The Debate in Texas-Talk about Pandering!

Last night in Austin, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama engaged in their 19th debate. The affair took place at the University of Texas and was hosted by CNN with the participation of Univision. One of the moderators was Univision's Jorge Ramos.

Not surprisingly, the subject of illegal immigration came up early, and the candidates were asked if they would act to put a halt to immigration raids once they were president. What followed was an exercise in pandering by both candidates to the Hispanic lobby. As to whether they would actually stop immigration raids, both candidates danced all around that question. Hillary made references to babies and children being left unattended and uncared for when their parents were detained- a shot at Immigration authorities on an issue that has been overblown-if not downright manufactured by activists.

Obama, for his part, while rambling on about a "pathway to citizenship" for undocumented workers (why do liberals assume that illegal aliens are even interested in becoming American citizens?), made the evening's most absurd statement by stating that "hate crimes against Hispanics have skyrocketed".

Excuse me?

Mr Obama, could you please be more specific? What hate crimes against Hispanics are you talking about? Who is carrying out these "hate crimes" against Hispanics? You know, as one who is married to a Mexican immigrant and lives in Southern California, this is news to me. I have no idea who is committing hate crimes against Hispanics-unless you are talking about other criminal elements within the Hispanic community who are victimizing their own people. Is Mr Obama referring to gang-bangers-either Hispanic or black-who are shooting Hispanics in the streets of Los Angeles? Or is he referring to prison violence between blacks and Hispanics?

Surely, Mr Obama cannot be referring to hate crimes being carried out by the Minutemen because there have been zero such incidents. Is he talking about opponents of illegal immigration committing acts of violence against Hispanics? That is not happening either. I think Mr Obama should be pinned down on this statement. Alas, the hapless moderators last night were unable or unwilling to ask any follow up questions on this statement. They couldn't even control the candidates, who, at one point, took over the platform in a series of rebuttals while the moderators were trying to ask a new question.

I also take issue with Obama's monologue about America getting involved with Mexico to improve that country's economy. For how many decades have we been trying to do just that? How many billions have we poured into that country in foreign aid and trade-only to see it go into the pockets of the ruling families and corrupt government officials? The truth is that Mexico is a wealthy country where the riches are controlled by the ruling classes-at the expense of the masses.

One prime example of Mexican corruption is the drug trade. As a DEA Agent, I worked several cases involving Mexico, and, in the last years of my career, participated in three training assignments for newly-hired federal drug agents-the so-called "new breed". Two of these assignments were at the Federal Police Academy in Mexico City and the third in Washington DC. They were all a waste of time. Mexico has a corruption problem that is endemic.

Barack Obama can talk all he wants about investing in Mexico to bring about reform. The money that he would pour into that country will be money down a rat hole, and nothing will change.

Would either candidate build a border fence to keep out illegal aliens? More dancing around the subject. Obama even brought up the "Dream Act". If you read between the lines, which you have to do, the answer is "NO". The candidates formed their answers to try and appeal to both sides of this debate-but especially the open borders crowd.

All in all, the main thing that I take away from this debate was its pandering to the Hispanic community by being soft on the whole illegal immigration issue.