Abandoning his own immigration reform...or not

In 2006, John McCain made huge news by pushing forward comprehension immigration reform that clashed strongly with the anti-immigrant side of the Republican Party. But in March 2007, as the presidential race began to take form, he pulled out of the collaboration with Ted Kennedy and stopped taking any active role in immigration reform. At late as January 27th, 2008, he said that he would still support his bill, although he no longer felt that it was the right thing to do right away:

Mr. Russert: If the Senate passed your bill, S1433, the McCain-Kennedy Immigration Bill...
Sen. McCain: Mm-hmm.
Mr. Russert: ...would you as president sign it?
Sen. McCain: Yeah, but we--look, the lesson is it isn't won. It isn't going to come. It isn't going to come. The lesson is they want the border secured first.

When confronted by conservatives in a debate on January 30th, he went further and said he would not support his own bill.

Hook: ...What I'm wondering is -- and you seem to be downplaying that part. At this point, if your original proposal came to a vote on the Senate floor, would you vote for it?
McCain: It won't. It won't. That's why we went through the debate --
Hook: I know, but what if it did?
McCain: No, I would not, because we know what the situation is today. The people want the borders secured first. And so to say that that would come to the floor of the Senate -- it won't. We went through various amendments which prevented that ever -- that proposal.

In another conservative debate in March, he again stated that securing the borders would be the priority and any comprehensive reform would have to wait until after that was done

The lesson is that Americans want the borders secured first

But when he appeared before business leaders in May 2008, he stated that the comprehensive immigration reform he originally supported would be his priority from the very beginning of his administration

But we must enact comprehensive immigration reform. We must make it a top agenda item if we don’t do it before, and we probably won’t, a little straight talk, as of January 2009.

And then in front of La Raza in July, he made it clear that he was

committed to fair, practical and comprehensive immigration reform.

and omitted any stipulations for securing the border or doing anything else first.