Posted on 05/15/2006 9:47:42 PM PDT by Aussie Dasher
Arguably America’s most prominent American political consultant, Dick Morris tells NewsMax that President Bush’s key national address on immigration reform Monday night was "a great speech.”
"It included all the elements it had to,” said Morris, who noted the president is living through record low approval ratings.
But Morris conjectures Bush’s border plan may help lay the ground work for a comeback.
Morris is almost universally credited with piloting Bill Clinton’s stunning comeback re-election victory in 1996 after the Democrats lost Congress to the Republicans two years before.
The presidential plan to beef up the southern border fence in both real and virtual terms is both the "key to securing the border and securing the president's base,” Morris opined.
As to Bush’s vital guest worker proposal, Morris sees it as "the key to keeping the GOP competitive with Hispanic voters.”
And leaving open paths to citizenship for those already in the country, albeit illegally, will serve to make "Latinos a GOP stronghold,” Morris advised.
Morris has warned that the Republican risks losing its dominance in the near future if it doesn’t grab a larger share of Hispanic voters. Hispanics are rapidly growing in the U.S., especially in states like Florida, Texas, and other states once considered strongly GOP.
As Morris has written in the past:
"By moving away from English-only policies and reaching out to Hispanics, Bush has closed the gap among Latino voters. Gore carried them by 30 points, but Kerry only won among them by 10. But the border backlash may be undoing all this good work.
"The obvious answer is to couple a fence with a good guest-worker program, with a citizenship track predicated on good behavior.”
Morris further advised at the time that if the Republican Party allows the enforcement-heavy House bill to become law - a fence with no guest-worker program - it will antagonize the vital Latino vote and the GOP would consign itself to permanent minority status.
He did talk about a fence, although the word WALL would have been better.
Like a broken clock, Dick is right twice a day. But not on the President's speech or his attempt to ram amnesty down our throats.
He's right 50% of the time.
Toss a coin.
Uh Oh!..........this can't be good.
You wasted your first post.
Dick's left.
This means we're really screwed.
Dick Morris is a contrary indicator.
I don't know about this but he's usually right about Hillary, he can't stand her.
I don't see what's wrong with the English-first amendment...assimilation to becoming an American has always been encouraged in the past. Where it's not been (EU) things have turned very ugly ie: France.
Which is why Clinton felt a kinship with him...
Typical Hispanic voters frown on illegal immigration. Pandering to illegals would more likely lose you hispanic votes, not to mention the black vote and the votes of the base itself. Furthermore, illegals prefer democrats as they see the democrat party as the party where emotion trumps the law.
I think ordinary Joes are hungry for someone to lead rationally, to make sense. I think the President was sincere, he laid out some steps that aren't perfect, but they struck the right notes.
Where's Dick gone?
No, he's not right... Bill Schneider of CNN declared "Bush just lost his base" two seconds after the speech ended, so it must be true.
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