Found - 2000 Bush Campaign Vid Waving Mexican Flag!

Yesterday I noted that the National Review's Kathryn Jean Lopez had a post entitled "Bet the White House Hopes This Video Never Surfaces" in which she describes the content of a $5 million campaign video Bush hoped would woo Latino voters back in 2000.

The video includes images that would probably rile those who today are calling for the most restrictive immigration laws. At one point, Bush is shown waving a Mexican flag. The footage was shot, Sosa said, during a Mexican Independence Day parade in San Antonio in 1998, when Bush was running for reelection as governor.

The five-minute video, narrated by Bush, opens with an image of him fishing on his property near Crawford, Texas, as he essentially described millions of Americans who populate his home state as the true foreigners in someone else's native land.

"About 15 years before the Civil War, much of the American West was northern Mexico," Bush says in the video. "The people who lived there weren't called Latinos or Hispanics. They were Mexican citizens, until all that land became part of the United States.

"After that, many of them were treated as foreigners in their own land," Bush adds.

He says the "Latino spirit" was fueled by "strong conservative values" of family, a strong work ethic, faith in God, patriotism and personal responsibility. "These values are my values," Bush says. "I live by them, and I lead by them."

As Bush speaks in the video, the background music — a Latin beat — grows louder. The president is pictured waving the Mexican flag, hugging a Latino woman, and then holding a Latino baby.

Well, regular reader Rudi, after much hard searching, has found that video hosted by the extreme rightwing Liberty Post website. I wish I had the means to host it here or to abstract the flag-waving as a pic but, alas, I don't.

Thanks Rudi! Now stand well back, as Malkin will probably stroke out from angry apoplexy!

Personally, even though I think it was a cynical attempt by Bush to con Latinos into thinking the GOP or any part of it has ever had their interests truly at heart, I still have to admit grudging admiration for his gumption in even considering issuing such a video.

Sheesh, this and the Hawaiian marine park all in one week - a record for stuff Dubya has done I actually approve of.