There is a fascinating political shift occurring in Washington this weekend after President Barack Obama walked back from this pledge to act by the end of summer on his unilateral immigration actions and said that he will now wait until after the elections. The move has been openly discussed as an effort to support struggling Democratic candidates who are facing huge opposition to the immigration proposals and are leery of the President taking any action given his own record low polling numbers (which now stand at 38 percent according to Gallup). Various Democratic candidates have been complaining that they are losing ground due to the immigration proposal and that Obama’s pledge could further worsen the currently bleak picture for losses in Congress (and possibly losing both houses to the GOP). While the White House originally saw the proposal as a no-lose proposition and popular with the base, it has proven far less popular around the country, particularly in battleground states. Polls show far greater opposition than support for the proposal. Immigration advocates are denouncing the delay as putting “politics over people.”
The thrust of the decision is that the changes will be made but not until after voters are no longer able to express their opposition in the upcoming elections. That would seem to be a highly insulting proposition for voters, but it has not been treated as anything other than politics as usual by the media. It is a curious approach for a President who ran on the change slogan like “Time for A Change” and “Change You Can Believe In.” It is a “change you can count on [but not vote on]” approach to politics.
Two White House officials said that the move was meant to insulate Democrats from the public backlash to the immigration moves. This is in sharp contrast to the June 30th Rose Garden speech where Obama declared that he had directed Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and Attorney General Eric Holder to give him recommendations for executive action by the end of summer and that he would “adopt those recommendations without further delay.”
My views on unilateral presidential action are well known and have little to due to the merits of these issues (Indeed, I agree with some of the President’s policies and objectives). However, what continues to amaze me is the character of modern American politics. Here you have politicians openly discussing how to avoid voter wrath by withholding action in a major area. In reality, I think some GOP leaders are doing the same thing in light of the recent defeat of Cantor and the clear success of new candidates running against the immigration proposals (while the Chamber of Congress and industry interests are pressuring for legalization as beneficial to business). I simply find it remarkable that politicians can get away with openly withholding proposals to evade a public backlash but promising that, as soon as the voters go home, they will move on the proposals. It strikes me as a tad duplicitous, but then again little makes sense to me in American politics anymore.
Source: AP
And if we want to add up crimes and misdemeanors for both Bush and Obama I wonder what the accounting would look like.
No indeed they are not pawns nor are they nor should they be sacrificial lambs for wars of choice.
America didn’t like it when Bush Cheney lied to get us into a war of choice that cost us trillions and 4.5 thousand lives and countless maimed and disabled. I bet it was a burden on the middle class mi.military families whose husbands and fathers and sons were killed in a pointless war. That lie was or should’ve been criminal.
And many in my family have served in the military. My friend’s husband just deployed.
Boots on the ground are not political pawns.
“Boots on the ground are not political pawns.”
Don’t you think that depends on why they are put their.
Does anyone want to seriously argue that the president landing on an air craft carrier had anything to do with naval operations or was anything other than political.
That example was not deploying to a combat zone – clearly. But the idea that ordering troops into position can never be political would be laughable if it were not so serious.
It is up to those of us who care about troops to observe and distinguish deployment required by events and those that are political posturing.
BTW, when it comes to political considerations, sometimes military forces are not deployed for reasons that have nothing to do with security. For you Benghazi fans, there is supposedly a new book in which a member of a fire team in Benghazi claims the CIA station chief refused to allow them to deploy in time to do any good at the consulate for unknown political reasons – perhaps he though he could negotiate support from ‘friendly’ militias.
In any case the claim that military deployment is never political is shocking just shocking.
And finally someone once said words to the effect that military force is just politics by other means. In that sense military deployment is always political.
The question is not do we deploy military units for political purposes. The question is do those reasons make any real sense, do they stand up to scrutiny.
Lee:
The Dems’ MO is to stonewall investigations and obstruct and then complain that too much time has passed.
In a similar vein the IRS conveniently lost the emails if 5 more people under investigation for targeting conservatives. I expect any day now for Dems to claim this all happened in the past, no wrong doing was uncovered, and we should just move on. Sure, Lois Lerner pled the 5th and they have obstructed outside ecforts to recover evidence, and they admitted Lerner deliberately wiped her phone, but it was so long ago.
Wait, so the reason why facts don’t matter to me is because multiple stories were based on a soldier’s account that the DOD disputes?
So unless I contact the DOD for each and every opinion, I just irrationally hate Obama or I’m racist?
I’ve had family who worked for the DOD, and I am quite familiar with the “I can neither confirm nor deny” stone wall.
It is an interesting turn of events that the DOD claims they have no record of him being held in 2009, and it is interesting phrasing.
I will investigate further. What I do know is that Obama called them JV. We all saw the video. We know he inherited a won war in Iraq. Are Obsma supporters calling this a success?
I hold blind allegiance to no party. Wrong is wrong. If unconditional release of major terrorists is recommended, it is wrong, utterly and completely.
And my opposition of Obama has been justly earned. He has cost my middle class family many thousands of dollars more a year, lost me our doctors, and lost me my covered prescriptions. Those are facts, and they matter very much to me.
