TPS For Haitians Will Cost Obama Florida In 2012 —And The Election

By Joe Guzzardi

I’m looking far into the future, November 2012 to be exact. And I see trouble for President Barack Obama’s reelection prospects.

Unlike the Main Stream Media, which ties Obama’s sinking popularity to his health care fiasco and his radical Democratic agenda, I detect a third problem even more insurmountable. All three rolled together may be more than Obama can overcome.

Obama’s biggest blunder is Temporary Protected Status for Haitians living illegally in the U.S. It’s a political miscalculation far greater than his health care bumbling.

Remember that back a year ago health care was popular among the majority. Then, Congress talked it to death and scared Americans away with its price tag and bureaucratic red tape.

Still, should health care die, as now seems probable, Obama can blame the Republicans.

But Obama has no-one to point to except himself for giving TPS to approximately 200,000 Haitians. It is a gamble so ill-conceived that it will likely cost Obama Florida’s 27 electoral votes.

Becoming president without carrying Florida is tough. Since 1928, only two presidents have been elected without winning Florida: John F. Kennedy (1960) and Bill Clinton (1992).

Before getting on with the specifics of how TPS may doom Obama, let’s analyze how Obama got himself into such a mess.

To start at the beginning: Obama, although he’s been elected to the U.S. Senate and the presidency, has one overriding problem that he can’t correct: he’s an inept politician.

Complicating Obama’s political shortcomings is that he’s surrounded by advisors like Rahm Emanuel who consistently steer him wrong.

With the headlines in every major newspaper declaring that the Democrats are in turmoil, the Main Stream Media describes Obama as “defiant.â€