It’s usually pretty easy to tell when the president really cares about an issue. Bush, when he feels like it’s worth his effort, will devote a lot of time to something important to him, he’ll hold sycophant-only public events to talk up his policy, he’ll even come up with little smears and taunts for those who dare to disagree.
With this in mind, Dan Froomkin raised a really good point this afternoon: “Has Bush Given Up on Immigration?”
The much-anticipated immigration compromise cobbled together last week by the White House and a bipartisan group of senators isn’t going anywhere without a lot of aggressive campaigning by the president.
But where is President Bush? Not exactly out on the hustings.
Where’s the full-court press? Where’s the barnstorming? Where are the famous White House theatrics?
The current legislation has almost nothing but enemies. Even tacit supporters acknowledge the bill’s many “imperfections.” The White House may have helped put this deal together, but if Bush wants it to pass, he’s going to have to work for it.
But by all indications, he doesn’t want to.
This isn’t just symptomatic of the president’s inherent avoidance of hard work. When it comes to his Iraq policy, Bush will give enthusiastic speeches, host townhall gatherings, appear in the media, and use his Bully Pulpit. In 2005, he gave Social Security privatization the same treatment.
But when it comes to immigration, White House and congressional officials struck a major deal, Bush appeared before the cameras for exactly two minutes, said he was “anxious” to sign a bill … and then left town.
Either the president doesn’t really care about immigration, or there’s something stopping him from dipping into his usual bag of tricks.
Froomkin thinks it’s the latter.
Here’s the problem, however: Bush’s usual political style — appealing to partisanship and stoking fear — isn’t going to work on this issue. This time, those are the tools of choice of his opponents. What Bush needs to do is appeal to people’s reason and conscience — and then back up his arguments with detailed and informed explanations of why the various tradeoffs reflected in the final agreement were necessary.
Bush often calls himself the educator-in-chief. But what he calls education has too often consisted of repeating simplistic sound bytes over and over. When he’s faced with a tough question, he typically doesn’t take it in, mull it, and explain his thinking — he just goes into his mental database of previously-used talking points and picks one out, whether it’s responsive or not.
But this bill needs an educator-in-chief. Or else it’s dead on arrival.
I think that’s right, on both counts.
But here’s one more angle to consider: immigration reform is the one major, sweeping policy area in which the White House and congressional Democratic leaders are almost on the same page. If this legislation falls apart — as is likely without Bush’s “leadership” — Bush will have lost his only shot at scoring a major legislative victory in the 110th Congress.