ThinkProgress: Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) suggested on Sunday that President Obama’s refusal to compromise with Republicans on Obamacare to re-open the government and raise the nation’s debt ceiling has jeopardized the chances of passing comprehensive immigration reform.This seems to me to be a pretty good sign that the GOP has completely given up on Latino voters, since it’s a good sign that Rubio himself has given up on them. Not only is this demographic in favor of immigration reform, but when broken down by ethnicity, they’re the most supportive demo of the Affordable Care Act. If you wanted to win them over, attacking Obamacare while ditching Immigration Reform would be the very lousiest way to do it.
“I think immigration reform is harder to achieve today than it was three weeks ago because of what happened here,” the first-term senator said during an appearance on Fox News Sunday, before agreeing with opponents of immigration reform who warn that the Obama Administration will simply fail to enforce border security or other aspects of a bill he disagrees with.
“The president has undermined this effort, absolutely, because of the way he has behaved over the last three weeks,” Rubio added. “This notion that they’re going to get in a room and negotiate a deal with the president on immigration is much more difficult to do…because of the way the president has behaved towards his opponents over the last three weeks.”
But Rubio’s excuse-making is not aimed at selling a disappointing turn of events to Latino voters, it’s aimed at explaining to the hardcore ‘bagger loons that they were right about the Lurking Foreign Menace and Barack HUSSEIN Obama all along and that they should please, please vote Marco Rubio for president at some unspecified future date.
Unfortunately for Marco, the anti-immigration zealotry of the GOP base has taken him from “rising star” to “has-been.”
[photo via Wikimedia Commons]
