McCain walking tightrope on immigration

McCain is walking a tightrope on immigration and he can't be trusted by either those who want tighter rules or those who want amnesty.

Many conservatives don't trust his new promises on immigration. While at the same time he is starting to antagonize Hispanics because he is being forced to talk about a tighter border, which they don't want, to gain conservative support.

My guess is that in November he won't be able to energize conservatives to really get out and vote in massive numbers and that middle of the road Hispanics will go for Obama. This immigration tightrope may well result in his falling on his face on election day.


John McCain faces a dilemma on immigration as he works to persuade conservatives he's tough enough on the issue without erasing his historic appeal to Hispanic voters.

Once a crusader for offering the nation's roughly 12 million undocumented immigrants a way to get legal status, McCain now says his first priority is fortifying U.S. borders. McCain is remaking his image with an eye toward the general election.

McCain told congressional Republicans in a closed-door meeting recently that he had been badly bruised by his push for immigration reform and had learned the hard way that sealing the border should be his priority.

Hispanic voters there and elsewhere, though, are listening with concern to the same change in tone that has gained McCain points with the GOP base. "His rhetoric has absolutely shifted, and people have noticed," said Munoz of La Raza, "He's going to have to figure out a way to talk to this community."