Democrats ignore this at their peril. People do not particularly like it when their President repeatedly lies to them. They don’t like it when their insurance they could afford suddenly becomes unaffordable because of politics.
But blind supporters ignore these facts.
Leej, I honestly do not know why you give certain people the time of day.
leej, WOW!! That last part about children being murdered is an eye opener into how you think There are millions of children being murdered around the globe. Are you going to play God and say Guatemala, your kids live. All the other Central, South America, Africa, Asia, etc. children, tough luck. leej, says we can’t save you all. But, these Guatemalan kids, she says they will live. You are cold!
Leej, Rafflaw and Randyjet have recognized a gross misrepresentation and called it out truthfully, kudos to you three. The Secretary of Defense is a part of the Cabinet. Full stop.
Nick, ((*_*)) I try to be a good natured liberal.
You write agree these are legit complaints. Obamacare. NSA. DOJ snooping on reporters. Libya. IRS. Bergdahl. Southern Border. There are more but I don’t want to run up the score. But, in spite of the utter incompetence and illegalities, this guy just acts like he’s got everything under control.
There have been 7 investigations into Benghazi. All of them found no fault (so now the repubs have convened an 8th to waste more taxpayers to try and somehow find a there there when it has been repeatedly shown there wasn;t.
ACA has been found to be legal and is the law of the land. NSA I am not happy with, he has expanded it no doubt but it started with Bush who came out about a year ago or so to say proudly I started PRISM and was glad I did.
I don’t like the “snooping” on reporters but this is not illegal to my knowledge and sadly also not unknown in politics.
As for Libya and ISIS, and Russia I have not seen the news reports but I bet ya Franken et al are on board with the fact that Obama ignored the right crying “put our guys on the ground” and instead went diplomatically and now we are not in it alone, for either Russia or ISIS.
I think the right would prefer if there had been US boots on the ground so they could cry how dare he put our people back in danger and add to the thousands already killed because Bush lied us into a war and then went after the wrong guy (saying :Bin Laden didn’t interest him”
I am not a cultist. I see the president;s errors and am not happy with of the things he has done but it seems even when congress says there is no there the right still hits him over the head with it. Using diplomacy and havig many nations come in on a fight that should not have been and isn’t the US’s only makes good sense and good policy.
(As for the border, these people, who have stopped coming, at least anywhere near where they were when they sw they were not being welcomed with open arms but stopped by border security were coming because they thought America cared about children who were facing being murdered in their homeland
Aridog Nick says youre a stand up guy and I will respect that However you want to say what you want to say and will bend the facts to fit your desires.
Hagel represented the administration whether you like that or not. He is the sec’t of defense.. You wrote that no one from the administration was there. That is just flat out wrong.
The fact is that the Sec of Defense is a political appointee, and NOT a career civil servant position. So to say that nobody from the administration was at the funeral is simply an outright lie. Using falsehood or rationalizations to buttress your opinion says more about the one making the accusation than Obama.
I think that the snub and disrespect to the Army when Gen. Shinseki retired and all the administration leaders in the DoD refused to attend his retirement ceremony was a far worse case of disrespect for a career military man who told the truth about the war in Iraq. The irony is that if W Bush had listened to the Army about how many troops would be needed, it would have been a success. But of course, Rumsfeld, and his draft dodging experts knew far more than the military about things like that.
BFM, “The truth shall make you free.”
Don’t forget he’s not half bad running the country….somewhere.
Olly, It might be wishful thinking but Clinton was a blatant cheater in golf. And, golf is a game of honor. Of course, if you have none.. But, I don’t see Obama cheating. I caddied from the time I was 12 years old. I learned A LOT about adults. I also umped men’s softball when I was 14. That all gave me a big head start in understanding people.
Nick,
He can truly suck at every sport he plays as long as he respects the rule of law. Unfortunately, he seems to treat the rule of law like another sport and the results are consistent.
Olly, Remember Obama shooting hoops and missing 20 of 22 free throws. For all the golf he plays his avg. score is 94!
He misses too many free throws, has a 94 average in golf and runs like Jake Cutler. Please… you are making me feel sorry for him. Will the cruelty never stop?
Raff
on 1, September 7, 2014 at 12:59 pm
= = =
Oh great. Just what we need. More stuff.
Not only is Obama the great Muslim Kenyan fighting to instill sharia style gay laws in America he’s also a hippie dropout with a weed problem, too?
“And for a jock he’s not doing a half bad job of running the country either.”
A claim every President makes and one that always has the critics asking; to where?
BFM, You obviously have not seen Cutler run.
Olly, Your Vikings owner has a condo near where I stay in Mission Beach[San Diego]. His place is in Pacific Beach. Ziggy walks the beach as do I. He is an amiable guy. I talked w/ him about Manziel. I could tell by the tenor of the conversation he wouldn’t draft him. Ziggy’s wife likes to boss him around. Kinda funny. I’ve seen them in Ralph’s[supermarket] and she just tells him why he can’t buy this/that unhealthy food. He just has a smile on his face.