I guess I’m going to have to write something about the president’s — what is it, the 35th televised prime time address in the last year or so? — speech on immigration Monday 
night. But all I can make of this plan to help guard the border with soldiers is that it’s one more example that there is simply no gambit too craven or silly for this president not to resort to it.
My reading and reporting attention hasn’t been focused on the immigration debate. But am I wrong to think that the president simply couldn’t square the circle between the corporate cheap-labor forces who fund his campaigns and the cultural conservatives who supply his voters? Growing out of that failure, this ‘militarize the border’ hokum is the policy announcement equalivent of crawling under his desk and screaming “Help!”
Shazam! Wonder twin powers … anything. It’s like a primal scream.
The White House is now saying the troops would only be temporary. But temporary until when? I guess just until there aren’t any more illegals trying to come across the border from Latin America.
And why are soldiers — national guard or regular army — better at managing border patrol than, well, border patrol? In part this is like it was during Katrina — the president’s inability to get anything to work by the normal civilian means leads him to claim that the problem is that there’s not a big enough role for the military. But perhaps the truth here is that bringing in the military is the only way his advisors can think of to create an illusion of decisiveness and power in his current state of political impotence.
Mocking this stunt gives it too much credit. I think Atrios is right when he says that this idea is so stupid that it’s unlikely there’s really even a plan to do it. Just an gimmick to help the president get through whatever new bad news is about to pop.
