Was this planned all along?
Was all the Republican discussion about immigration reform the set up, and this the spike? Was the intention always to end up saying some version of “our hearts are in the right place, but Obama is just too untrustworthy to deal with?”
If this was the Republican strategy all along, then the entire undertaking was not as abysmally bad as it had initially appeared.
Am I giving GOP leaders too much credit? “Republican strategy”; is it an oxymoron? Could well be.
But as I wrote in an earlier post on the reasons for the recent Republican talk about bringing up an immigration bill, it was not outside the realm of possibility that they weren’t as stupid as they seemed. They might even have “some hidden Machiavellian but brilliant agenda (would that it were true).”
[*Strategy or tactics? This seems a little bigger than tactics but a little smaller than strategy.]
I think this was always the basic strategy, though I have had, and have, my doubts about it. They are called the Party of Stupid for a reason, but passing an amnesty along the lines of the Senate bill seemed even more politically stupid than normal.
No, I don’t believe it. This is along the lines of Coke deciding to change its formula after a bunch of “experts” convinced shareholders that “new and improved” was the way it’s supposed to work. We want America to go back to the way it was. The solution is not out liberaling the liberals.
You’re only as good as your information. Do we have the relevant information? I don’t know, that’s always the limiting but drawing factor of us political junkies.
I hope this Machiavellian strategy was their strategy. If so, it shows the Republican establishment wants to win and not coexist and maybe the Republican/Tea Party war can be minimized.
Obama can’t be trusted! Now that’s a talking point, selling point, a point whose time has come.
Please remember that when it comes to the “leadership” of the Republicans, “Deep down, they’re shallow.”
I calls it a toss-up.
You a funny woman Neo.
Brilliant strategy it was not. Boener, Rove, Preibus and the rest of the Republican braintrust have talking about immigration reform since they lost the presidential election- they were convinced they needed to reach out to Hispanics to win in future elections.
I think it’s more likely that The real numbers about Hispanic voting patterns were not something these geniuses had actually investigated- it was a knee jerk reaction to losing minority votes. When they finally got around to studying the subject, they realized they would lose far more support in their base than they would pick up from Hispanics, regardless of the attempt to win them over.
The media would never credit them for it, and they’re too inept to market themselves as champions of anything, much less immigration reform.
Once they figured out nobody would support their boneheaded idea, they needed a way to back out of it that would appear to put the blame back on Democrats and Obama. I give them credit for the excuse, as it sounds better than “we realized we were idiots when a large part of our base would stay home in November rather than reward us for mind numbingly stupid policies that would give Democrats a bigger majority than they already enjoy.”
I will say that there’s probably a strong sentiment with the republicans’ immigration strategy to make it easier to get highly skilled, technical people to emigrate to the US, as we are getting our butts kicked on that front by other countries who target their immigration laws to attract or favor such people. But there seems to be no way to do that without it also legalizing 20 million new low skill, highly dependent Democrats in the process.
We are getting into Charlie Brown with Lucy and the football territory. As most readers of this blog already know, Lucy would tell Charlie that THIS time she would not take the football away. But she did, and just like before, poor old Charlie Brown ended up kicking air and falling down.
I can just imagine the POTUS saying, ” You can trust me now.” And maybe some doofuses will fall for it.
If I were a more cynical man, I would believe this was an attempt to save face while walking the whole thing back. This way, Boehner gets to tell the Republican anti-amnesty base that immigration reform isn’t going to happen (this year) while, at the same time, telling the pro-amnesty faction that he really wants to get immigration reform done but that the whole issue is out his hands without pointing fingers at the base.
There is some wisdom to that path because immigration reform is the issue that could, litterally, tear the Republican Party apart.
KRB
I actually thought it was a brilliant move. The discussions did send message that Repubs. hearts are in good place and we care.
But after 5 years of nothing but divisive politics and antagonism, not o mention slander, on the part of the Dems led by “our” President of U.S., and echoed by the press — almost nonstop, we finally have an opportunity as Obama has been exposed as the liar he always was, and the hits keep coming thanks to OMB and members of his Administration publicly stated that, in fact, Al Qaeda is as strong as ever and becoming stronger, expanding geographically, and support wise thru their own network or the many smaller networks evolving.
Plus, it is being increasing clear that Obama has cherry-picked those laws which he chooses to enforce while commanding that his Administration and cities and states controlled by Dems that they not enforce other law which he does not like.
And the cherry on top is the President virtually bragging that he “has a pen and a phone” and he will act unilaterally to get things done and virtually make new law thru “Executive Power.”
