Thread: Obama just kneecapped Jeb Bush and Chris Christie's 2016 prospects

Obama just kneecapped Jeb Bush and Chris Christie's 2016 prospects

On immigration, the GOP primary will have little room for nuance

The Week
By Jon Terbush | Nov 21, 2014

Christie and Bush, who already had a difficult messaging task ahead of them, must now either flip the bird to GOP voters or tie themselves in knots trying to walk back their previous positions.

President Obama on Thursday announced his much-anticipated executive action on immigration, and in doing so he lobbed a grenade squarely into the 2016 Republican primary race. Obama's order will reshape how the feds prioritize deportations of undocumented workers, shielding an estimated five million of them from being kicked out of the country. "We shall not oppress a stranger for we know the heart of a stranger — we were strangers once, too," Obama said, quoting scripture.

By moving ahead solo before the new Congress is sworn in, Obama ensured Republicans will finally have to address immigration reform next year — and on into 2016. This poses a unique problem for two of the GOP's biggest potential presidential candidates who have broken with the party on the issue.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush upset the rank and file earlier this year by calling for a compassionate approach to immigration. In April, he said undocumented workers who enter the country illegally do so as "an act of love" because they "are actually coming to this country to provide for their families." Then there's New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who in January broke with the national party and signed a state-level version of the DREAM Act. Like Bush, he framed his support for reform through the lens of strengthening families.

Among the general public, neither position is politically abhorrent. Polls have consistently found robust majorities of Americans in favor of a pathway to citizenship for undocumented workers. And Americans overwhelmingly supported the Senate's sweeping immigration bill, which incorporated elements of a proposed federal DREAM Act.
Still, both candidates may never reach the general election because their positions are anathema to Republican primary voters.

To understand this predicament, it's worth revisiting Texas Gov. Rick Perry's (R) short-lived 2012 campaign. Though Perry flopped mainly because he displayed the brains and demeanor of a limp windsock, his signature on a bill granting in-state tuition to illegal immigrants left him vulnerable on the right. In one memorable debate, Perry's opponents formed an unspoken alliance and took turns whooping him over that law. Even the humorless Mitt Romney snuck in some jabs, and Perry crumbled.

Little has changed since then. Though Republicans admitted after the 2012 election they needed to do a better job appealing to Latino voters, they saw no viable way to do so without pissing off a base that seethes at even a whiff of "amnesty." The howling last year from conservatives displeased with the Senate's bipartisan bill — a bill supported by more than 70 percent of Latino voters and a huge majority of Independents, too — was so loud it forced cowering House Republicans to stymie the measure into oblivion without even giving it a vote.

Before Thursday, immigration reform was on course to play a role in the next GOP primary. Yet with one stroke of his pen, Obama elevated it from a secondary issue to the very forefront of national debate. Christie and Bush, who already had a difficult messaging task ahead of them, must now either flip the bird to GOP voters or tie themselves in knots trying to walk back their previous positions. (Christie is already engaging in some preemptive flip-flopping, saying he has a top secret position on immigration he can't reveal unless and until he runs for president.)

Even before the president announced the specifics of his plan, Republicans were calling him a tyrant, a dictator, and a monarch. The most unhinged among them suggested responding with another government shutdown or, perhaps, impeachment. Spurred on by grassroots fury and a browbeaten GOP leadership, the wild-eyed vitriol will only deteriorate further into self-parody now that Obama has acted. Come 2016, you can easily imagine Republican presidential candidates stumbling over each other to prove who among them will build the biggest danged fence.

A fence-measuring litmus test on immigration won't favor Bush and Christie given their previous refutations of party orthodoxy. By contrast, Perry and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, both potential 2016 candidates themselves, are gleefully threatening to sue the president for his alleged constitutional encroachment.
How can Christie and Bush compete with that?

http://theweek.com/article/index/272...2016-prospects

Originally Posted by HAPPY2BME

A fence-measuring litmus test on immigration won't favor Bush and Christie given their previous refutations of party orthodoxy. By contrast, Perry and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, both potential 2016 candidates themselves, are gleefully threatening to sue the president for his alleged constitutional encroachment.
How can Christie and Bush compete with that?

Let's hope that Toxic 'Bama's flipping of the bird to the American people will make it impossible for people like Bush and Christie to lie about why some Repubs want to flood the country with illegals. Those Repubs have been able to hide the fact that their big money donors want illegals, to keep wages down and profits up.
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Americans first in this magnificent country

American jobs for American workers

Fair trade, not free trade

Great article and spot on! No GOP Presidential candidate will make it past a primary if they continue this two-faced bull about wanting to balance budgets and get our economy back on track while slobbering about immigration reform. In fact, I seriously doubt a Democratic Presidential candidate will either. It's time to stop wasting our time on trying to figure out "what to do about immigration" and simply stop it until our poverty rate is below 4%, our unemployment rate is below 2%, our debts are paid off, and there are no more ghettos or projects in our cities because everyone is making enough money from good jobs to work there and live in normal private residential housing without government subsidies.

And if I wore a hat, I would tip it to Scott Walker who I expect to be the first to file a suit against the federal government and Obama. A state has significant financial standing to do this. All Governors who actually care about jobs for their citizens should do likewise. And we should all note those who don't, because that means they don't give a rat's behind about American jobs for American citizens, and who wants a leader who doesn't care about employing Americans in their state or country? It's mind-boggling that the American electorate has yet to make this a number one priority in both parties. Perhaps the Obama Edict will finally wake up the rest of our citizenry to the peril these pro-immigration sociopathic mutants pose to the well-being of our nation and general welfare of our citizenry.

Progressive Icon Jeb Bush: Obama Executive Amnesty Didn’t Go Far Enough

Originally Posted by HAPPY2BME

Progressive Icon Jeb Bush: Obama Executive Amnesty Didn’t Go Far Enough

Jeb Bush Another Republican Version of Barack Obama Lite

By the Way... How's that crap working out for ya Murica

Glenn Beck

Progressives stick together.



Chris Matthews totally hearts Jeb Bush

Wednesday, Dec 3, 2014 at 3:27 PM EST

Video at the page link:

If you’re still on the fence about Jeb Bush, this clip should put things into perspective a little bit. Chris Matthews, who famously got a thrill up his leg over Barack Obama, had nothing but glowing praise for next Bush in line for the Presidency. Glenn reacts to the glowing endorsement on radio today.

Matthews said:

Jeb Bush seems like he wants to run but he wants to run on his own terms. He’s not going to become a wacko bird. He’s not going to join the clown car. He believes in education, he believes in Common Core education. He believes in immigration, good immigration. He is different than some of those Ted Cruz types out there. And he’s not going to cross-dress and pretend he ain’t. We’re going to ask the roundtable what they think of that.

“If you’re Republican, that should tell you everything you need to know about Jeb Bush,” Pat said.
“As Jeb Bush will learn, if he decides to run for the president and win the nomination, all of a sudden, MSNBC will not say anything like that,” Stu added.

http://www.glennbeck.com/2014/12/03/...arts-jeb-bush/