[Cyber Liberty]

I think O'Sullivan's right. We should restrict the Conservative movement to white guys. Screw trying to get anybody else in, let's just figure out how to keep "them" from voting.

< /sarcasm > (for those of you not-too-brights out there)

Geesh. People read O'Sullivan and assume we're a bunch of crackers.

[DoughtyOne]

I believe that what Sullivan documents is that no matter what Bush, you, I or anyone else wishes, the fact is that hispanics will vote Democrat. If that doesn't concern you, then by all means support more of them pouring across our border.

The idea that Bush is going to build support within that community by expressing concern for hispanics and granting legalization of more Mexican immigrants, makes three very classic mistakes.

1. You can't out-pander the Democrats
2. US citizens of Mexican decent have the most to fear from massive numbers of unskilled labor showing up here
3. US citizens of Mexican decent generally respect the laws on our books. If a leader doesn't, why should they vote for him?

[The Iguana]

Sullivan may be a little too deterministic.

But if we adjust the formulation to say: Hispanics have a strong tendency toward economic progressivism which trumps their social conservatism - for the first few generations.

Italians and Irish were solid Democrats as well for the first few generations.

The problem is that Bush and Rove probably aren't keen on waiting thirty or fifty or eighty years for the generational patterns to start favoring them.

Either way the short term prospects seem a bit bleak. Perhaps all Bush can do is push Hispanic apointments, aggressively politic in hispanic communities and push local hispanic candidates and count yourself lucky to get 40% of the hispanic vote - and crack down on immigration.