Obama Press Call: Regarding McCain’s Secret Meeting With Hispanics

June 20, 2008 | Permalink

[Obama Campaign Press Release/Conference Call from June 20, 2008]

WHO: Obama campaign communications director Robert Gibbs

WHAT: Campaign Conference Call

WHEN: 11:30 am central/ 12:30 pm eastern

Required reading before the call (more to come): [Politico Link]

McCain’s secret meeting with Hispanics

Holding an off-schedule meeting with an interest group was bound to arouse interest, and sure enough comes an AP report about McCain’s get together with Chicago-area Hispanics Wednesday night.

The predictable lede bound to irk some on the right:

Republican presidential John McCain assured Hispanic leaders he would push through Congress legislation to overhaul federal immigration laws if elected, several people who attended a private meeting with the candidate said Thursday.

And, apparently, it’s just McCain’s luck that the head of the Minutemen in Illinois happens to be, you guessed it, Latino:

“He’s one John McCain in front of white Republicans. And he’s a different John McCain in front of Hispanics,” complained Rosanna Pulido, a Hispanic and conservative Republican who attended the meeting.

Pulido, who heads the Illinois Minuteman Project, which advocates for restrictive immigration laws, said she thought McCain was “pandering to the crowd” by emphasizing immigration reform in his 15-minute speech.

“He’s having his private meetings to rally Hispanics and to tell them what they want to hear,” she said. “I’m outraged that he would reach out to me as a Hispanic but not as a conservative.”