So today I watched the NALEO speech and Q&A sessions for both Senators John McCain and Barack Obama. The contrast was stark. I'll start with what I can remember of John McCain's session, followed by what I can remember of Obama's.
jump. . .
McCain opened up crying about the town hall meetings again. He spent at least two minutes talking about the townhalls. He then proceeded to his speech, which wasn't all that memorable. I do recall him talking about education, which caught me off guard. He mentioned that 50% of all Latinos and African Americans will not graduate from high school. What's his big solution? You guess it, NCLB (thanks for the catch,jgilhousen) with a really heavy emphasis on choice. I won't turn this into an education diary, but freedom of choice has NEVER been the answer to ANY educational issues. He also specifically brought up his time as a POW, and tied this back into the Latino community because there are so many Latinos serving in the military.
When I was in prison in Vietnam, I like other of my fellow POWs, was offered early release by my captors. Most of us refused because we were bound to our code of conduct, which said those who had been captured the earliest had to be released the soonest. My friend, Everett Alvarez, a brave American of Mexican descent, had been shot down years before I was, and had suffered for his country much more and much longer than I had. To leave him behind would have shamed us. When you take the solemn stroll along that wall of black granite on the national Mall, it is hard not to notice the many names such as Rodriguez, Hernandez, and Lopez that so sadly adorn it. When you visit Iraq and Afghanistan you will meet some of the thousands of Hispanic-Americans who serve there, and many of those who risk their lives to protect the rest of us do not yet possess the rights and privileges of full citizenship in the country they love so well. To love your country, as I discovered in Vietnam, is to love your countrymen. Those men and women are my brothers and sisters, my fellow Americans, an association that means more to me than any other. As a private citizen or as your President, I will never, never do anything to dishonor our obligations to them and their families or to forget what they and their ancestors have done to make this country the beautiful, bountiful, blessed place we love.
In fact, if you listen to his answers during the Q&A, it always boiled down to the military. I think he may have literally found a way to make the military part of every answer. He closed his session with a story about how a woman gave him a bracelet with her son's name on it. Her son died in Iraq. In fact, this story sounded exactly like the story Obama told about the bracelet he got during the primaries. I think the son had the same name and everything, and the bracelet looked the same. Maybe it was the same lady ~shrug~
John McCain did some HEAVY DUTY pandering, this while 3 (maybe 4) hecklers interrupted his speech to basically call him a war monger.
As pointed out by Jonathan Martin:
John McCain struggled to get through his opening remarks to a group of Latino officials after three individuals interrupted his speech with shouted denunciations.
McCain reacted with good cheer the first time, smiling and pausing after a woman repeatedly screamed "we want a peace candidate."
"Well, that's a familiar voice to me," McCain said with a smile.
After he sought to begin his remarks again, the woman again started shouting.
The crowd sought to drown her out with cheers and claps, but the heckler continued to shout.
"It's a long trip out," McCain observed to laughs, as the woman was escorted out of the back of the room.
The candidate was less amused the second time when another woman unfurled a red banner and began screaming in Spanish. (Muzikal Note: actually, the banner was pink)
As security guards closed in on her, she pivoted to English.
"Your silence is consent to war crimes," was her repeated refrain.
This time, the event moderator expressed his embarrassment.
"Our apologies, Senator," said Arturo Vargas.
The final interruption brought a sigh of exasperation from the crowd, a good number of whom appear to be McCain supporters.
As the GOP nominee was solemnly praising those American troops of Hispanic heritage who have given their lives for the country, a woman bellowed: "Then quit betraying our veterans!"
She continued with a plea to bring the troops home from and end the war in Iraq.
"You have the power," she observed, loudly.
At this point, and somewhat awkwardly, McCain wrapped up his prepared remarks with a clipped "thank you very much."
After the outbursts, McCain's traveling press aide, Brooke Buchanan, shrugged them off. The hecklers, she said, stalk the candidate at events around the country.
Must be tough to get a word in edgewise with all of those hecklers.
Another interesting development was McCain said we were "winning" in Iraq and would be able to withdraw. Now, this doesn't sound like the McCain we all know. And quite frankly, I'm now confused on his Iraq policy, it seems to change with the audience he's speaking to. He gave himself some wiggle room by saying that the success was fragile, so I expect he'll be back to "withdrawal doesn't matter" within a couple of hours.
One thing I remember was McCain criticizing Congress for taking a break before voting on the housing legislation. Mind you, this is the same Senator who has hardly bothered to show up (has he shown up yet this year? If he has I can probably count the number of times on less than one full hand) to vote and do his job as a Senator. I think it was pretty ballsy of him to call Congress out on going on a week long vacation. I even recall reading that he justified his absence by saying that the people of Arizona understand that he's running for President, so they excuse his absences. I guess how forgiving they are shows in the fact that AZ is now considered a swing state. . . but I digress. During his pander fest he stated that Immigration is his TOP ISSUE that's right, you heard me. He called Immigration reform his top issue. Which is amazing to me, since you don't really hear him mention it NEARLY as much as Iraq and national security.
