6/27/00 2:05 p.m.
Bush Does the Lulac
An average day in the life of an O.K candidate.

By Ben Domenech, NRO contributing editor

eorge W. Bush, like any candidate, has good days and bad days on the campaign trail. But what he realyl has an abundant supply of is dreadfully average days.

"Senor Presidente has a nice sound to it," Bush joked Monday, while addressing the national convention of the 115,000-member League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) in Washington, D.C. This was standard Bush — a patchwork of phrases from his traditional stump speech (he did his spiels on NAFTA, "bigotry of low expectations," and "no second- rate children, no second-rate dreams"), delivered with acceptable, if not terribly impressive, resolve. He added occasional espanol interjections (which, in this heavily Hispanic audience, garnered frequent applause), and talked about his new proposal to split the Immigration and Naturalization Service in two.

"It's an agency that sends mixed signals to the people we are trying to help," Bush said. "People ought to be asking the question, 'How can I help you, what can I do to help you fill out paperwork?' We ought to be saying loud and clear to people that the INS is to help families and to help people understand the maze of rules and regulations."

Bush's plan would restructure the agency, separating the law-enforcement division from the rest of the bureau, and putting the two sections under the authority of an associate attorney general. The proposal bears a marked similarity to a bill offered by Michigan senator Spence Abraham, but Bush aides said that they would be offering their own outline for a new, improved INS. Details were vague, and the campaign only had the chance to put out a one-page press release before flying to New York City, where Bush appeared at a dinner organized by the Congress of Racial Equality.

Bush wasn't especially rousing — squelching applause on a few occasions, and ending the speech rather abruptly, before having built up any momentum — but the appearance began and ended with standing ovations from the LULAC members, who are scheduled to see Al Gore on Friday night. All in all, a perfectly acceptable performance from a perfectly acceptable candidate.