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My personal musings about anything that gets on my radar screen--heavily dominated by politics.

2006-05-16

The President's Speech--Reaction

I did not watch the President's speech tonight--pressing family obligation (look at next post for more information on this). However, I did read the text of the speech, and here's my reaction.

There is one key statistic you must see to understand this speech:

fence:2; barrier: 2; wall: 1; identification card: 1.
temporary worker: 3; citizenship: 4.

By my count, that makes 6 for the good guys, 7 for the other side.

We lose.

Simply from the standpoint of emphasis, this would seem to indicate that the President is more interested in letting more people in and in what we do with those who are here already than in keeping out the rest of them. Which is not where I would have had him put his emphasis.

On the other hand, that the President mentioned a wall at all is rather remarkable, and shows how far the debate and the public outcry has moved him from what has been his default position. Now it remains to be seen if there is any appreciable difference between a "high-tech wall" and a "wall," but I suppose we'll see how that plays out over time.

And I guess I should be happy that the President hit all the points that I would have suggested: a wall, enforcement on employers, and "earned" citizenship. I just wish we would have heard a little more about the first, and a little less about the last.

Now the ball is in the Senate's court; let's see if they can get anywhere with it.
Posted by: Michael / 5/16/2006 12:21:00 AM

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