Overall, McCain reminded me of some sort of puppet. He wasn't saying anything we haven't heard before, his speech and movement was wooden, and he didn't seem all that comfortable. He made some mediocre jokes, the ones that got the best response were during the heckler's being escorted out of the room. If you'd like to read his entire speech, RCP has it.
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Then came Obama about 20 minutes later. I didn't see McCain's introduction/arrival, so I don't know how the crowd reacted, but they went nuts for Obama, and he came out smiling and looking refreshed (I am a bit biased here, but I can't imagine why McCain is so eager to get on stage with Obama. . . ). He started out saying "Si Se Puede" a few times, the crowd chanted for a bit, and then Obama literally gave "shout outs." He was greeting his friends in the audience like they were really his friends and he was excited to see them. He talked about the work he did in the Latino community, which was very well recieved, and gave brief remarks to the crowd before doing a Q&A (I can't find text of his speech just yet, but when I do, I'll add a link).
I noticed a theme as he answered his questions, particularly on housing, education, and health care. When he discussed issues pertaining to the Latino community, most of the time he said something to the effect of "In the Latino community, and in the African American community as well." This to me was him saying, "look guys, we all have the same problems. The problems that people in the African American community are facing are the same problems in the Latino community, and if we work together we can solve them." He's going to try to do what may have never been attempted before, and combine the African American and Latino communities on the issues, get them to see each other as allies rather than enemies, and it's genius. By all accounts, he pretty much has the African American vote locked up, if he can combine let's say 90% of the African American vote with a significant portion of the Latino vote, he will really be giving the Republicans nightmares.
Also, Ralph Nader may have gotten under Obama's skin a bit, because he did take the time to also specifically address predatory lending in a very specific way so there could be no questions, and he called it a problem in the Latino and African American communities.
Obama also took a moment to hit McCain on his immigration flip-flop-flip:
"He was a champion of comprehensive reform, and I admired him for it," Obama said. "But what he didn’t mention is that when he was running for his party’s nomination, he walked away from that commitment."
After receiving a round of applause, Obama reached into his campaign oppo file and noted that McCain "said he wouldn’t even support his own legislation if it came up for a vote."
There were no Obama hecklers, Obama did literally call someone his "homie" when he was told she was in the crowd. He seemed to be enjoying himself. He talked about all of the stuff we've heard before, so when they put up a video, I'll add it to the diary.
Both sessions were very interesting, and watching the candidates back to back there are many start contrasts, and not just on policy. It's replaying in the 4:00 PM hour on CSPAN, I suggest you all watch and get a feel for yourselves :o)
UPDATE: CSPAN has video up (h/t NCDem Amy):
[part-time] Senator John McCain
Senator Barack Obama
If you don't feel like waiting to DL it, it's still replying at 4 :o)
UPDATE #2: The closing remarks of Senator Obama, they were really good. Also, the site has his full opening remarks (I'm only quoting the closing remarks):
You know, a few years ago, I attended a naturalization workshop at St. Pius Church in Chicago. And as I walked down the aisle, I saw people clutching small American flags, waiting for their turn to be called up so they could begin the long process to become U.S. citizens.
And at one point, a young girl, seven or eight, came up to me with her parents, and asked for my autograph. She said she was studying government in school and wanted to show it to her third grade class. I asked her what her name was, and she said her name was Cristina. I told her parents they should be very proud of her.
And as I watched Cristina translate my words into Spanish for them, I was reminded that for all the noise and anger that too often surrounds the immigration debate, America has nothing to fear from today’s immigrants. They have come here for the same reason that families have always come here, for the same reason my father came here – for the hope that in America, they could build a better life for themselves and their families. Like the waves of immigrants that came before them and the Hispanic Americans like Ken Salazar whose families have been here for generations, the recent arrival of Latino immigrants will only enrich our country.
Ultimately, then, the danger to the American way of life is not that we will be overrun by those who do not look like us or do not yet speak our language. The danger will come if we fail to recognize the humanity of Cristina and her family – if we withhold from them the opportunities we take for granted, and create a servant class in our midst.
More broadly, the danger will come if we continue to stand idly by as the gap between Wall Street and Main Street grows, as Washington grows more out of touch, and as America grows more unequal. Because America can only prosper when all Americans prosper – brown, black, white, Asian, and Native American. That’s the idea that lies at the heart of my campaign, and that’s the idea that will lie at the heart of my presidency. Because we are all Americans. Todos somos Americanos. And in this country, we rise and fall together.
THAT is the Obama that I "fell in love" with, the one that inspired me to participate and be active in his campaign. I hope we get to see more of him as time goes on. . .
UPDATE #3: CSPAN now has specific times:
4:42pm - McCain at Latino Leadership Conference
5:31pm - Obama at Latino Leadership Conference
h/t jamtown
Update #4: For those who just want to see McCain heckled. . .
h/t icebergslim
UPDATE #5: It's 4:52 PM ET, so McCain's session should be starting.
