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The Reporters: US mid-terms

Lourdes Heredia

Devil in the detail


President Bush said today that "you cannot kick 12 million people out of your country", at a ceremony celebrating the . He was referring to the 12 million illegal immigrants, mainly Latin Americans, who already live in the US. As he soaked up the applause, I wondered if no-one realised that Congress has the last word on immigration policy.

farmers203.jpgIt is pretty clear that legislators believe tough immigration policy will get them votes, judging by the last-minute law they approved, authorising construction of a 700-mile fence on the US-Mexico border.

By the way, the , has been called the "eggshell" law by some experts because they consider it hollow - it does not include a fence on the Canadian border or appropriate the money to build one. Nor have legislators resolved the long debate over what to do about people without papers already living here.

"We must remember that in order to secure our borders, in order that we fulfil our heritage, immigration reform has to be comprehensive in nature", said Mr Bush. After his speech, the president listened patiently, next to the Spain's , to some romantic music in Spanish.

As I listened to the singer's words, "Besame, besame mucho" (kiss me, kiss me for a long time), I could only feel that the political strategists are right to think that voters do not care too much about details.

Lourdes Heredia is Washington correspondent for the 成人论坛's Latin American service.

The Reporters

Mid-term elections news


ABC News: Conservative activists are beginning to discuss the Mark Foley scandal as indicative of a GOP that has become too tolerant of gays in their midst. ()

USA Today: The race for control of the Senate is tightening, according to USA Today/Gallup polls in six key states. ()

Washington Post: The GOP's showing in the mid-terms may be hurt as polls indicate support dropping among evangelical Christians. ()

Justin Webb

Prophetic words


This is a trap for the Democrats: the case against the Republicans looks so bad, so utterly unanswerable, that the pressure is on the Democrats to win big in the elections on 7th November.

foley_ap203.jpgIf they fail to deliver they surely go up in flames - this view confirmed to me a few minutes ago in a conversation with a former staffer in the Clinton White House who added these prophetic words: "Never underestimate our ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory."

The fact is that the Democrats are not exactly cruising ahead through the force of their arguments or the huge attractiveness of their policies. They are at the moment the beneficiaries of a series of mess ups on the other side - as put it: "This is the worst thing to happen to the Republicans since last Thursday..."

Before the last presidential election I remember someone saying that by the time Karl Rove had done his work no-one would know whose side John Kerry fought on in the Vietnam war; at the time it seemed implausible but...

Well watch out for the same again - I predict that the Democrats will get the blame for this in the end and not quite know how to avoid it.

Justin Webb is the 成人论坛's chief North America radio correspondent.

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