{"id":3731,"date":"2008-09-18T16:53:00","date_gmt":"2008-09-18T22:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/09\/with-new-ad-obama-stoops-to-same-level-as-mccain\/"},"modified":"2008-09-18T16:53:00","modified_gmt":"2008-09-18T22:53:00","slug":"with-new-ad-obama-stoops-to-same-level-as-mccain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/09\/with-new-ad-obama-stoops-to-same-level-as-mccain\/","title":{"rendered":"With new ad, Obama stoops to same level as McCain"},"content":{"rendered":"

I wrote last week that Republican presidential candidate John McCain\u2019s<\/a> campaign was making statement after statement that wasn\u2019t true<\/a>. Now his Democratic opponent, Barack Obama<\/a>, has stooped to the same level with a misleading and erroneous ad.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the Spanish ad the campaign is airing in New Mexico<\/st1:state>, Colorado<\/st1:state>, Nevada<\/st1:state> and Florida<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> in an attempt to win over Hispanic voters:<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

For those who don\u2019t speak Spanish, the ad opens with the narrator saying, \u201cThey want us to forget the insults we\u2019ve put up with, the intolerance. They made us feel marginalized in this country we love so much.\u201d Meanwhile, the ad shows conservative radio personality Rush Limbaugh<\/a> and gives these quotes from him: \u201cstupid and unskilled Mexicans\u201d and \u201cYou shut your mouth or you get out!\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Then the narrator says, \u201cJohn McCain and his Republican friends have two faces — one that says lies just to get our vote, and another, even worse, that continues the policies of George Bush<\/a> that put special interests ahead of working families. John McCain, more of the same old Republican tricks.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

There are big problems with this ad. For starters, McCain led the charge for the comprehensive immigration-reform bill Limbaugh and others railed against and helped take down in Congress last year. Limbaugh doesn\u2019t like McCain at all, as documented in this Washington Post article<\/a> and this YouTube video<\/a>. So linking McCain to Limbaugh is misleading.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Out-of-context quotes<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

There\u2019s another problem with this ad. The two quotes from Limbaugh are taken completely out of context, ABC News<\/a> is reporting.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The first quote about \u201cstupid and unskilled Mexicans\u201d came during a 1993 rant against NAFTA. Limbaugh was speaking about his belief that the bill would send jobs that require unskilled and uneducated workers south of the border and said, \u201cIf we are going to start rewarding no skills and stupid people, I\u2019m serious, let the unskilled jobs that take absolutely no knowledge whatsoever to do — let stupid and unskilled Mexicans do that work.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Though his quote may have been egregious, Limbaugh wasn\u2019t calling all Mexicans \u201cstupid and unskilled,\u201d as the ad implies.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The second quote came in 2006, when Limbaugh was mocking Mexican law. He said Mexican law doesn\u2019t give immigrants the right to protest.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re allowed no demonstrations, no foreign flag waving, no political organizing, no bad-mouthing our president or his policies,\u201d Limbaugh said. \u201cYou\u2019re a foreigner: Shut your mouth or get out!\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

He wasn\u2019t speaking about some desire to kick immigrants who speak up out of America<\/st1:country-region><\/st1:place>, as Obama\u2019s ad implies.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Patronizing<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

I\u2019m not defending Limbaugh. He\u2019s way out there, and it\u2019s certainly possible that he believes Mexicans are stupid and that immigrants in America<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> should have to \u201cshut your mouth or get out.\u201d But that\u2019s not what he said in these instances.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

To further link the disingenuous misrepresentations of these quotes to McCain, who has had a historically moderate view of immigration and regularly refers to undocumented immigrants as \u201cGod\u2019s children\u201d on the campaign trail, is even more egregious.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

As I wrote last week, the untruths from the McCain campaign have been nothing short of dishonorable, and I expected more from a campaign built largely on McCain\u2019s honorable military and congressional record of service.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Similarly, I expected more from Obama, the so-called empowering community organizer, than advertising that tries to deceive Spanish speakers into opposing the other guy. That\u2019s not empowering, and it isn\u2019t change you can believe in, just like McCain\u2019s dishonesty isn\u2019t straight talk. Whether it\u2019s McCain or Obama, using lies and misleading tactics is simply patronizing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I wrote last week that Republican presidential candidate John McCain\u2019s campaign was making statement after statement that wasn\u2019t true. Now his Democratic opponent, Barack Obama, has stooped to the same level with a misleading and erroneous ad. Here\u2019s the Spanish ad the campaign is airing in New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada and Florida in an attempt […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3731\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}