Obama Rallies Latino vote

ABC News’ Jennifer Duck reports: Trying to secure Latino voters, Sen. John McCain and Sen. Barack Obama gave separate speeches today at the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials conference in Washington.

The reception to the two presidential candidates was like night and day.

Antiwar protesters disrupted Sen. McCain’s speech four times.  After the presumptive Republican presidential candidate left the room, the head of NALEO apologized and assured the room full of media and Latino leaders the protesters were not representing leaders at the conference.

When Sen. Obama was introduced, the crowd stood with roaring applause and chants. 

Obama said, “Si Se Puede,” or “Yes We Can,” with a big grin to the friendly crowd. 

“I’m proud to be here today not just as the Democratic nominee for president, but as the first African-American nominee of my party, and I’m hoping that somewhere out in this audience sits the person who will become the first Latino nominee of a major party,” Obama said.

Throughout the speech, Obama tied the Latino community and the African-American community together.  “We marched together in the streets of Chicago to fix our broken immigration system,” he said to the applauding crowd.  “And it’s because of that 20-year record of partnership with your communities that you can trust me when I say that I’ll be your partner in the White House and I will be your champion in the White House.

“And that’s what you need now more than ever,” Obama continued. “Because for eight long years, Washington hasn’t been working for ordinary Americans. And few have been hit harder than Latinos and African Americans.”

He attacked Sen. McCain for walking away from his commitment to immigration reform.

“He deserves great credit as a champion of comprehensive reform. I admire him for it,” Obama said. “I know that he talked about that when he just spoke before you, but what he didn’t mention is that when he was running for his party’s nomination, he walked away from that commitment.  He said that he wouldn’t even support his own legislation if it came up for a vote.  If we are going to solve the challenges we face, we can’t vacillate, we can’t shift depending on our politics. You need a president who will pursue genuine solutions day in and day out in a consistent way, and that is my commitment to you.”

McCain spokesman Brian Rogers responded to Obama’s attack saying, “It’s quite audacious for Barack Obama to question John McCain’s commitment to immigration reform when it was Obama himself who worked to kill the Senate’s bipartisan immigration reform compromise last year. Barack Obama voted for five ‘poison pill’ amendments designed by special interests to kill the immigration reform deal. These efforts were strongly opposed by Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.), the Democrat who led the fight for immigration reform, because he understood they would have the effect of ending the bipartisan work toward immigration reform.”

Both senators said if elected president, immigration would be a top agenda item.

More specifically, when asked if immigration would be on the agenda in his first 100 days in office, Obama replied, "It will be one of my priorities on my first day.   Because this has been an issue we have demagogued.  There’s been a lot of politics around it but we haven’t been serious about solving the problem.  And I want to solve this problem.  We can be a nation of laws and a nation  of immigrants….If we think a wall is a sole solution to the problem then we’re not thinking it through."

Obama also reiterated withdrawing troops from Iraq in a responsible way.

“We need to bring this war to a responsible, honorable end," Obama said.  "We’re not going to be able to bring the war to a close overnight. If we are bringing out combat troops at a pace of one to two brigades per month, then we could have our combat troops home, out of Iraq by the end of 16 months.”

The crowd murmured and some shook their heads in frustration when Obama told the Latino leaders the entire foriegn aid budget for Latin America is equal to approximately one week of spending in Iraq.

Obama said the election depends on Latinos. “We can do this, but I can’t do this on my own. I need your help. This election could well come down to how many Latinos turn out to vote.”

The day after the two former democratic rivals joined forces in Unity, N.H., Obama mentioned a conversation he had with Hispanic leaders who were Clinton supporters.

“I had a wonderful conversation a couple of days ago with some Hispanic leaders who have been great supporters of Sen. Clinton, including Henry Cisneros, who I see here today. And one of the things that I thought Henry said that was so on target — and is true of all Americans but nowhere is it truer than in the Latino community — is nobody’s looking for government to solve all our problems. Nobody’s looking for a handout. This is an aspirational community that embodies the best of the American Dream, the belief that we can come here and work hard and build a life not only for ourselves but for our children and our grandchildren.”