McCain, immigration, and the state of maverickitude

McCain is running as a maverick, a guy who reaches out across the aisle and is willing to take risks in order to do what's right. Over the past few years, he has argued time and again that immigration reform is the right thing to do. He prides himself on reaching out to someone like Ted Kennedy to co-sponsor legislation.

But then he started winning primaries, and so controversial aisle-crossing issues had to be dumped overboard. In his speech, he warned the "do nothing" crowd in Washington that change was coming. On the scale of do-nothingness, congressional refusal to do anything substantive with regard to immigration ranks very high.

Immigration, however, was ignored by everyone. The elephant in the room, if you will (no pun intended). It's a tough issue, so is better swept under the rug. Let's see if he mentions it again in the next two months.