IN THE HEADLINES
McCain to meet Mexican president on Thursday at end of Latin American trip … Obama, McCain competing for the center, an elusive, disengaged yet crucial crowd … Wary evangelical leaders discuss rallying around McCain, supporting Huckabee as VP choice
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McCain to meet Mexican president at end of tour
MEXICO CITY (AP)—Immigration and trade are high on John McCain’s agenda as he wraps up a three-day Latin American visit Thursday with a meeting with Mexican President Felipe Calderon.
The Republican presidential hopeful planned an early morning visit to Mexico City’s famed Basilica de Guadalupe accompanied by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, brother of President Bush, before meeting with Calderon.
The Basilica de Guadalupe is Mexico’s holiest site for Roman Catholics, and Catholic and Hispanic voters are expected to be key swing voters in the November election. McCain’s Democratic opponent, Barack Obama, has worked to woo Catholics and Hispanics as well after those groups voted heavily for Hillary Rodham Clinton during the primary season.
McCain has said he planned to seek Calderon’s help in addressing illegal immigration, a key issue for Hispanic and many conservative voters. The Arizona senator has called for increased security along the U.S.-Mexico border.
McCain’s trip to Colombia and Mexico was billed primarily as an opportunity to promote free trade in the Western Hemisphere.
He has spoken out this week in favor of the North American Free Trade Agreement between the U.S., Canada and Mexico and the proposed Colombia Free Trade deal currently stalled in Congress. On Wednesday, he said as president he might pursue a possible free trade agreement that would cover the entire Western Hemisphere.
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The ‘mushy middle’ hard to reach for Obama, McCain
WASHINGTON (AP)—They’re the most fickle voters, and potentially the most powerful. Thus, with party nominations secure, John McCain and Barack Obama now are pushing toward the center to win them over.
Meet the “mushy middle,” a complex chunk of people likely to decide the presidential election but difficult to reach and hard to please.
“Yes, we can!” isn’t floating their boat. Nothing much is, from either candidate.
They aren’t uniformly conservative or liberal, and they don’t fit strict Republican or Democratic orthodoxy. They aren’t typically engaged in politics, and they don’t much care about the campaign. And like so many others, they are extraordinarily pessimistic.
“To me, it’s not about the party, it’s about who is the best person for the job,” says Pam Robinett, 47, from Wellington, Kan., who always votes. Then again, “they’ll all lie, cheat and steal to get what they want.”
Talk about a tough sell.
“The country’s going to go to hell in a handbasket with this election,” seethes James Nauman, 55, from Lutz, Fla. “I don’t think Obama’s qualified and McCain’s another Bush. Neither of them really have impressed me.”
Both will try.
A recent AP-Yahoo News poll finds that 15 percent call themselves moderates and aren’t solidly supporting a candidate. More than half of this still-persuadable middle is made up of independents.
“The center always matters,” said Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center. “It matters more this year. Both candidates were nominated because they appealed to independents and moderates, so how these voters make a choice between Obama and McCain will be even more decisive.”
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Conservative evangelicals discuss backing McCain
Conservative evangelical leaders met privately this week to discuss putting aside their misgivings about John McCain and coalescing around the Republican’s presidential bid while urging him to consider social conservative favorite Mike Huckabee as a running mate.
About 90 of the movement’s leading activists gathered Tuesday night in Denver for a meeting convened by Mathew Staver, who heads the Florida-based legal advocacy group Liberty Counsel.
Many evangelical leaders backed other GOP candidates early on and remain wary of McCain’s commitment to their causes and his previous criticisms of movement leaders. But with the presidential field now set, many evangelical leaders are taking a more pragmatic view, realizing also that the Democratic candidate, Barack Obama, is making a strong play for evangelical voters and talking freely about his faith.
“Our shared core values compel us to unite and choose the presidential candidate that best advances those values,” said Staver, who previously backed Huckabee’s bid. “That obvious choice is Sen. John McCain. I think people left the meeting in unity the likes of which have not been evident through the primaries.”
The group also agreed to sign a letter urging the McCain campaign to consider Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor and Southern Baptist minister, as his vice presidential choice, said another participant, Phil Burress. Burress, who heads an Ohio group that helped pass an anti-gay marriage measure in that state in 2004, was among a group of conservative Christian leaders who met with McCain last week.
Burress characterized the Huckabee overture as a “suggestion, not a demand.”
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THE DEMOCRATS
Barack Obama holds a town hall meeting with veterans in Fargo, N.D.
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THE REPUBLICANS
John McCain meets with Mexican President Felipe Calderon and holds a news conference in Mexico City.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY:
“The American people are paying the price for the failed economic policies of the past eight years, and we can’t afford four more years of more of the same. That is the essential issue of this campaign because Senator McCain has fully embraced the Bush economic agenda.”—Barack Obama in a statement on latest job loss numbers
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STAT OF THE DAY:
Democrat Barack Obama reported spending $26.6 million in May. His heaviest spending was on advertising—more than $4 million was spent buying time for television commercials.
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Compiled by Jesse J. Holland and Joan Lowy
