Hispanics 2008 Presidential Election

Candidates Court Hispanics, Obama Denies Pandering to Centrist

By STEVEN R. HURST
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) _ Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama courted Hispanics _ who could tip the balance in several key battleground states in the November election _ promising to right the troubled U.S. economy and restore new immigrants' hopes of sharing in the dream of a better life through hard work.

Obama, fighting back against a Republican Party television ad that questions his ability to solve the United States' energy woes, on Tuesday launched his first negative commercial of the campaign, declaring McCain was ``part of the problem'' on energy, an issue that is quickly becoming the top worry of voters as a result of record-high gasoline prices.

The first-term Illinois senator also upbraided the left wing of his party and the news media over claims that he was shifting to the political center and away from the progressive roots which led him to victory in the Democratic primary contest.

A recent AP-Yahoo News poll showed that Obama leads McCain among Hispanics, 47 percent to 22 percent with 26 percent undecided.

Still, Obama, who is trying to become the first black president, doesn't have a lock on Hispanics, America's fastest growing minority. During the primaries, Hispanics preferred Hillary Rodham Clinton to Obama by nearly 2-to-1.

Both candidates are making aggressive plays for this Democratic-leaning group that could decide the outcome of the presidential contest in the battleground states of Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico and elsewhere in the November election.

McCain senses an opportunity based on his links to the West and Republican inroads four years ago.

President George W. Bush captured about 40 percent of the Hispanic vote in 2004, to Democrat John Kerry's 58 percent, down from the 62 percent former Vice President Al Gore got in 2000. Still, in the 2006 congressional elections, Democrats scored their biggest win among Hispanics since 1996.

The Hispanic vote was the focus of the campaign for a second time as both candidates spoke separately Tuesday to the League of United Latin American Citizens. Last month, they pledged to make overhauling the country's immigration policy a priority in separate appearances to the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials conference.

McCain assured that audience that he wouldn't pursue the enforcement-only approach sought by hard-line Republican conservatives, while Obama accused McCain of walking away from comprehensive immigration reform.

While that issue remains fundamental with the Hispanic voting bloc, that fast growing group also shares with most Americans a deep concern over soaring gasoline prices, higher food costs, mortgage foreclosures and job loses.

``I have a plan to grow the economy, create more and better jobs, and get America moving again,'' the Arizona senator added, promising to help small businesses prosper, make health care more affordable, improve education and free the country from its dependence on foreign oil.

``If you believe you should pay more taxes, I am the wrong candidate for you,'' McCain said. ``Jobs are the most important thing our economy creates.''

Obama, for his part, promised to cut taxes for small business owners, end tax breaks for companies that ``ship jobs overseas,'' solve the housing crisis, help struggling homeowners, and invest in infrastructure to create new construction jobs.

He also laced his speech with criticisms of McCain's economic plans. He accused the Republican anew of backing off comprehensive immigration reform, saying McCain ``abandoned his courageous stance'' during the primary season.

``We need a president who isn't going to walk away from something as important as comprehensive reform when it becomes politically unpopular,'' Obama said.

The crowd greeted McCain warmly, applauding at several lines and giving him a respectable send-off. Later, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, one of the most prominent Hispanic politicians in the U.S., warmed up the crowd for Obama. It whooped and hollered throughout Obama's speech.

Both McCain and Obama support a temporary worker program and eventual path to citizenship for millions of immigrants in the country illegally. But after a comprehensive Senate bill failed last summer under public outcry that split the Republican Party, McCain has added that the borders must be secure first before people will accept other reforms.

Obama also dismissed the notion that he has been shifting stances on Iraq, guns and the death penalty to break with his party's liberal wing and court a wider swath of voters.

``The people who say this haven't apparently been listening to me,'' the likely Democratic presidential nominee said in response to a question at a town-hall style event Tuesday in Powder Springs, Georgia.

Obama blamed criticism from ``my friends on the left'' and ``some of the media'' in part on cynicism that ascribes political motives for every move candidates make.

Since wrapping up the Democratic nomination last month, Obama has voiced positions at odds with the Democratic Party's left and have seemed at times to shade his own past positions on a range of subjects. He has drawn criticism from some liberal Democrats who question his loyalty and from Republicans who accuse him of flip-flopping.

His remarks aside, Obama is clearly competing for the center of the electorate. That could help as he takes his campaign to Republican-leaning states such as Georgia, where polls show he is within striking distance of McCain.

Both candidates are in the midst of weeklong efforts devoted to the economy, the top concern of voters four months before the election as gas prices and job layoffs rise while the credit crisis and housing crunch continue. Each senator is trying to portray himself as most in tune with the needs of a middle class that's smarting from economic difficulties _ and the other as out of touch.

Obama called for changing federal bankruptcy laws to help military families, seniors and victims of natural disasters, and accused McCain of repeatedly siding with the banking industry when Congress acted on the issue.

``When it comes to strengthening the safety net for hardworking families, he's been part of the problem, not part of the solution,'' Obama said of his Republican rival for the White House.

Originally best known as an anti-Iraq war candidate, Obama's latest commercials make an obvious play for voters across the political spectrum by focusing on family values and patriotism as well as ``welfare to work'' and lower taxes.

In his first negative ad of the general election campaign, Obama issued a 30-second commercial in a direct response to a Republican Party ad that began airing this weekend. The Republican spot accuses Obama of offering no new solutions. Obama's ad will run in the same states where the Republican National Committee placed its ad.

Obama's sharp retort represents an early escalation in the presidential ad wars as Americans, faced with gasoline prices of more than $4 per gallon ($1 per liter), appear to be embracing some of McCain's proposed solutions, including increased oil drilling in the United States.

``On gas prices, John McCain's part of the problem,'' the Obama ad states. ``McCain and Bush support a drilling plan that won't produce a drop of oil for seven years. McCain will give more tax breaks to big oil. He's voted with Bush 95 percent of the time.

McCain and Bush want Congress to lift the ban on drilling on the continental shelf. If Congress agrees and states then permit it, energy experts say it would take at least five to seven years before new drilling could begin.