I have to say I found little wrong with it. The president’s insistence on both goals – border security and gradual legalization of millions of illegal immigrants already here – makes sense to me. His eschewal of inflammatory rhetoric was welcome. His enthusiasm for immigration and his empathy with immigrants are genuine, it seems to me. The rhetoric wasn’t inspiring, but it wasn’t pedestrian either. In all this, he was doing what a president should do: try and bring factions together for a constructive and comprehensive reform. I fear the tenor of the debate on the right has gone too far for the president to win back much of his base; and the Democrats are not likely to go out of their way to help him win a victory this year. But the future base of the Republican party, if it manages to appeal to the exploding Latino population, will be in a better mood. The Bush we saw tonight was more like the Bush we thought we were getting in 2000. Which is why, perhaps, his increasingly extreme and angry party will only turn on him some more.
(Photo by Q. Sakamaki/Redux).
The Dish 