Sad, Scary and Possibly True
June 29, 2007The immigration bill has gone down to defeat in the Senate. Whatever one’s political beliefs, it was clearly a major defeat for President Bush, who used much of his diminished political capital to try to get it passed, but in the end won only 12 Republican senators to his side.
Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) came under enormous pressure from conservative constituents who railed against the measure’s path toward citizenship (”amnesty“) for illegal immigrants.
What he said was sad, scary, and possibly true. ”I’ve learned one main lesson,” he said. “A lot of Americans have lost faith in their government – they don’t think we can control our borders, win a war, issue passports.”
From a media perspective, to be successful the candidates of both parties will have to sell against that with all their optimism, energy, and enthusiasm.