Monday, June 18, 2012

Rapid Evolution

In announcing Friday that he was going to do what in 2011 he said he lacked the legal authority to do, i.e. grant de facto amnesty to over 800,000 illegal aliens under the age of thirty, the President said this:
They play in our neighborhoods, they're friends with our kids, they pledge allegiance to our flag. They are Americans in their heart, in their minds, in every single way but one -- on paper.
I wonder whether halting the deportation of those who can't produce the paper to prove they were born in the U.S. was motivated by sympathy or empathy.

In any event, here's Mr. Obama - a constitutional scholar, mind you - declaring in 2011 that such presidential action exceeds his constitutional authority.

Evidently, not only has President Obama evolved rapidly on this issue, as he has on gay marriage, so has our constitution. Charles Krauthammer, however, thinks it's more about disregard for the law than it is about evolution:

Krauthammer may be understating the case. What Barack Obama has done in choosing not to enforce the law, just as he has in choosing not to enforce The Defense of Marriage Act, is to effectively change the law without congressional review. This is the sort of thing dictators do. We live in a constitutional republic where the elected representatives of the people decide what the laws will be. If the President isn't going to enforce those laws he invites impeachment proceedings for violating his oath of office and failing in his constitutional duty to uphold the laws of the United States.

Same Old Song

The Republican National Committee has produced a funny video (well, I think it's funny) which juxtaposes President Obama's recent speech in Cleveland, Ohio with another speech he gave last April.

It's one thing to borrow a few phrases from previous speeches, simply repeating an earlier speech almost word for word gives the impression that the President is either too lazy to put some fresh material together or has exhausted his store of ideas. In either case perhaps he deserves to have a little fun poked at him:

There's more on the President's speech at Hot Air.

I wonder how many times between now and November we're going to hear Mr. Obama blame George Bush for our economic troubles: