Newt Gingrich knows how to polarize, so why wouldn’t he be the guy on the right talking about some kind immigration reform? No one else is on the left,or the right.
Check out my Amok comments on the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund blog :
Gingrich’s ploy is really a smart way for the GOP to seem diverse without really being diverse. People in Washington are already talking about the demographic edge with people of color that Obama has. But the Democrats have a bad habit of ignoring the people they love.
Newt needs to give some people of color an alternative–even if it’s a laughbly bad alternative, this idea of giving some undocumented immigrants legal status,but not citizenship.
It also gives GOP hardliners on immigration a softer edge. Newt needs that to appeal to the Marco Rubio wing.
So the legalization idea is just Gingrich using extreme wedge politics that’s more self-serving than humanitarian.
Legalization for some undocumented isn’t amnesty, but Newt will get the effect he wants: Differentiation from Romney, Perry and the others.
For more check out my Amok column on the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund blog….
NOW ABOUT THAT HERMAN CAIN FELLOW….
He”s “suspending” his campaign. Just like a student gets suspended, there’s always hope the Principal will let him back him for something.
A fly-by at the GOP convention? But yes, it’s over. And isn’t this all Cain wanted anyway? It was just a chance to pimp his book and sell his speeches so he can command Gingrich level $60,000 and up fees. He didn’t really want to be president. Like the Redford candidate in the film of the same name, he surely didn’t want to win the nomination and be put in the position of “Now what?” He just wanted a platform a presidential campagin could give him, sort of like a super Facebook page.
So the Cain Train is suspended, but I still sort of see him as the lone guy riding on the subway at night, looping around waiting for an audience to appear, muttering “9-9-9.” Books and speeches for sale. Maybe a reality show. Maybe Fox Business will hire him.
As the campaign ends, so ends the relevance of the HCSAI: The Herman Cain Sexual Appetite Index. (It seems to be healthier than his appetite for pizza).
On the bright side, Cain’s left with his family intact, for now.
And we are only left to wonder what an Obama/Cain post-racial American presidential fantasy might have been.
