Romney's Team Needs To Learn How to Respond Better to Swarming Press

Read this first and I'll tell you what's wrong:

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney expressed disappointment Monday with the Supreme Court's ruling on an Arizona immigration law, saying more latitude, not less, should be given to the states.

After he and his staff repeatedly dodged questions on his thoughts on the opinion, Romney finally gave a more specific comment when speaking with reporters on Monday afternoon, according to a pool report.

They should have been ready for this, no matter how it turned out, with one stock answer when the press demanded an immediate response:

The ruling has just been delivered and so far all we know about it is what we read on Twitter and online news sites. That's not enough information to give you a comprehensive answer, so we will be reviewing the decision and once we've had a chance to analyze it we'll respond with a statement.

Just that simple. Don't ever let the press force you into a stammering response because you're not ready yet with the fact, and yet that's pretty much what they did to Romney's press guy earlier in the day.

C'mon Team Romney, it's not that hard (I'm still available if you need help...and you do need help).

Illegal Immigration Quote of the Day

From Justice Antonin Scalia's dissent in the Arizona Immigration case:

"If securing its territory...is not within the power of AZ, we should cease referring to it as a sovereign State.”

Scalia is the only justice who would have upheld the Arizona law in totality. He's the only one who got it right.

"Activist" Supreme Court?

Just a thought - given that Obama just got pretty much all of what he wanted on the Arizona Immigration Law case, should he lose big on Obamacare does he still try to run a campaign against the "activist" Supreme Court? Gonna be hard to justify.

Obamacare won't be announced until Thursday morning.

Drum Roll Please...Here We Go With More Supreme Court Decisions

UPDATE: Arizona v. US came down today, somewhat a mixed bag, but overall Obama got most of what he wanted in that case. Basically the heart of the Arizona law was struck down. Certainly not the outcome we'd hoped for. Obamacare will likely come on Thursday, and court experts think there's a high likelihood that Chief Justice Roberts wrote that opinion. That could be good news on how the case will turn out. We'll know later this week.



It's another decision day for the Supreme Court, but I don't expect Obamacare today. They could deliver the Arizona Immigration decision to give everybody time to digest that before Obamacare on Thursday. Everything starts at 10am EDT.

Here are some links to articles about the upcoming Obamacare decision (from Drudge):

'The most important week' of Obama presidency...
Ex-clerks say individual mandate is 'done for'...
Four possible outcomes...
NYT: 'Heartbreak'...
Supporters Slow to Grasp Legal Risks...
Tense wait...

DEATH PANEL: SUPREMES SET FATAL BLOW TO OBAMACARE? 

Supreme Court Could Add A Couple More Decision Days

Right now there are still seven cases left to announce, including the two most complex and controversial - Obamacare and Arizona Immigration. The only scheduled day for announcing new decisions is Monday, but reporter Philip Klein, who covers the Supreme Court, is hearing that they may add decision days next Wednesday and Thursday. No formal announcement yet.

I don't think they'll announce the two most eagerly anticipated cases on the same day, and probably not on a day with several other cases. Various justices may want to read their opinions and the announcement could take some time. I'm thinking they'll dispose of the lesser cases on Monday, and then handle the other two later in the week, probably on separate days, with Obamacare probably being the final announcement next Thursday.

We'll see.

Day 2 of Supreme Court Opinions

Tomorrow is the 2nd day in which we expect the release of Supreme Court opinions.  Legal Insurrection has this:

There are several really important Supreme Court decisions to be handed down tomorrow at 10 a.m., Monday at 10 a.m., or next Thursday at 10 a.m.

ScotusBlog has a “plain English” summary of the remaining cases, and almost all have huge legal implications (forced union contributions for political purposes, whether FCC indecency standards are unconstitutionally vague, and one which by analogy might be of interest to a certain senatorial candidate, whether a law making it a crime to lie about having received military honors violates the First Amendment).

But let’s face it, the two biggies are the decisions in Arizona v. U.S. over the Arizona immigration law and, by far the biggiest of the biggies, the Obamacare ruling.

When either of those come down, the air will be sucked out of the media on all other issues.  If they are handed down the same day, the nation might collapse from lack of oxygen.

I bet in some ways Obama hopes the controversial opinions come out tomorrow to take the heat off Fast and Furious for at least a few minutes.  However, I'm not expecting them until next Monday.

Illegal Immigration Cartoon of the Day

Move over, Americans.

Obama Illegal Immigration Play Not Moving the Polls

From Breitbart:

UPDATE: I've updated the headline to eleven. Today, Rasmussen has Romney up 48 - 44% over Obama. Romney inches towards the magic 50% number as Obama languishes.

