Reform is difficult

The one issue on which I come closest to agreeing with Sen. John McCain is immigration reform. It's a very complex issue. The way to keep Latino immigrants from wanting to cross our border in huge numbers would be if they had an economy that provided a living income for them. But since we alone can't create that, there are things we can do to bring some order to the problem. One of them is to permit them to cross legally to work, with rules that also spell out a way to become U.S. citizens.

But a June 29 article quoted McCain as saying immigration reform "will be my top priority" ("Obama, McCain reach out to Hispanic voters"). I realize he was speaking to a Hispanic audience and might have gotten carried away, but to make this his top priority speaks volumes about the kind of president he would be.

While immigration reform is an important matter, there are a few others most Americans would rank as more vital to the citizens of this country. One is making health care available to everyone, another is redeploying our troops now in Iraq and another is bringing some sanity to our economic policies. A man who sees immigration reform as his "top priority" is not the man we want as our president.