Over at her new perch at Commentary's
Contentions blog, recent AmSpecBlog alumna Jennifer
Rubin notes that immigration hasn't played as important of a
role in the 2008 election as predicted. I'd put things in a
slightly different way. I think that immigration is still an
important issue to conservative voters, but it is an issue that is
easy for candidates to neutralize. In the 2006 election, a lot of
Republican immigration hawks went down in defeat, because their
Democratic rivals were were able to satisfy voters enough by
talking tougher on immigration. The same phenomenon has played out
in this cycle. Tom Tancredo didn't gain much traction as a
candidate, and was forced to drop out before Iowa and endorse Mitt
Romney, because Romney had embraced many of his immigration
policies. Romney tried to attack Mike Huckabee on immigration, but
Huckabee was able to fend off those attacks by releasing a hardline
proposal of his own. And finally, even John McCain was able to win
in South Carolina, where immigration was a big issue, by saying the
country had spoken and he now realizes that enforcement has to come
first. In a general election, whoever the candidates are in both
parties, they'll say they want to secure the border and improve
the process for legal immigration. And nothing will get done.
Probably the reason why a lot of conservatives get so riled up
about the issue.
topics:
John McCain, Immigration
