I have done my share of criticising the president but I would offer to you that his speech demonstrates that he is indeed listening to both sides of people in this debate.
I may personally disagree with him on this issue but he is doing what he feels is right, and that is representing the entirety of the people in this nation, Legally or not.
I wouldn't say he is not listening to the people, at most I would say that he is listening to too many!
It will be interesting to see what come out of committee soon.
I disagree.
I listened carefully to what the President said, and considered the full import of his plan. He has not moved an inch.
6 years ago, he wanted guest workers and some sort of amnesty. Now he doesn't call it "amnesty", in fact he says it's "not amnesty", because he has listened enough to know that people don't want that. But it is.
6 years ago, he thought that walling the border, or militarizing it, were impracticable. Last night he said that the US is NOT militarizing the border, and called for a "virtual fence", as opposed to a real barrier. Border conservatives were calling for a cheap and effective real barrier. Bush carefully avoided giving them anything they said they wanted, while using words that showed he listened enough. He said "No Fence" while trying to sound like he said "We're putting up a Fence."
The Border Conservatives said they wanted border security FIRST. The President said no. He proposed only amnesty with no fence.
The Border Conservatives said they wanted heavy enforcement and employer penalties within the US. Bush said he was going to create guest workers, which effectively allows employers to hire cheap aliens at cheap alien rates without even being illegal.
His speech demonstrated that he knew he was in trouble with the conservatives, and so he tried to sell them his same ideas as before, which they rejected before, packaged up in the mantra of new words aimed at making it sounding like he was compromising. His "compromise" amounted to: "Do what I'vE always said, but we'll do it using your words so you think you've won."
I don't think he saved his Border Conservative base last night. I think he alienated them.
Listening to the people my foot he has adamently said he was against amnesty now he says his proposed amnesty isn't amnesty, what do you call legalizing 12 plus million people? I call it deceptive from start to finish.