October 22, 2007

Fox GOP October 21 debate had only two offhand immigration questions

Last night's Fox New GOP "debate" only had two, offhand questions about immigration matters, and one of those was in response to something Fred Thompson said (transcript link). Their September debate at least had a section devoted to the topic, even if all the questions they asked were weak.

Obviously, immigration is a vital topic and many Americans are concerned about it. Yet, all the media can offer is the occasional question designed simply to elicit stock responses and none that I've seen have been willing to ask the candidates about the specific flaws in their specific policies and in a way designed to avoid stock speeches. And, I have a great deal of trouble believing that that isn't intentional: asking tough questions about this topic would cost powerful forces money and power, so real questions are off the table.

I once again urge everyone reading this to go to campaign appearances, ask the questions the MSM won't ask, and then upload the response to video sharing sites. If enough people do that we can make immigration a campaign issue.

In the debate, Fred Thompson mentioned that he had voted against sanctuary cities and that Rudy Giuliani had sued to fight that. Rudy responds:

Oh, the simple fact is that New York City had a policy of allowing people who are illegal immigrants to report crime and to put their children in school. Otherwise, we reported every single illegal immigrant that committed a crime.

Everyone in the U.S. has probably already memorized what he said right after that:

The results had to be pretty darn good. I brought down crime by over 60 percent in New York City. I brought down homicide by 67 percent. I had the most legal city in the country. And I took the crime capital of America and I turned it into the safest large city in the country.

I wonder: if he becomes president will we have to have that paragraph tattooed on our foreheads?

The only formal question about immigration was to Tancredo:

...your health care plans seems intended to show how tough you would be on illegal immigration. Your concerns involve the illegal immigrants using our hospital emergency rooms. The RAND Corporation says that illegal immigrants account for about 1.5 percent of the nation's health care costs.

These debates are, in fact, "show debates" that might as well have taken place in the Soviet Union.

Posted to Immigration2007b at October 22, 2007 09:28 AM