Thread: The libidiot pontificates: Obama hopes for sane solutions

The libidiot pontificates:

Obama hopes for sane solutions
By Derrick Z. Jackson
Globe Columnist / December 4, 2007

BARACK OBAMA talked softly that he would beat off the big stick the Republicans are sure to wield on immigration. "Yes we have to have comprehensive immigration reform, we have to be serious about border security, we have to crack down on employers who are taking advantage of illegal immigrants, and we have to have a pathway to citizenship for the 12 million who are here," the Illinois senator told the Globe's editorial board yesterday in its series of endorsement interviews before the New Hampshire primary.

"But the politics of immigration I don't think will change until American workers feel as if somebody is listening to them, looking out for them, fighting for them and their economic concerns . . . If people see that we're taking those steps, then it puts them in a more generous mood when it comes to immigrants."

To borrow from the title of one of Obama's books, he has the audacity to hope for sanity if he becomes the Democratic nominee for president.

A month ago, front-runner Hillary Clinton came under fire from Obama and the rest of her rivals as well as from conservative talk shows for appearing to vacillate in a debate on a proposal in her New York state to give driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants. She went from saying the now-dumped proposal by Governor Eliot Spitzer "makes a lot of sense" to saying "Do I think this is the best thing for any governor to do? No."

Obama was one of the candidates who immediately challenged Clinton's position.

"I was confused on Senator Clinton's answer," Obama said. "I can't tell whether she was for it or against it. And I do think that is important. One of the things that we have to do in this country is to be honest about the challenges we face. Immigration is a difficult issue. But part of leadership is not just looking backwards and seeing what's popular."

When Obama was asked his position on driver's licenses, he said, "I think that is the right idea. . . . We can make sure that drivers who are illegal come out of the shadows, that they can be tracked, that they are properly trained, and that will make our roads safer."

Such statements, along with supporting a "pathway to citizenship," are red meat for the anti-immigration crowd. Talk-show host Lou Dobbs recently lumped Obama and Clinton together as "locked up in '60s liberalism" supporting "amnesty" and "open borders."

Obama yesterday said that Dobbs, radio host Rush Limbaugh, and "the machinery of anti-immigration talk has had its impact," forcing him to answer many questions on the issue from Democrats in his campaign stops. But he asserted that the 2006 midterms also showed the issue's limits. The Democrats were returned to the majority in the House and Senate as anger over the Iraq war trumped immigration.

"It is an indicator of the economic anxiety that people are feeling right now," Obama said. "I see anti-immigrant sentiment as growing out of the same soil as anti-trade sentiment. People feel as if globalization is making their lives more insecure, less stable. . . . They're working harder for less. They've never paid more for healthcare or college. It's harder to save. It's harder to retire. They're maxed out on their credit cards. They're taking out home equity loans to keep pace."

The question for nominee Obama would be if he can get such Americans to focus on sane solutions instead of scapegoating.

The discussion was anything but sane in the last Republican debate last week, with former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney accusing former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani of running a "sanctuary city," Giuliani accusing Romney of running a "sanctuary mansion," and Romney attacking the surging Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, for an old proposal to give the children of undocumented residents breaks on college tuition.

Obama said, "We're not going to build a 2,700-mile wall on our southern border."

Obama said the Democratic nominee has to confront anti-immigration sentiment "squarely, to not back off, to affirm that we are a nation of laws and we are a nation of immigrants and those two things are not contradictory."

Judging by how driver's licenses could not be debated without an explosion, a lot of square talk will be needed to beat off the contradictions.

Derrick Z. Jackson's e-mail address is jackson@globe.com.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/artic ... solutions/

He marched with the illegals on May 5th for their protest/ He promised LaRaza amnesty guaranteed within the first six months. When Hillary told La Raza she would try to get amnesty right away he went back an pointed out to them she wasn't going to get it done, but he would.

Evidently the only sane solution is to annoint him king like Congress did GW and bow to his every command. NO THANKS!