This poll also takes into full account Obama's cynical move to violate the law with respect to our policy surrounding illegals. No bump here, Mr. President. Just more bad news.

Anyone who is at all intellectually honest will tell you that Rasmussen Reports is not only one of the most reliable pollsters out there, but also an honest one. Which matters in this day and age when Obama's Media Palace Guards do their own polling and are regularly busted skewing samples to benefit Democrats (never Republicans). Rasmussen Reports is not only professional, it is currently one of the only pollsters using a tighter screen of likelyvoters as opposed to all or registered voters. This is important context when you discover that for 10 days running now, Rasmussen has shown former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney with a small but consistent lead over President Obama

Even though at least one other poll I've seen indicates that voters seem to favor Obama's illegal order, it's not changing their opinions about whether he should be re-elected. This issue, like gay marriage, appeals only to a small voting base. In fact, this issue probably has its most appeal among people who are ineligible to vote and therefore can't do much to help Obama.

In the long run I have to believe this will be a net loser for him.

First Day of Decisions From the Supreme Court

UPDATE:  Neither of the big decisions (Obamacare nor Arizona Immigration) were announced today.

The Supreme Court has scheduled three decision days to release the results of 21 cases yet to be announced for this term, including Obamacare and the Arizona Immigration law case.  Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg says we can expect some narrowly divided decisions coming:

With a wry smile, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg laid waste Friday to all those rumors about the fate of the Affordable Care Act in the Supreme Court.

“Those who know don’t talk. And those who talk don’t know,” she quipped Friday night at a conference hosted by the American Constitution Society at the Capital Hilton.

Ginsburg said she was responding to a "steady stream of rumors and fifth-hand accounts" about the court's deliberations on the law.

Careful not to tip her hand on the court’s ruling — expected in the next two weeks — Ginsburg described the oral arguments in the case as unprecedented for the number of “press conferences, prayer circles, protests and counterprotests” that occurred on the courthouse steps.

Although she offered no insight into the tightly held decisions of her colleagues, Ginsburg did indicate that many of the court’s decisions over the next two weeks — which are also expected to include an FCC indecency ruling — might be close.

The 21 remaining decisions, she said, were “many of the most controversial cases” that the court reviewed this term.

“It is likely that the sharp disagreement rate will go up next week and the week after,” she said.

Decisions could be announced today, Thursday June 21, or next Monday June 25. It's going to be a newsworthy 8 days.

By the way, for anyone who assumes all decisions will be 5-4 with the same people lining up on each side, Erick Erickson provides this via Twitter:

Today's far right SCOTUS brought us a majority opinion with Sotomayor, Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas, and Kagan.

Today's far right SCOTUS also brought an opinion with Alito, Roberts, Kennedy, Breyer, and Thomas in the majority.

Today's far right Supreme Court also went 8 to 1 in favor of property owners against the government with Sotomayor the lone dissent.

I'm still thinking Obamacare will go 6-3 against the law. We'll see.

Political Cartoon of the Day

From the always impressive Michael Ramirez (h/t Reader Sam):

Political Photo of the Day

Obama and his newly legalized "Dream Act" supporters:

After yesterday's disaster of an economic speech, today's plan to legalize 800,000 illegal aliens seems even more desperate than normal.

Obama Ignores Federal Law and Congress and Unilaterally Imposes the Dream Act on America

I think we now have an impeachable offense:

The Obama administration will stop deporting and begin granting work permits to younger illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as children and have since led law-abiding lives. The election-year initiative addresses a top priority of an influential Latino electorate that has been vocal in its opposition to administration deportation policies.

The policy change, described to The Associated Press by two senior administration officials, will affect as many as 800,000 immigrants who have lived in fear of deportation. It also bypasses Congress and partially achieves the goals of the so-called DREAM Act, a long-sought but never enacted plan to establish a path toward citizenship for young people who came to the United States illegally but who have attended college or served in the military.

The president doesn't have authority to create his own laws or ignore existing federal law. This is nothing more than a naked attempt to gain votes from Latinos, but like the gay marriage "evolution", it will badly backfire on his campaign. Americans are by and large law-abiding people, and flaunting the law and throwing it in their faces will not help the Obama campaign.

Kurt Schlichter offers some good advice on Twitter:

The attempt to draw GOP into unwanted immigration fight is transparent. Ignore the latest outrage - strike at jobs. Reverse order in 1/13.

The immigration outrage is a calculated gambit to make us react. Pivot, attack the no jobs flank (which also hits back on this new order)!

