It’s basically unthinkable that immigration reform can get through this divided Congress at any point in the next couple of years, but the Hispanic vote will be crucial to President Obama’s success or failure in 2012 in Western swing states like Colorado, New Mexico, and Nevada, so Obama has to show that if it were up to him, at least, he’d pass a comprehensive immigration reform plan. Today, in a speech in El Paso, Texas, he called on the GOP to cooperate on immigration reform now that he has “gone above and beyond” Republican demands to secure the border — although he doesn’t expect that they will. “Maybe they’ll say we need a moat,” Obama said. “Or alligators in the moat. They’ll never be satisfied.” Ha, a moat. Where do you come up with this stuff? [NYT]
