President Bush looked at the polls that he doesn't read and thought he found the escape hatch. The idea was simple enough: Find an issue, any issue, that will distract the American public from the carnage in Iraq, the scandals in Washington and the erosion of civil liberties all over the American landscape. After the cavalcade of bad news last week and over the weekend, the Administration needed a good prime time Oval Office speech to take control of the news cycle. To that end, Mr. Bush delivered a moribund speech on immigration and border security.
Mr. Bush read off the teleprompter the issue that was billed as the highlight of the speech. He will put 6000 National Guard troops on the border. But then he threw us a curveball by telling us that they won't actually be doing the guarding. The Guard will support the Border Patrol instead in administrative functions. Apparently, someone must have explained to the President that M-16 slugs embedded in the body of a mother and child crossing the border would make for really bad press.
The other highlight of the speech was Mr. Bush's call for a tamper proof national ID card for illegal aliens to cut down on the use of forged documents. I am not clear as to what prevents the illegal aliens from now forging driver's licenses and social security cards and claiming that they are citizens. I suppose in their haste to change the subject the big thinkers in the White House didn't have time to think this one through.
Mr. Bush is caught between the two wings of his own party. He tried to thread the needle tonight but the only people pleased with his speech are likely to be Democrats on the Hill. Mr. Bush, as he famously stated once, does not do nuance well. There was too much nuance in this speech for his hard-core base of 29%. He had something for everyone. He wanted a comprehensive solution to immigration reform - he offered guns (not quite) and butter. He was not being the decider that the 29% wanted and expected him to be. So, I think the likely outcome of this speech will be that some of the remaining 29% will leave him now.
The early indications from the rabid and the xenophobic appear to suggest that Mr. Bush would have been better served spending the 8 o' clock hour baking cookies or blowing something up. Michelle Malkin's post on the speech is entitled "Same old, Same old" and she complains:
The only good thing about watching the speech was getting to watch it in the Fox News green room with Colorado GOP Rep. Tom Tancredo, a stalwart immigration enforcement advocate. It was nice to have someone to shake heads along with as empty platitude and platitude was laid on thick.
The ever-charming Debbie Schlussel has not blogged since the speech as she is tied up with Joe Scarborough at the moment. But she did have a preview blog entitled "Immigration BS Eve: A Few Questions for the Prez" where she did not sound all too pleased with this evening's festivities:
On Immigration Pretense Eve (that means the calm before the giant Presidential immigration BS), we have a few questions for President Bush--in light of his decision to use the National Guard on the border--that we doubt he'll answer tonight:
[I'll skip the questions; you can read them on her blog. They are really not all that important.]
...
The best thing that could happen: Bush does not get the amnesty a/k/a guest worker program that he wants and the bill does not pass. If he thinks getting "tough" (for now) on the border will make those of us in his conservative base ease up on our opposition to more amnesty, he's delusional.
And maybe he is.
Mr. President, I think that your base is leaving you. It is time to turn your weary eyes toward Iran.
Also posted at my web site.