Obama's plotters want us mad and want a reaction they can use to draw us off message and scare Hispanics. Calm response + jobs focus = Win.

Don't fall for the DREAM Act set up. Hit back on jobs/economy/gas; let the courts humiliate him (again) for his exec overreach.

Obama Plans a Litany of Lefty Pipe Dreams For His Second Term

I guess he's given up on fixing the economy:

President Barack Obama’s priorities in a second term could include tackling climate change, halting nuclear proliferation, bolstering overseas aid and immigration reform, according to his senior advisers.

Although on the campaign trail Obama insists that the central campaign issue is ‘how we build an economy that works for everybody’, White House aides, speaking to the New Yorker in a lengthy article about Obama’s plans for a second term, stressed other themes.

Officials insist that they are not taking Obama’s re-election for granted. But Ryan Lizza, author of the article, revealed that Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s former chief of staff, had told him right at the start of Obama’s presidency ‘that the White House was already contemplating the Presidency in terms of eight years’.

The guy's a lefty ideologue, pure and simple. He can't help himself. He has to work on issues of little or no consequence because that's what liberals do. Results don't matter, only intentions.

But of course, he won't get another four years.

Mexicans Didn't Realize That Obama Considers Killing People Part of His Job

They apparently underestimated his incompetence as well:

Mexico’s ambassador to the United States detailed last week how the administration of President Barack Obama left his government in the dark while arming violent drug cartel criminals through Operation Fast and Furious.

Last Thursday, Mexican ambassador to the U.S. Arturo Sarukhan told a forum on Capitol Hill that the Obama administration’s handling of the operation demonstrated an “outstanding lack of understanding of how criminal organizations are operating on both sides of our common borders.”

The operation led to the killing of hundreds of Sarukhan’s fellow citizens and two American law enforcement agents: Border Patrol agent Brian Terry and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Jaime Zapata. The identities of the countless Mexican victims are unknown.

“Mexico was never apprised how the operation would be designed and implemented,” Sarukhan said on Thursday at a left-wing event hosted by the New Democrat Network and the New Policy Institute.

“Regardless of whether this was or was not the intent or the design of Fast and Furious, the thinking that you can let guns walk across the border and maintain operational control of those weapons is really an outstanding lack of understanding of how these criminal organizations are operating on both sides of our common borders,” Sarukhan said, adding that he thinks the Obama administration had significantly damaged its popularity in Mexico.

The revelation that Mexico was kept in the dark as the Obama administration pumped thousands of weapons into the hands of criminals in its country – criminals who then used the weapons to kill people – comes after news broke that President Barack Obama thinks it’s part of his job as president to kill people, as detailed in a soon-to-be-released book by Newsweek investigative reporter Daniel Klaidman.

I think the Mexicans should recall all of their citizens from the U.S. in protest.

Activists Attempting to Make "Illegal Alien" a Racial Slur

Whenever the left finds words that damage them politically, they demand the terms be changed to become more innocuous and meaningless. That's how "liberal" became "progressive", and now the effort is being made to ban the use of "illegal alien" in favor of "undocumented person" or something silly like that. Bill O'Reilly isn't having any of it:

Friday on The O’Reilly Factor, Monica Novoa, a campaign coordinator for ‘Drop the I-Word,’ spoke out on the program’s new initiative to make the term ‘illegal alien’ morally on par with racial slurs, and her conversation with Bill O’Reilly quickly became heated.

O’Reilly argued that Novoa’s cause is misguided because it is, in fact, a federal crime to enter the U.S. illegally. “I’m not committing a hate crime by saying illegal aliens are just that.” he said.

When Novoa said that in the past laws have been changed in order to make for a more humane society, O’Reilly said, “Then work to change them. Don’t demonize people who are accurate in the description as using a slur or using a hate word because that’s not true.”

When Novoa was asked about whether she believes the U.S. should have open borders, she said, “I think that what we should be doing right now is looking at the reality and the reality is that people are here, and people are parts of families.” O’Reilly quickly interjected claiming that Novoa dodged the question and was filibustering, “two things we don’t allow on this program.”

When Novoa was stumped by O’Reilly’s line of questioning, O’Reilly charged, “You come in here with a very hot campaign, run by a far-left website demonizing people like me who are accurately telling the people what is happening and you don’t even know what you want.”

When Novoa fought back, saying, “The I-word is racist,” O’Reilly said, “I’m not a racist, I’m just reporting what’s happening. People are coming here, and they’re not just Latino, they are Asian, they’re Russian, they’re everyone, and they are coming here illegally, therefore they are illegal aliens. I’m not a racist, I’m not trying to hurt anybody, I’m trying to tell the people the truth.”

