MEMRI was founded because of Middle Eastern potentates who said one thing in English and the opposite in Arabic. Well, even without a Hispanic version of MEMRI, American pols are finding that trick harder to accomplish in Spanish. While his English-language comments stress that he’s “gotten the message” on immigration, McCain’s latest ad in Spanish (discussed here and here) shows that, to borrow from Kaus, he may have gotten the “message,” but not the mensaje. In the ad, the campaign is responding to Obama’s adoption of the Krikorian Strategy — baiting McCain as being insufficiently committed to amnesty in order to provoke a politically damaging response by the Republican nominee. In an attempt to avoid that trap, the campaign is hitting back only in Spanish, basically saying that if you like amnesty you’ll love McCain. But unlike ads in, say, Chuvash or Ainu, there are lots of people here who speak Spanish so it’s hard to keep an ad like that secret.