Visual source: Newseum
First, the poll from Bloomberg:
President Barack Obama is winning the opening round in the battle over immigration, according to a Bloomberg poll released today, putting Republicans on the defensive with his decision to end the deportations of some illegal immigrants brought to the U.S. as children.
Sixty-four percent of likely voters surveyed after Obama’s June 15 announcement said they agreed with the policy, while 30 percent said they disagreed. Independents backed the decision by better than a two-to-one margin.
The results underscore the challenge facing Mitt Romney and Republicans as they try to woo Hispanic voters, who are the nation’s largest ethnic minority and made up 9 percent of the 2008 electorate, according to a Pew Hispanic Center analysis of exit polls. Obama won the Hispanic vote 67 to 31 percent over Republican John McCain in 2008, according to exit polls.
Eugene Robinson at
The Washington Post:
[I]f taking action on the immigration issue is good politics for Obama and the Democrats, then Republicans have only themselves to blame. The GOP has made a conscious decision to offer nativists and xenophobes a comfortable home where their extremist views go unchallenged. No one should be surprised if voters who think differently about immigration issues — including some who are recent immigrants themselves — feel unwelcome.
Where is Mitt Romney on all of this, you ask? Excellent question. Former British prime minister Gordon Brown’s withering putdown in 2009 of David Cameron, the current prime minister, is perfect to describe Romney: “The more he talks, the less he actually says.” [...]
As usual, it is hard to know what truth Romney is trying so hard to avoid telling. Does he really believe the hard-line rhetoric on immigration he used during the primaries to inoculate himself against persistent allegations of moderation? If that’s the case, his hemming and hawing was to avoid further alienating Latinos by saying forthrightly that he would rescind Obama’s policy.
Evan Puschak at MSNBC:
Mitt Romney and the Republicans have found a number of creative ways to side-step the question, “Will you repeal Obama’s immigration order to grant temporary relief from deportation to the children of illegal immigrants?” [...]
If Mitt Romney and the Republicans say that they would, in fact, repeal Obama’s new initiative, they risk alienating an increasingly influential voting bloc for this election and perhaps many more to come. On the other hand, if Romney admits that the president was right, he risks aggravating a conservative base whose high turnout in such a close race will be crucial for victory.
This, ladies and gentleman, is called a pickle. Hence the evasion.
Chris Cillizza and Aaron Blake at
The Washington Post:
Hispanics are not only the fastest-growing bloc of the electorate, but they are also the only one that has shown any willingness to vote Republican in recent years. (President George W. Bush won 44 percent of the Hispanic vote in 2004, according to exit polling that some have disputed.)
Given the data points above, Republicans literally cannot afford to let Hispanics become reliably Democratic. At some point in the future — given current demographic trends — Republicans could win virtually every single white vote in the country and not be able to win a national election.
The likes of former Florida governor Jeb Bush and former Mississippi governor Haley Barbour understand the ignominious political destiny that the current demographics promise for their party. It’s why Republicans must find a way to bend the curve among Hispanic voters or run the risk of relegation to long-term underdog status.
Meanwhile,
Frank Bruni pens a reflective piece in
The New York Times:
Somewhere between Nik Wallenda’s first step onto a tightrope over Niagara Falls and Greece’s most recent retreat from the brink, it hit me: teetering needlessly on the precipice of disaster wasn’t just the story of the weekend. It’s the story of our days.
Cliff dwelling has become the modern way of life.
We exist, without always having to, on the edge. Or, rather, on one edge after another, some of our own making, others avoidable if we could just summon the maturity, discipline and will.
