Thread: Gutierrez: Obama needs 'courage'

May 30, 2010

Right, Left Pan Obama Border Plan

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Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) said Sunday that President Barack Obama has so far lacked the "political will" and "political courage" to resolve the contentious issue of illegal immigration.

The liberal Chicago congressman and conservative former Rep. J.D. Hayworth, running for the Republican Senate nomination in Arizona, seemed to agree on one thing, though for very different reasons, in a joint interview on NBC's "Meet the Press:" The president's plan to send as many as 1,200 National Guard troops to the Arizona border is more political than practical.

For Hayworth, the troop level is too low to keep illegal immigrants out of the country. For Gutierrez, sending troops to the border is an easy political act that ignores significant questions of what to do with immigrants currently in the country illegally.

"The president has to understand that simple political sound bites is not what the American people want. They want practical solutions. He knows what the solution is to this issue. He has to demonstrate the political will and the political courage to take it on," Gutierrez said. "Does the president have the will? He hasn’t demonstrated it this week because what he does is respond easily by sending 1,200 troops."

Hayworth, engaged in an uphill fight to unseat Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz). in a primary, called the troop levels "woefully inadequate."

"Because this is a question of national security, I think this notion of 1,200 guardsmen is woefully inadequate," Hayworth said. "This is cosmetic. It is ineffective because 1,200 guardsmen across four states, do the math, that’s 300 guardsmen per state."

http://www.politico.com/blogs/politicol ... ation.html

"The president has to understand that simple political sound bites is not what the American people want. They want practical solutions. He knows what the solution is to this issue. He has to demonstrate the political will and the political courage to take it on," Gutierrez said. "Does the president have the will? He hasn’t demonstrated it this week because what he does is respond easily by sending 1,200 troops."

The president had better understand that the vast majority of Americans want enforcement of our laws. He needs to demonstrate that he is not bending over for race-based special interest groups in thwarting our will. Gutierrez had better heed the writing on the wall and start representing the constituents of his who are LEGAL voters and stop advocating for illegal invaders. Gutierrez is no friend of the USA.