McCain's 50 dollar an hour lettuce-picking job offer
I just came across this 2 year old You Tube post.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpB9OoOU02M
How did this get missed? How did one of the GOP campaigns not hammer McSame endlessly for this? Will the Obama campaign get wind of this?
Here's a newspaper article that summarizes the incident.
http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/border/124762
Of course, when the union workers tried to take McLiar up on his offer, McWelcher turned tail and left without speaking to the workers.
Maybe this explains why in John McCain's fantasy world 5 million a year is the baseline income for rich people. I mean if poor lettuce pickers are pulling down 50 bucks an hour on Planet McCain, then I'm guessing a gas station cashier is making 60 an hour? And a guy working the line at GM is banking 400 an hour?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpB9OoOU02M
How did this get missed? How did one of the GOP campaigns not hammer McSame endlessly for this? Will the Obama campaign get wind of this?
Here's a newspaper article that summarizes the incident.
http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/border/124762
Of course, when the union workers tried to take McLiar up on his offer, McWelcher turned tail and left without speaking to the workers.
Maybe this explains why in John McCain's fantasy world 5 million a year is the baseline income for rich people. I mean if poor lettuce pickers are pulling down 50 bucks an hour on Planet McCain, then I'm guessing a gas station cashier is making 60 an hour? And a guy working the line at GM is banking 400 an hour?
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"You can't do it, my friend" - Americans would love to hear that. You can't and won't do it for $50/hour, so we need illegal immigrants as slave labor to do it for less than minimum wage.
Also, this is why McCain thinks arugula is elitist.
August 22, 2008 3:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
$50 an hour? Most people can only dream of getting paid that high. In reality, I forget what minimum wage is but isn't it around $7?
This story deserves to be more widely heard. It's damning.
August 23, 2008 11:10 AM | Reply | Permalink
It's hard to imagine how any one who would make that comment with a straight face could be (a) more clueless about the condition of work in America, or (b) more insulting to hard working Americans (including immigrants). This is much more powerful to the average working guy than the houses thing.
What he meant to say was, "We need cheap labor to pick lettuce. That's why we need migrant workers that we can pay $5 and hour (or less). Would you pick lettuce for $5 and hour? I didn't think so."
How that morphed into, "you labor union guys wouldn't even do an honest days labor for 10x the wages of an illegal immigrant" tells you everything you need to know about the guy.
August 22, 2008 5:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
""you labor union guys wouldn't even do an honest days labor for 10x the wages of an illegal immigrant""
LOL.
August 23, 2008 11:11 AM | Reply | Permalink
Hey folks, rec this post!
August 23, 2008 11:13 AM | Reply | Permalink
Of COURSE he welched on the offer. He suddenly realized that the good people of Yuma might get irritated at him when all those tent cities popped up in their midst as tens of thousands of hard working Americans showed up at their doorstep following the promise of a $2,000 a week paycheck.
Maybe that should the linchpin of McCain's economic recovery plan - plant more lettuce! Then pay anyone willing to pick it $50 an hour - it'll make the New Deal look like amateur hour - be sure to include a bonus for the arugula pickers...
August 23, 2008 12:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
I would love to see an add with this audio on it.
"You can't do it my friend"
Yes we can .... No you can't
Yes we can! .... No you can't
....
August 23, 2008 12:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
It did get some attention here on the net-left-blog-roots-o-sphere, but as for why none of the GOP primary field attacked him for it... I dunno, I think that's obvious. None of them disagreed!
It would make a good "gotcha" quote in a 30-second ad, and maybe they'll use it. But there's such an embarrassment of riches with McCain, they're going to run out of ad-space before they run out of stuff to put in the ads.
August 23, 2008 1:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
It would go perfectly with his statement that he could find "100 billion tomorrow" for the budget in an interview with George Stephanopoulos.
George: Even by your own accounting 300 billion dollars a year, that means your previous promise to balance your budget in the first year—that’s gone.
McCain: No, of course not. Look, I’ll find you a hundred billion tomorrow.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/04/25/draft-the-daily-show-on-mccain-the-sweet-talk-express/
August 23, 2008 2:18 PM | Reply | Permalink