Monday, September 24, 2012

Obama's Unfulfilled Promise Change

"The most important lesson I've learned is that you can't change Washington from the inside," Barack Obama said in an interview Thursday on the Spanish-language Univision network. "You can only change it from the outside."
A better way to put it is that Barack Obama has proved he can't change Washington from the inside.
One case in point is the comprehensive immigration legislation Obama promised to steer to passage in his first term. The Univision interviewers, who asked tougher questions than the president has been getting from David Letterman or various rappers, zeroed in on this issue.
With a 60-vote supermajority in the Senate and a solid Democratic majority in the House in 2009 and 2010, Obama could have pushed for an immigration bill.
Instead, he acquiesced in Speaker Nancy Pelosi's decision not to bring such a measure to the floor. It would require some of her members to cast tough votes.
But, with Obama's encouragement, she did bring to the floor and pushed through a cap-and-trade bill that also required some of her members to cast tough and in some cases career-ending votes.
Cap-and-trade was a favorite of gentry liberals, the kind of people Obama regularly has seen at his 200-plus fundraising events. As for the Hispanics who want immigration legislation, he's now promising that he'll push it in his second term. Wait in line.
George W. Bush managed to get congressional votes on comprehensive immigration bills. Obama didn't bother.
Obama's inability to change Washington from the inside is also on display in Bob Woodward's latest bestseller, "The Price of Politics."

Read more: http://townhall.com/columnists/michaelbarone/2012/09/24/obamas_unfulfilled_promise_change/page/2

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