Due to some encouragement in the comments, I did find a site that lists missed Senate votes. I didn't even know the Washington Post had this site, it's a good one to bookmark for future reference.
McCain:
John McCain has missed 373 votes (61.8%) during the current Congress.
Oh, and While I'm here:
John McCain has voted with a majority of his Republican colleagues 88.3% of the time during the current Congress. This percentage does not include votes in which McCain did not vote.
So much for the Maverick Meme.
Obama:
Barack Obama has missed 262 votes (43.4%) during the current Congress.
In fact, Obama was JUST on the Senate floor doing his job (VOTING) on the 26th. . . I wonder where McCain was. . .
Barack Obama has voted with a majority of his Democratic colleagues 96.5% of the time during the current Congress. This percentage does not include votes in which Obama did not vote
He's even less mavericky than McCain, but that's alright :o)
And just to make McCain look even worse:
Clinton:
Hillary Clinton has missed 201 votes (33.3%) during the current Congress.
So there you have it, Barack Obama AND Hillary Clinton BOTH managed to do their jobs in the Senate more than John McCain. So McCain REALLY doesn't have much standing to criticize what's happening, or what's NOT happening, in the Senate since most of what he "knows" right now probably consists of second hand accounts.
UPDATE #6
Okay, after re-watching McCain, he said he got his bracelet in August. I don't know if he's ever told that story or wore that bracelet before since I never watched one of his events all the way through (I did make a valiant effort to try a couple of times). Also, he didn't close with that story, he did close on immigration with a very nice story about how he feels the pain of immigrants who come into AZ and are stacked up in trucks in 100 degree plus weather. Apparently he plans to secure the Mexican border with infared cameras and people in trucks.
Also, I paid more attention to his leaving this time (the first time I changed the channel), and you can definitely see a stark contrast in Obama's leaving vs. McCain's leaving. McCain seems like he can't wait to get out of there, he stopped maybe once to talk to/hug someone. You also pick up on the contrasts during the speeches and Q&As. I'll come back and correct anything I mis-remembered from Obama's session when it's over.
I still can't figure out why McCain is so eager to be on the same stage, at the same time, as Obama. . . but I admit, I'm biased :o)
Oh, and as glutz78 points out in a comment, McCain's public speaking really isn't that great. I thought I mentioned this in the original diary, but a lot of his jokes missed the mark, and I do agree that the hecklers are a side story but they DID steal a lot of McCain's "thunder." I also agree that the more I see of McCain, the more inept he seems. But remember I was writing the original diary from memory, so I may have missed a couple of details, which I'm trying to fill in now watching the replay.
UPDATE #7: Okay, since I didn't mention much about Obama's answers in the original, I wrote some things down as I watched this time. He spent a lot of time talking about fixing the U.S.'s infrastructure, building better roads, bridges, and schools. Says ending the war and rebuilding our infrastructure is a good way to get people to work and immediately stimulate the economy (I hadn't heard him put it like that before, he should do it more often, especially since there's not much focus on infrastructure in this election even with everything breaking down around us).
He spent quite a bit of time talking about better care for veterans, I don't recall if McCain really talked about this, so if someone remembers McCain talking about this more than in passing at the event, please say so in the comments. Had a slight gaffe when he said his father fought in WWII instead of his grandfather, but hopefully the GOP won't be dumb enough to try to make it an issue.
Talked about comprehensive immigration being a priority on his first day because we can be "both a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants" and he wants to talk to local governments more so the federal government doesn't end up building a wall down the middle of a college campus. Also wants to crack down on employers that are exploiting undocumented workers and provide those workers with a pathway to citizenship. Big fan of the DREAM Act. Also, I hadn't heard this one before, but he wants to strengthen LEGAL immigration because it's just too difficult to come in legally, the fees keep rising to prices that people cannot reasonably afford and there's too much red tape. He feels there is no reason someone should have to wait 12-13 years to become a citizen, and stuff like that is why people choose to go the underground route. Also mentioned working with Mexico and Central America to fix their economies, because people are coming here for the word not the scenery, so if they can get the same opportunities in their home countries they will be less likely to come here illegally.
Interesting fact. . . we spend more in a WEEK in Iraq than we do in our ENTIRE FOREIGN BUDGET for Latin American countries. He says that explains why Chavez can fan anti-American sentiment. All they are getting from the U.S. is rhetoric while they get resources from Venezuela.
Received a great response on his education policy, talked about how using a single high stakes test given in the middle of the year is a terrible way to measure progress in the schools. By doing that we are making teachers teach to a test, which tamps down creativity and enthusiasm in the class room. Also, more emphasis needs to be put on alternative careers for people who don't plan to go to college so they feel their education is relevant to them. And of course, his college affordability plan.
Oh, and he's psychic, he knew the last question he was going to be asked before he was asked it! (of course I realize he's not really psychic, I was being sarcastic for anyone who's missing a snark-o-meter :o) )
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