[sickoflibs]

RE :”It turns out it is harder than one suspects to pivot away from an empty campaign entirely devoted to character assassination of the opposition. Once lost, it becomes difficult to regain the high ground and concoct a mandate for much of anything. (Obama sure didn’t run on gun bans.) He didn’t bother in his reelection campaign to lay out any sort of growth agenda to ignite the still lethargic economy nor on any specific entitlement reform approach. His solution to almost any issue is to spend more money and tax someone else. He ran on nastiness and demonization; for once he is governing just as he campaigned.
The president since his reelection has been joyless and irritable, taking pleasure only in taunting his political opponents. His first question on any issue seems to be: What will make the Republicans look bad? It is such a partisan, senseless exercise ( So what if they look bad? What about the country?).”

The crisis time bombs like the tax cut expiration and the Debt limit give O the opportunity to paint Rs into a corner (as the libs on MSNBC cheer) and then brag about his victory, but the GOP has no incentive to give O anything he wants outside of those.

Amnesty immigration, guns, VAWA, tax reform : the (House) GOP will get nothing out of taking these on as long as O is in the WH.

I certainly don't see Amnesty as getting the GOP any votes, contrary to what the MSM and GOPe claim..

[BufordP]

RE: Amnesty/Immigration.

Read this today. Worth considering.

The Obama-Rubio amnesty farce

...Both Obama and Rubio swear up and down that their "path to citizenship," as they call it, is not amnesty because those here illegally today would have to jump through a series of hoops before they obtained legal status. Both Obama and Rubio would require illegal immigrants to: prove they were in the United States for a lengthy period of time, undergo a background check, pay a fine, pay back taxes and prove they have learned English.

But even these minimal requirements would obviously never be enforced. Just imagine if a grandmother came forward, passed a background check, paid her taxes and fines but failed her English test. Would Rubio deport her? Of course not. As Rubio admitted above, no one is going to vote for you if you threaten to deport their grandmother.

So how can a conservative both be true to his or her principles and avoid alienating those millions of voters who don't want to see their loved ones deported?

Boston College political science professor Peter Skerry has outlined such a proposal in the most recent National Affairs. Skerry advises conservatives to offer those who illegally enter the country a choice: either return home and apply for citizenship like everyone else, or stay and become permanent noncitizen residents. Those with serious criminal records would, of course, not be eligible. Aside from that minimal requirement, no one else would face deportation. No English tests or other phony past records would be necessary.

Conservatives will never win sizeable portions of the Asian or Latino votes if they are constantly the bad guys of immigration enforcement policy. The Obama-Rubio plan forever keeps Republicans in that role. Permanent noncitizen resident status is one proposal conservatives should consider to get around that problem.