The Republican National Committee hosted a teleconference call with reporters this morning, and Bettina Inclan, the RNC's director of Hispanic outreach, inadvertently made Mitt Romney's Latino troubles worse.
Yes, Mitt Romney has been seeking various public offices for 18 years; he was a governor for four years; and he's been running for president pretty much non-stop for six years, but he's "still deciding what his position on immigration is." This, from one of his allies, hoping to make him look better.
Oh my.
It's also worth appreciating the fact that it's far too late for the presumptive Republican nominee to "decide his position on immigration" -- that decision was already made quite a while ago. Romney has already said he's an opponent of the DREAM Act; he's palling around with Pete Wilson and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach; he endorses a "self-deportation" agenda; he's critical of bilingualism; and his casual dismissals of "amnesty" and "illegals" are a staple of his campaign rhetoric.
He's not "still deciding"; he's already decided to be the most anti-immigrant major-party nominee in at least a generation.
It's why Romney has successfully alienated Latino voters to such a remarkable degree. There's just not much left for the candidate to "decide."
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Remember "self-deportation" from the debates? Is this code for outsourcing border enforecement?
I guess Latinos are more understanding......
I guess they understand Mitt cozying up to the Papers, Please law creator and Pete Wilson.
Establish a position? Hey, he's running for president, for Pete's sake!
He does need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.
Take my position ....please
With apologies to Bob Dylan and Henny Youngman
Maybe his opinion is evolving?
Interesting, Eric. Sort of odd that a 40 plus year old President wouldn't know his own position on same sex marriage, huh?
Well, the reality in both cases is that there's more below the surface. In Romney's spokesperson case she was speaking own outreach positions because she was introducing new outreach personnel.
She clarified it in a follow up and pointed to Romney's website outline his position on immigration that has long been in place. This posting, like many (on both sides) is a misrepresentation of the intended meaning of the words.
Fair game? Probably. Accurate content wise? Not in the least.
Hahaha! And the president 'still deciding' his stance on gay marriage.
Funny how Maddow is completely blacking this story out...
Flip and flop. It's as if the Republican Party wants to lose elections and forever be relegated to a niche party of old white men. The GOP has a death wish in terms of luring Hispanic voters, and Mitt Romney is not helping. The nation's fastest growing electorate is treated like criminals and thugs by the GOP, and not deserving to be wooed like actual voters. This November's election will be won by the candidate that captures the most Latino votes. That will not be a Republican. http://www.sunstateactivist.org
" He's not "still deciding"; he's already decided to be the most anti-immigrant major-party nominee in at least a generation. "
And he is unable top tell the public what his 1% policy is , because it's the policy of
THESE ARE THE PEOPLE THAT MOW MY GRASS AND WORK ON MY HOUSE FOR 50% LESS THAN AMERICAN WORKERS
I really do not enjoy being so syndical about people , but this guy is proud of showing he is a 1% snob , he deserves the brutal awakening he is about to get from americans
Can you imagine being so callous when your grand father moved to mex and prospered? Then add anchor baby rubio !! They view the 99% as their subjects , it is out right creepy ..I predict his campaign falls apart by august
You don't think for one minute he is not being pressured by those large conglomerates who use illegals. They are telling him wait until they can abolish the minimum wage so that we can get some real competition in the labor market. That permanent underclass will be scrambling for those jobs.
Romney is not anti immigration. He is against illegal immigration. Or should I say anti undocumented workers. People who broke the law to enter this country should not be rewarded. Did we take advantage of them? YES!!. That's the employers fault, and we should also crack down on them. Rubio has a more sensible plan to handle children who came to this country illegally. No automatic citizenship, but a path to it.
Dream on.
"To know Mitt Romney is to dislike him. That is the moral of the story."
Thomas Whalen, a Boston University political science professor
Bettina Inclan has now tweeted that she misspoke.
LMAO
Not meant to be a factual tweet
"It's also worth appreciating the fact that it's far too late for the presumptive Republican nominee to "decide his position on immigration" -- that decision was already made quite a while ago. Romney has already said he's an opponent of the DREAM Act; he's palling around with Pete Wilson and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach; he endorses a "self-deportation" agenda; he's critical of bilingualism; and his casual dismissals of "amnesty" and "illegals" are a staple of his campaign rhetoric."
Well, yes, but the Immigration Etch-a-Sketch hasn't been given a good shaking yet, has it? Give Rmoney a break, 1) he's running for office, for Pete's sake, and 2) the Auto Bailout Etch-a-Sketch took a lot of energy out of him.
I have a feeling that, once he gets confident the extreme right will back him out of hatred of Obama, that position on immigration policy is going to take on, at least publicly, a lot different look. And there won't be any truth to it at all, of course.
Self-deportation is the answer. *shake, shake, shake* I love Latinos. In fact, my grandfather had 3 wives in Mexico... oops. I shook the Etch-A-Sketch too hard. *shake, shake, shake* We need a Republican version of the DREAM Act, you know, without the legal protections those liberals want to give those non-self-deporting Latinos who grew up here.
He doesn't know his position because it hasn't been given to him yet.
We need to hear Grover's statement over & over, also Mc Connell's, so often infact as to be absolutely certain they are heard by every person in this country. it needs to be absorbed just how truly awful that bunch really is.
'I appreciate the contributions of the Hispanic people. I have friends who own Taco Bells.'
I'm dumbfounded by Romney as a serious presidential candidate. He is absolutely the worst I've ever seen. What is this man thinking?!? He sees no rush to offer a plan to reform immigration or to get our economy growing faster. He acts as if all he has to do is show up in November. Keep thinking that way Mitt.
The programmers haven't entered in the immigration position yet... Geez, data entry can take FOREVER...
Such a predicament… cannot hire (exploit) any "illegals", but those folks are too expensive and will they work as hard, being "legal"?… how can we spin it to where we look good? OK, I got it, outsource jobs to Spanish speaking countries and say what a good model Arizona made to deter people. Just go back there, but tell your cousins that Mitt's old glory he loves to tout, Bain Capital got you those jobs in Guadalajara and Chihuahua, Mexico. It may not be Mitt technically, but his company did that. Bain Capital which Romney continues to tout as his qualifications for fixing the economy. Let's look at the tax policies to corps that outsource jobs too, OK? Let's look at what Mitt Romney says gives him what we need in America, too:
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/dec/03/nation/la-na-romney-bain-20111204
He already said he liked the Arizona law to have a sheriffs look for "illegals". Also, self deportation, meaning make life so hard for "illegals", they leave. But, I never see anything about having tax board investigator officials checking into employers' hiring records or much about trying to get proper documentation for those folks that came here to work with clean records. Maybe ending the hiding and cheating. Maybe that seems to much like rewarding, but continuing the status quo isn't really satisfactory. But hey, the program was done by St. Ronald Reagan in 1986 after the Braceros program was stopped in 1964. It seems to me, the Braceros program was more successful than Reagan's Immigration Reform.
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/1008amnesty-intro.html
At least the candidates should know some of this, what works and what doesn't. I have seen raids at my workplace long ago, I wonder how much it costs to do that and if we can enforce laws that have employers comply, since they tried it, but it seemed to fail. It would be nice to have unlimited amounts of water (Central CA needs more reservoirs, or grow where more precipitation/water exists) good land and hard working/well treated and prevailing waged people being here legally to ensure a working agricultural economy. If they had documentation, they could stay and spend money here, go home and return, be able to interact without fear of deportation.
But then we will probably always have disagreements about this. There is an issue of employers involved in this which is key, but we always focus on the employee side. Two way street.