Obama's pants on fire

Everyone knows that McCain has taken heat from his own party for his views on what to do about illegal immigration. This is an issue that I actually agree with McCain on. Well, Obama's campaign put a Spanish-language ad on the air trying to equate McCain with Rush Limbaugh on immigration. Perhaps they think Hispanic voters are dumb or something but the allegations in the ad are patently false as demonstrated by the folks at politifact.com.

But here's the thing, in addition to completely misrepresenting McCain's point of view on immigration, they actually misrepresent Limbaugh too. Limbaugh is a hard-liner when it comes to illegal immigration but I don't consider him to be a demagogue. Despite the fact that liberals think Limbaugh is the devil his words on the issue can't be misconstrued unless you intentionally take them out of context.

Here's the lowdown from politifact:

There’s another big problem with the Obama campaign ad; the Limbaugh quotes are lifted out of context.

Let’s take the two quotes in order.

First: "…stupid and unskilled Mexicans."

This is a quote from 1993, during the debate over NAFTA. Said Limbaugh: "A caller called here and was giving me grief for not wanting to do what it took to protect American jobs, and so I said to him, ‘If you are unskilled and uneducated, your job is going south. Skilled workers, educated people are going to do fine ‘cause those are the kinds of jobs NAFTA is going to create. If we are going to start rewarding no skills and stupid people, I’m serious, let the unskilled jobs that take absolutely no knowledge whatsoever to do — let stupid and unskilled Mexicans do that work.’"

As is clear here, Limbaugh was not calling Mexicans "stupid and unskilled."

Yes it's obvious that he was referring to a segment of the Mexican population IN MEXICO that would benefit from unskilled labor jobs leaving the States. This has nothing to do with immigration but with NAFTA and free trade.

The second quote: "You shut your mouth or you get out!"

This one comes from 2006, and as you’ll see, Limbaugh here is setting up for a punch line — that he is actually citing Mexican law.

"Everybody’s making immigration proposals these days, let me add mine to the mix. Call it the Limbaugh Laws...

"First, you emigrate to our country you have to speak the native language...

"If you’re in our country, you cannot be a burden to taxpayers...

"And another thing, you don’t have the right to protest. You’re allowed no demonstrations, no foreign flag waving, no political organizing, no bad-mouthing our president or his policies. You’re a foreigner. Shut your mouth or get out. If you come here illegally, you’re going to jail.

"Now, you think the Limbaugh Laws are harsh? Well, every one of the laws I just mentioned are actual laws of Mexico today. That’s how the Mexican government handles immigrants to their country. Yet Mexicans come here illegally and protest in our streets. How do you say, 'double standard' in Spanish? How about, ‘no mas’?"

It is clear that Limbaugh was joking when he described the "Limbaugh Laws of immigration". He points out that Mexico, the largest source of illegal immigrants in America has draconian immigration laws. I know liberals aren't too smart but even even the dumbest among them would have to admit that he was using irony to demonstrate the hypocrisy Mexico displays on the issue of immigration.

The entire ad, including the untrue attacks on Limbaugh is a complete fabrication. Here's the thing I can't figure out. There's plenty for liberals to honestly disagree with Limbaugh on. There's a million things they can quote from him and say "I don't agree" but what they did is completely misrepresent things he's said to make him conform to the stereotype they want perpetuate about him. They can't seem to help themselves, they are congenital liars.

Posted by Henry Louis Gomez at September 24, 2008 10:29 AM

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Posted by: asombra at September 24, 2008 12:59 PM

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