator Obama is going to have a serious problem when he tries to persuade Hispanic that he's the right choice for president."


Listen To The Full Conference Call.