Originally Posted by kane

To me this is clearly a political power play.

If he really cared about passing immigration reform he could have tackled it years ago when they held all three houses, but I think he and the democrats knew this was a sensitive issue for republicans and they kept it in their pocket as a secret weapon.

There was a great article in the New York Times yesterday that talked about how some republican leaders are quietly very worried about this. They now have a fine like to walk. After the last presidential election they realize that they need to get a larger percentage of the minority vote if they are going to win the White House. If they come out too strongly against what Obama is doing it can turn off those Hispanic voters. If they don't come on strong enough it can turn off members of their base. They are in a rough situation here.

Right now Obama is pretty much a lame duck. He will likely spend the next two years defying the republicans and doing everything he can to hurt them and their chances in the next election.

It is all part of a bigger sad story that tells the tale of what our country has become. Our leaders no longer really seem to care about actually doing good things for the country, they seem to care about hurting each other so they can win the next election.