If we allow the language to be changed because of intimidation or threats that we'll be called racists we lose the battle and eventually the war. Don't let it happen.

Political Quote of the Day

Brit Hume talks about Obama's silly campaign to influence the Supreme Court:

“I think it is damaging, particularly in regard to health care,” Hume said. “This is the centerpiece of his domestic agenda. It is his proudest achievement and if it is struck down by the Supreme Court, it then bears the stamp of illegitimacy. It is already unpopular. It would, I think, in the aftermath be more so.”

“And I think — I don’t think there is some pre-cushioned bank shot where people argue, ‘Well, it would take the issue off of the table and that would be good for him,’ and so forth. I don’t buy that. I think that the Arizona law may be in even more trouble with the court than the health care law. I don’t think it is as important, or is as essential as the health care law. But I don’t think it would help him either to have his position in the enforcement of the immigration laws resisted by the Supreme Court. It is embarrassing, and it also gives that Arizona law a kind of a boost in the public’s imagination.”

Obama grew up in Chicago politics where bullying is a way of getting things done. It won't work with The Supreme Court and it demeans the office.

The Wave of New Democrats Coming From Mexico Has Pretty Much Stopped

Bad news for the Democrats - that wave of new voters they're counting on has pretty much stopped (from Hot Air):

The largest wave of immigration in history from a single country to the United States has come to a standstill. After four decades that brought 12 million current immigrants—more than half of whom came illegally—the net migration flow from Mexico to the United States has stopped—and may have reversed, according to a new analysis by the Pew Hispanic Center of multiple government data sets from both countries.

The standstill appears to be the result of many factors, including the weakened U.S. job and housing construction markets, heightened border enforcement, a rise in deportations, the growing dangers associated with illegal border crossings, the long-term decline in Mexico’s birth rates and changing economic conditions in Mexico. …

And another thing, once they get here there's no guarantee they'll stay Democrats:

Democrats have counted Hispanics as a pivotal part of their coalition, but there’s no guarantee that as first-generation immigrants assimilate, they will remain reliable partisan voters. Indeed, a complementary Pew Hispanic Center study, released last month, showed immigrants becoming more Republican the longer they’ve been in this country — a similar narrative to other first-generation ethnic groups.

They're not stupid - the people that have come here from Mexico are coming for an opportunity at a better life by leaving a corrupt country. Once they get here and start learning about the corruption of the Democrat party, of course they're more likely to become Republicans.

Political Headline of the Day

This sort of says it all about the Dems' approach to the law:

Democrats plan bill to undo Arizona immigration law if it is upheld by court

Bottom line, if the Supreme Court gets the call right and upholds the Arizona immigration law the Dems will float a bill that can never pass in order to buy Latino votes. The fact the law is legal won't matter.

Justice Department Fights To Make Sure Voters Aren't Properly Identified in Texas

The Voting Rights Act strikes again:

The Justice Department's civil rights division has objected to the new photo ID requirement for voters in Texas, saying many Hispanic voters lack state-issued identification.

The department says the state has failed to show that the newly enacted law has neither a discriminatory purpose nor effect.

In a letter to Texas officials, the Justice Department says Hispanic voters in Texas are as much as 120 percent more likely than non-Hispanic voters to lack a driver's license or personal state-issued photo ID.

The Justice Department would have no authority over Texas elections if it wasn't for the Voting Rights Act. But 47 years after it was enacted the civil rights activists still operate as though Texas is a hellhole of discrimination, thus enabling them to use this bad law to control Texas elections (and elections in a number of other Southern states).

The repeal of the Voting Rights Act is long overdue. It's nothing but a tool of the left to promote election fraud and especially voting by illegal aliens.

Paging Marco Rubio....

A Fox News poll shows that Hispanics favor Obama 6-1 over any GOP opponent. However, that can be changed:

One area where Republicans could gain back ground among Latino voters is by the choice of Vice President. Almost one-third of Latino voters say that they would consider voting Republican if there were a Latino on the ticket.

No Republican (that I would vote for) will agree to extend amnesty to illegals, and that seems to be what a lot of Hispanics want. However, putting a qualified Hispanic on the ticket could take some of the emphasis off of immigration and return it to the economy and jobs where it belongs.

Swinging a chunk of the Hispanic vote could also swing the results in several states, like Florida, New Mexico, Nevada, and possibly a couple of others.  It would be a good move for the GOP.