He didn't break into Spanish, nor did he back down from his emphatic position that border security must be the cornerstone of immigration overhaul. But Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) continued his fervid courtship of Latino voters Monday, speaking to about 2,000 people at the National Council of La Raza's annual convention the day after his Democratic opponent, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, came calling.
In an indication of how highly valued these voters are, this was the third time in the last 15 days that each presidential candidate has appeared before a major Latino political group.
McCain, whose stance on immigration has shifted to the right over the last year to align him more with the Republican base, is striving to put the Latino vote into play this November.
Presidential campaign: An article in Tuesday's Section A on Sen. John McCain's appearance at the convention of the National Council of La Raza said that the Republican had cosponsored a bill that would have made illegal presence in the U.S. a felony. It did not. It made fraudulent use of a Social Security number a felony and mandated jail time for people who overstay their visas.
Obama also faces a struggle: Most Latinos voted for his rival in the Democratic primaries, New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. When McCain praised Obama as an inspiring figure, the crowd listened; when he praised Clinton, the crowd cheered. (Obama got a similar response when he invoked her name on Sunday.)
"Latinos are among the hardest-working, most productive people in our country," McCain said. "We would not be the special country we are without you.
"Times are tough," McCain said. " I don't have to tell anybody in this room. . . . Over 400,000 people have lost their jobs since December, and the rate of new job creation has fallen sharply."
Calling education "the civil rights issue of our time," McCain noted that half of Latinos entering high school did not graduate, and praised La Raza for its work in helping establish 100 charter schools. "In the global economy," he said, "what you learn is what you earn."
He called himself an "unapologetic supporter" of free-trade agreements that cover the Americas. He got in a dig at Obama when touting his own recent three-day trip to Mexico and Colombia, the mere mention of which drew applause.
"While it is surely not my intention to become my opponent's scheduler," McCain said, "I hope Sen. Obama soon visits some of the other countries of the Americas. . . . I think he too would see that stronger economic bonds with our neighbors and the closer friendships they encourage are a great benefit in many ways to our country."
McCain proudly spoke of his 2006 collaboration with Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) on a bill to overhaul immigration policy that included a guest worker program and a path to citizenship. The bill failed.
