Morning Roundup: Immigration and Iraq debated

• Democrats debate on Univision

Yesterday, Democrats debated on Univision (a Spanish-language TV network). They were only allowed to talk in English (which upset Dodd and Richardson), though the questions were asked in Spanish (and then translated). Republicans were invited to a similar debate, but only McCain accepted, in what is being interpreted as a dangereous diss to the influential Hispanic community at a time the GOP is losing ground among Latino voters.

I did not get to see the debate myself, so I will not launch in an extensive blow-by-blow. The NYT's account is a good place to start for that. What jumped at me the most was an exchange over the Mexican border's "wall:"

Mr. Richardson also criticized the notion of a barrier or wall along the Mexican border as “horrendous.” Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama, along with another Democratic candidate, Senator Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut, had supported using federal money to start work on a barrier. “If you’re going to build a 12-foot wall,” Mr. Richardson said, “you know what’s going to happen? A lot of 13-foot ladders.”

Good for Richardson to denounce the frontrunners for their troubling positions on immigration. But noone appears to have challenged Clinton, Obama, and Edwards's emphasis on English-language requirements.

• McCain and the surge

Iraq is proving to be a hot issue lately in the Democratic race, but it is also driving the Republicans. John McCain has always been closely affiliated with Bush's war policy, and Democrats derided the surge the "McCain doctrine" back in the spring. Now, McCain is convinced voters are ready to give the surge a second try, and that public opinion has changed. A new NYT-CBS suggests that there might have been some shift indeed, as 35% now say the surge made things better, against 29% in August and 17% in July. The surge is still not at all popular among voters, but odds are that this minority of 35% is to be found in the ranks of Republican primary voters.

With that in mind, McCain's hope is to convince them he is the most apt to conduct the country's national security. An internal memo that leaked to the press this week-end read:

The first phase of our September strategy is to take ownership of the surge and demonstrate again that John McCain is the only candidate running for President who is prepared to be Commander-in-Chief from day one.

And to drive the point home, McCain will launch his early-state "No Surrender Tour" starting on 9/11, to "build support for the fight against Islamic extremists."

• New Hampshire Senate

Jeanne Shaheen is continuing to drag out the decision of whether she will jump in the Senate race. It has been months now since her husband Bill said she was "70% likely" to run, and there has been no further information from her. On Thursday, Shaheen will come to Concord, NH to give a speech titled "New Hampshire's Solutions to Reality", but her husband warned to not expect too much: "There's no code there. It's not code for anything. She's doing this event because it is apolitical. So you should not expect any announcements." He then said to expect a decision by the end of the month.

Meanwhile, the three candidates already in the race for the Democratic nomination (Marchand, Swett and Buckey) are continuing to campaign, to drum up support, and prepare to face Senator Sununu. While Shaheen's entrance would make Democrats huge favorites to pick-up the seat, she is now acting like Fred Thompson, perpetually delaying her entrance and hoping to eventually be welcomed as the Messiah.