We have finally come to the point where the Obama, with all his hubris, has given citizens of this country ample reason to distrust him as they see he plainly lied over and over, took them for chumps, and it is now their pocketbooks that are hurting, jobs are impossible to get for many, and policies of his are only exacerbbating their problems whether thru reduced hours at work, or loss of insurance and new policies vastly more expensive paired with declining access to their own doctors (and much less access to any doctors at all!), never mind those people who are really sick and depend on life-saving care to live, all of which has been yanked out from under them. (Sadly, they are realizing that if not a death panel, ACA may be to them a death law)
Such distrust makes much more significant to the many who didn’t care about Ben Ghazi because of being so entranced by Obama, or so caught up in their own troubles that they really didn’t care.
But there is little clearer today that he and his staff fed us one giant whopper of a lie to protect and maintain power, and when people feel pain, they start thinking more clearly and it’s not much to start putting things together.
Boehner’s using the meme that we can no longer trust this President, is not partisan rhetoric, and it’s not something a lot of Democrats can dispute, as they are scrambling to distance themselves from all that Obama hath wrought.
It is a simple statement of fact supported by facts now public, and impacting most Americans negatively.
And the folks are starting to put 1+1 together and 2+2……. all the blame for what ails us ALWAYS being someone else’s fault, all the people Obama has thrown under the bus, all the promises he hasn’t kept, and all the lies people are now realizing he has told in his own self-interest which not only does not benefit them but has brought pain and misery, and severely diminished the hope they were so brashly promised.
The Repubs only need to point to the SOTU where Obama pledged to use his pen and phone to do as he pleased. Even the low information voters should be able to make the connection between his stated intent and a lack of trust by the loyal opposition. Can’t they?? If so, it’s a good move. If they can’t, it won’t make any difference. But it does matter to the base.
Ryan could easily have put in real effort to get a deal with Obama, but when his fellow Republicans refused to get on board, he had to find an excuse to quit.
Even a broken clock is right two times a day.
To mimic an old Trix TV line: Sorry Neo,
Wisdom and Principles are not for Republican Leadership.
Even though their Chamber of Commerce Masters wanted to add more uneducated to the 15 million non-working citizens, there was enough push back from the rank and file that Boener backed down.
Make no mistake the Establishment Republicks are just a lighter shade of the Democraps. If they succeed this time around, this conservative will be sitting out the next 2 elections. For 40 years I’ve voted expecting limited Govt and principled leaders. Like the saying goes- Insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result. Those in the current leadership are unprincipled and secondarily they are to a man- STUPID and Shallow 🙁
Tactics are how you win the battles, strategy is how you win the war.
Assuming they planned this, it is tactics. Assuming they didn’t, it is serendipity.
Just saying.
When taking a man’s coin, a politico is expected to mouth something towards his patron’s interests.
The Rino followership discovered that the ‘Correlation of Forces’ were daunting — and so, became daunted.
Now, some sort of mealy mouthed walk-backs and talk-downs are pledged to the contest.
No longer being a draw — we have a withdraw!
Our people. (Spit.) They are what you want.
And you give them what you want.
Eh. And what is that? Only certainty.
They don’t want risk. They don’t want pain.
The brown man looks only to trade
his labor for a promise of daily food.
He has no stomach for thinking beyond you.
He has no mind for liberty.
So. You give them what Mexico wants,
Which is poverty and more of it.
And if you can’t even give that.
There is the uh ess ay.
}}} “The president has an exceptional record of improving border security,” he told reporters.
This is true. Automatic weapons have only flowed IN to Mexico…
Obama: Did I say I would give food. I meant I would relieve you of the need for food.
See how that works.
For me.
I am Satan.
Mike…
You’re playing it ALL WRONG.
Your move should be to put a magnet near the steering compass:
Shift the polity towards the conservatives — in BOTH parties.
That MOSTLY means displacing a screwball with someone closer to your position.
GIVE UP on getting everything you want.
As B Franklin told the Constitutional Convention: no-one gets to be right, totally, all of the time.
%%%
Just as important: if you are in a severely Democrat/ Leftist/ irrational voting district — send your financial support to areas that are in doubt.
When Congress is in session, a vote is a vote.
If you can pull a conservative over the line in a distant district — then that’s your play.
DO check out Leo Lindbeck’s campaign.
http://www.campaign4primaryaccountability.org/
It’s such a threat that Bing and Google suppress search results for it — best they can.