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ON THE TRAIL

July 1, 2008

When it comes to immigration, Barack Obama and John McCain generally agree. It's just that they don't want to say so. Instead, the White House rivals accuse one another of flinching when it mattered most, during and after last year's Senate debate on a bill that would have given millions of illegal immigrants a path to citizenship. McCain "was a champion of comprehensive reform," Obama said Saturday before the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials. "But when he was running for his party's nomination, he walked away from that commitment and he's said he wouldn't even support his own legislation if it came up for a vote." McCain had spoken earlier in the day to that group, and his campaign countered his rival's charge. "Obama put politics first and supported ... efforts to kill the immigration reform compromise last year," it said in a written rebuttal. If the disagreement seems forced, the motives behind it are straightforward. The issue is important to Hispanics, a large minority of the electorate who may hold the balance of power in potential battlegrounds Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico as well as Florida. Obama is out to win as many of the 75 percent of Democratic primary voters who chose Hillary Rodham Clinton over him, and attract Latino voters who went for President George W. Bush in 2004. As a Republican, McCain can't afford conservatives who view immigration legislation as amnesty sit out the election. But he also can't allow his share of the Hispanic vote to recede to pre-Bush levels. Based on McCain's words and Obama's voting record, there is truth in both sides, though the two supported the bill with provisions to secure borders, crack down on those who hire illegal immigrants, expand guest worker programs and provide a path to citizenship for millions in the country illegally.