Excuse me, but it is the time for questions (Lord Obama vs. Daily Caller's Neil Munro)
The Tampa Tribune ^ | June 20, 2012 | Patricia Campion
www2.tbo.com
On Friday, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano announced that "certain young people who were brought to the United States when they were "under the age of 16" and are currently below "the age of 30" will no longer be deported.
Hours later, at a press conference in the White House Rose Garden, Daily Caller reporter Neil Munro had the audacity to question President Barack Obama about his administration's controversial decision.
"Why'd you favor foreigners over American workers?" Munro shouted.
"Excuse me, sir," Obama snapped, "but it's not time for questions."
Excuse me, sir, but when the president of the United States circumvents Congress to unilaterally change American immigration law, it is precisely the time for questions.
"What country did we wake up in on Friday?" Florida Rep. Allen West queried Monday during a morning radio interview with Laura Ingram. "It just causes people to ask, 'Where are we?' "
In the words of Obama, this is "the right thing to do for the American people."
In the minds of others, such as West, this is purely a matter of "political expediency."
"He should have worked on this years ago," presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney told Bob Schieffer on Face the Nation. "If he felt seriously about this he should have taken action when he had a Democrat House and Senate. But he didn't."
In 2010, Napolitano was bragging about the administration's deportation record.
In 2011, after being heckled by Hispanic students at the National Council of La Raza meeting who were protesting the administration's record breaking deportation record, Obama blamed Congress.
"I know some people want me to bypass Congress and change the laws on my own," he said. "And believe me, right now, dealing with Congress right now — the idea of doing things on my own is very tempting. Not just on immigration reform. But that's not how our system works."
So what changed between those days of chest-thumping deportation pride and deference toward the limitations of his office?
That he waits "until four-and-a-half months before the general election," Romney said. "I think the timing is pretty clear."
The results of a poll released June 8 by Latino Decisions may play another motivating role in Obama's sudden immigration move. In the survey — conducted among "a sample of Latinos" and "non-Latinos" — participants were asked what they thought about Obama's DREAM Act and the alternative proposal being championed by Sen. Marco Rubio, a Miami Republican.
Obama's plan, they were told, "would provide undocumented immigrant youth legal resident status and eventually a path to citizenship if they attend college or serve in the U.S. military."
They were told that Rubio's version "would provide undocumented immigrant youth temporary status on a renewable visa if they attend college or serve in the U.S. military, but would not put them on a path to citizenship."
Predictably, 80 percent of Hispanics preferred Obama's version over Rubio's.
Despite their growing demographic, Latinos have the lowest voter registration rate of any major ethnic group in the United States. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Hispanics account for 16.3 percent of the U.S. population. In Florida , it's 22.5 percent.
The candidate who can inspire them to register and show up at the voting booth in November will stand the better chance of claiming the state's 50 coveted, winner-take-all delegates.
Not only is this the perfect time for questions, it's about time we got some answers. |
