Obama Fails Again

The election is the reason Obama decided not to issue an executive order on immigration.

He had decided to do something before summer’s end; in the strictest sense, he did do something. Last Friday, Obama said that he was not going to do anything to fix the broken immigration system.

The announcement came as a shock to all those who had been waiting for an executive order (which does not involve Congress) to put the brakes on deportations of Latinos, therein delivering the Latino vote in the November midterm election to the Democrats.

However, the election was precisely the reason why Obama decided not to issue an executive order on immigration, given the indications that such an order could mean a bigger hit than a boost in the November election.

In-house surveys conducted by the White House apparently concluded that there would be more harm than good done for Democratic candidates in the tight state races in places like Arkansas, Louisiana, North Carolina and Alaska. Losses in these states would bring the loss of the Senate majority, and evidently, it would create a far more complex scenario for the Obama administration. It could make Obama a lame duck president before his second term is even half over.

It is clear that Obama thought that unilateral action on immigration would be more damaging than helpful to any eventual reform — something similar happened when a gun control bill led Republicans to sweep the 1994 election, and again when Democrats lost control of the House of Representatives in 2010 over health care reform.

The issue is that — yet again — Obama is seen as a man who does not keep his promises, like a vacillating and indecisive politician. He is seen as someone who uses motivational speeches to establish lofty goals, and who then puts the brakes on taking any action — therein throwing in the towel on his commitments.

These days, Obama is seen as a politician who has failed again. Immigration activists are extremely angry with him. From one minute to the next, the late summer possibility of giving a strong boost to immigration reform has now been delayed — until the end of the year at the earliest.

Let’s see if Obama honors his word. A lot depends on how things turn out for the Democrats in November.

Footnote: There are two loud and strong contenders for the 2016 presidential election — a Democrat and a Republican. Hillary Clinton and Chris Christie were both in Mexico at the same time. If that doesn’t confirm Mexico’s important place in U.S. politics, I can’t imagine what would.