Bush is encouraged the Dem gains may mean good things for his shot at comprehensive immigration reform, although he didn't include it in his press conference's opening statement, which surprised me. Maybe that's a little encouraging for those of us who don't think it's a fantabulous idea. You know, like, the entire base.
"FoxNews reporting from the White House: White House spokesman Tony Snow reacted to the change in House control by allowing they're disappointed, but that it presents some intriguing opportunities, such as passing comprehensive immigration reform which failed in the previous Republican House."
Brilliant, guys. Take the one issue that ticked off more base-members than any other and flog it for the last two years of the presidency, thereby further demoralizing the base before '08. I'm feeling a Tancredo presidential run coming on if this keeps up.
Karl Rove foreshadowed this the other day when he spoke with Hugh Hewitt:
HH: Now Karl Rove, you’ve got the Hispanic vote out there. The President’s done very well with it. It’s been absolutely essential to keep reminding the Hispanic voting community that it’s a great program that the President’s put forward in terms of legalization and a border security. Has that affected, though…the debate that’s been going on has often been not civil, despite the President’s attempt to keep it so. Has that affected Hispanic turnout, or Hispanic voting?
KR: I don’t know about a Hispanic turnout. I do think that individual Republican candidates are going to look back after this election and find that the rhetoric that they adopted hurt them in the Hispanic community. And we’re going to find other candidates who are going to look back and find that the rhetoric that they adopted by emphasizing a comprehensive solution to our border problems won them support in the Hispanic community. So I think there’s going to be…again, this race is going to be largely dominated by choices between two individual candidates running for the same office, and less by national issues. Now national issues will intrude, but they will intrude in the frame of a choice between the two individual candidates. And in that instance, I think immigration will be seen as…a comprehensive approach will be seen as a winner, and a narrow restrictionist approach will be seen as a loser.
Yikes.
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