Is McCain trying to lose the Latino vote?

If he isn't -- and he really, honestly wants at least a W '00 size Latino vote this fall, he has a funny way of showing it.

Consider that McCain was for fixing the U.S. immigration system when he needed Latino votes in his U.S. Senate contests in Arizona--a cause he promptly abandoned this year in his quest for the nomination of a nativist GOP.

McCain follows that insult with his speech at the NALEO conference in which he first berates his Latino hosts for not giving him a townhall speaking format. (Later in his speech a few of the attendees returned the favor by heckling McCain as a flip-flopper.)

McCain then spends three days cozying up to the leaders of Latin America's most rightwing regimes: Colombia's Álvaro Uribe and Mexico's Felipe Calderón. BTW: The continuation of U.S. support for these repressive, anti-democratic and anti-worker regimes simply guarantees a continuing wave of economic and political refugees to the U.S., Canada and elsewhere.

And last week, at the League of United Latin American Citizens Conference, McCain adds insult to injury by ignoring the devastation wrought by the attacks on Latino immigrants from his party and its rightwing media propagandists. Instead, McCain offers the assembled audience of mostly community advocates, educators and local officials a repackaging of W's proven anti-worker tax schemes.

In stark contrast, Barack Obama has consistently advocated for immigration reform and other issues of importance to Latinos. Additionally, his recent speeches at NALEO (here) and LULAC (below) evidence respect for Latinos and genuine solidarity.

Here is HillTube's account of the Obama/McCain LULAC speeches: