"There are means by which we can control our border better than we have. And there should be penalties for breaking the law," he added. "But the way I look at this -- and I'm going to say this, and it'll be on tape and so be it. The way I look at this is someone who comes to our country because they couldn’t come legally, they come to our country because their families -- the dad who loved their children -- was worried that their children didn’t have food on the table. And they wanted to make sure their family was intact, and they crossed the border because they had no other means to work to be able to provide for their family. Yes, they broke the law, but it’s not a felony. It’s an act of love. It’s an act of commitment to your family. I honestly think that that is a different kind of crime that there should be a price paid, but it shouldn’t rile people up that people are actually coming to this country to provide for their families."First off, we knew this was Jeb's position all along. If he runs in 2016 the two policy issues that he will have to deal with are his support for Common Core and his support for comprehensive immigration reform. Jeb is going to throw border security fig leafs in front of his plan which will (rightly) be labeled as amnesty. For someone who has been in politics for a few decades there is very little Jeb can surprise voters with because his beliefs are well documented. His level of name recognition is not in the same league with Hillary, but it is higher than everyone else on the GOP side who is thinking about running in 2016 (with the possible exception of Christie and Paul).
But let's remember that Jeb knows the GOP primary is three primaries. The first two run concurrently – an establishment primary and a conservative challenger primary. Jeb knows his competition first and foremost is going to be Scott Walker, Chris Christie, and probably another Governor. The conservative base primary is where Paul and Cruz will duke it out (and whoever else gets in). The winners of these two races will go head to head, but Jeb knows if he can clear the establishment/moderate field before the conservative challenger can then he will have a major advantage. Let's be honest, McCain did it, Dole did it, and Romney to a lesser extent did it (but let us not forget that Romney was the conservative alternative to McCain for much of 2008).
One other thing to point out is the news today that Jeb is meeting with Russell Moore, head of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, later this week. Moore is an evangelical leader, who took over for Dr. Richard Land (who was an extraordinarily influential evangelical in political circles) as head of the ERLC. Moore also teamed up with Ralph Reed to pen an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal about the need for compassionate immigration reform. It isn't hard to see the angle Jeb is playing here – it is our Christian duty to help our brothers and sisters no matter the land of their birth (or legal status). Jeb knows if he can pull some evangelicals from the conservative primary voters over to an already clear moderate primary field he could cruise to the nomination.
But all of this is speculation, as is the idea that anything Jeb says or does is some sort of bell weather as to which was he is leaning. The decision to run for president is first made on the family level and nothing that Jeb says or does before he announces should be treated as anything different than a public figure reiterating his position on an issue. If Jeb runs he will be as tough an establishment figure to contend with as we have seen since his father won in 1988 and it is foolish for those in 2014 to declare his candidacy DOA.
No comments:
Post a Comment