Republican presidential candidate John McCain is continuing his attempt to gain Hispanic support with a new ad beginning to air today in New Mexico, Colorado and Nevada.
Here’s the 60-second spot, which is currently running in English:
The ad shows McCain talking about Hispanics in the military during a debate in New Hampshire in June 2007.
“When you go to Iraq or Afghanistan today, you’re going to see a whole lot of people who are of Hispanic background. You’re even going to meet some of the few thousand that are still green-card holders who are not even citizens of this country, who love this country so much that they’re willing to risk their lives in its service in order to accelerate their path to citizenship and enjoy the bountiful, blessed nation,” McCain says in the ad. “So let’s from time to time remember that these are God’s children. They must come into our country legally, but they have enriched our culture and our nation as every generation of immigrants before them.”
The ad comes as polls show Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama leading among Hispanics nationwide and as Obama has been attacking McCain on the issue of immigration.
U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla., on a conference call with reporters today, said McCain’s ad speaks to his focus on and understanding of “the ever growing and important Hispanic community in our country.”
“He is someone who understands our community,” Martinez said. “… He lives in a border state, has understood our problems and our issues very well.”
Martinez said McCain was one of the leaders of a failed effort in 2007 to push a bipartisan, comprehensive immigration-reform package through Congress. Heavy lobbying from the right led to the defeat of that proposal. Now McCain favors starting with securing the border and then pushing other reforms.
Though Obama has attacked McCain for shifting gears, Martinez said McCain has not backed away from reforms that he wants to push after first securing the border. He’s simply trying a different approach, after comprehensive reform failed, to overhaul the nation’s immigration system.