My view is that alongside a clear choice between balancing the budget on the backs of the poor or on the backs of everyone, Obama should highlight one other major contrast with Romney in this election: immigration reform. Obama should invoke Jeb Bush in describing the GOP's ever greater extremism, and ally with evangelicals and Latinos on immigration reform as his top priority in a second term. He'll have some allies that will make Romney squirm:
The so-called "Evangelical Immigration Table," which includes evangelicals Jim Wallis on the left and Richard Land on the right, unveiled its plan Tuesday (June 12) on Capitol Hill… Though the group is reaching out to evangelicals, Congress, and the president, there's not yet a specific framework in place.
"Much, much work remains to be done on the specifics," admitted Tom Minnery, senior vice president of Focus on the Family. "As difficult as it was getting all these signers together, the next step, getting politicians together, is a much greater task." Wallis, president and CEO of the social justice organization Sojourners, said change will depend on evangelicals uniting together for the cause. "Big things don't change in Washington first. They change in the nation's capital last," he said. "Together we will create a national groundswell for comprehensive immigration reform."
Obama should embrace it. Romney is stuck with a brutally inhumane immigration policy and he cannot change it without a grass roots revolt. Obama will only win if Hispanics turn out in force. The president is already in favor of it – and can blame lack of progress in his first term on the economic challenges and the GOP's total obstructionism. It's a perfect narrative for change; and for casting this election as between the America of the future and the America of the past.
The Dish 