President Barack Obama on Wednesday night firmly rejected the notion that House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s (R-VA) stunning primary loss spelled doom for immigration reform.
“Some of you saw that there was an interesting election yesterday,” Obama said at a Democratic fundraiser in Weston, Mass., according to a transcript of his remarks. “And it’s interesting to listen to the pundits and the analysts, and some of the conventional wisdom talks about, oh, the politics of immigration reform seem impossible now. I fundamentally reject that. And I will tell the Speaker of the House that he needs to reject that.”
The President didn’t mention Cantor by name but emphasized the urgency of getting immigration reform done.
“I mean, if you think that because of politics you want to maintain a status quo that’s broken; because of politics we’re going to forego the economic growth and the deficit reduction, and the border security, and the fairness and the opportunity that immigration reform represents — you don’t belong in Washington,” he added, according to the transcript of his remarks. “Because at a certain point, the issues are important enough to fight for. And my argument about yesterday’s election is not that there was too little politics, it’s that there was too little conviction about what’s right.”
Cantor was defeated Tuesday by David Brat, a little-known economics professor. Brat had painted Cantor as a “cheerleader for amnesty” and the underdog candidate’s few champions on the national stage, like conservative radio host Laura Ingraham, hailed his win as a blow to the GOP establishment position on immigration reform.
Cantor favored immigration reform like Lucy favors the field goal. So of course his richly deserved loss doesn’t kill reform! Cantor favored Republicans feigning just enough calculated openness to the idea of reform, to get some Hispanic votes without actually changing anything.
Cantor’s blend of carefully titrated lying is dead, because his constituents didn’t catch the wink wink nudge nudge.
Basically the a confluence of the Tea Party, a variant of Poe’s Law, social media and the 24-7 Fox-Rush outrage cycle, are going to limit how Republicans can lie. I would’ve thought that maybe Romney-Ryan 2012 had made that clear, but evidently not.
Republicans can’t just keep reinventing themselves between primary elections and general. General voters hate the feigned primary bat shittery and primary voters hate the feigned general half-sensibility.
Obama is wrong. In fact, if things stay the same for the lunatic right wing, Jeb, Chris, and others will not run in 2016, because they cannot possible survive GOP primaries.
So, coach, your team is down 3-0 in the series. Is it over?
No, it’s not over! Plenty of basketball left to play! Let’s go get 'em!
What do you expect him to say?
Such a stupid article.
Immigration Reform isn’t going to happen until Teabagger Madness is completely cured.
Cantor had less than nothing to do with it. And everyone should already be aware of this. Particular political “reporters”.