Obama’s gay marriage and immigration moves: How the president is outfoxing Romney.
By Jacob Weisberg at Slate Magazine
http://mbcalyn.com/2012/06/23/obamas-gay-marriage-and-immigration-moves-how-the-president-is-outfoxing-romney-slate-magazine/ "SNIP....................
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But the politics of that issue may actually be on Obama’s side. Taking a moral stance on an issue of civil rights reanimated liberal voters who had drifted into disaffection, especially young voters who were crucial to his 2008 victory. Mitt Romney, who didn’t expect the move, found himself in an awkward position. With his radical Republican challengers dispatched, conservative positions on social issues were the last thing Romney wanted to emphasize. At a press conference, he called his own opposition to gay marriage “my preference” and declined to criticize Obama for changing his position or pandering to a Democratic special interest group. Romney’s response was essentially a tactical surrender that underscored the inevitably of liberal victory on the issue.
This same dynamic was at play last week when Obama issued an executive order that allows illegal immigrants who were brought to the United States as children to remain in the country. Obama’s unanticipated move aligned sound policy with good politics, reawakening Latino supporters who had lost heart over his failure to get a more comprehensive reform of immigration laws through Congress. The decision will play particularly well in swing states such as Florida, Colorado, and New Mexico, where Hispanic turnout can be decisive.
With his immigration surprise, Obama showed his ability to act without help from the recalcitrant Republican-led Congress that is likely to remain in place even if he wins a second term. He again stole a march on Romney, who was in the midst of figuring out how to “evolve” from the insincere, hard-line anti-immigration stance he adopted in the primaries to something friendlier. On the CBS program Face the Nation, Romney was asked several times whether he would overturn the president’s decision. Each time, he dodged the question and refused to say. A week later, he remains stuck on the issue—reluctant to attach himself to his party’s anti-immigration absolutists, unwilling to concede that the president is right, and with no apparent position of his own.
The president has seldom been a risk taker; he has operated within the boundaries of the possible, avoiding postures that yield no results. But he and his campaign have cleverly recognized that Romney’s slow-footedness and lack of imagination present an opportunity for them to shine in contrast. They have reversed the usual dynamic of re-election campaigns, highlighting the challenger’s stodginess while making Obama into a nimble incumbent.
