Should Obama just issue those executive orders?
by digby
Brian Beutler makes a good point about the administration's apparent decision to put off its immigration executive orders until after the election:
The political drawbacks of immediate action are overstated. The best political argument I can think of for waiting until after the midterms is that it’d place immigration and deportation right back at the center of the national policy debate just as the political media turns its exclusive attention to the 2016 election and the GOP primary. But Republican presidential hopefuls are making disqualifying statements about immigration right now, all on their own, and will continue to do so whether Obama acts in the fall or in the winter.
Beutler thinks the administration should just do it now and I think he's probably right that doing it earlier rather than later won't make a difference. But that means that it is also unlikely to help, which greatly influences such a decision in the September before an election. (I also can see the logic in saying, "for a couple of months difference, why take the chance?") In any case, I can understand why the administration would not want to be blamed, rightly or wrongly, for the loss of the Senate because they refused to hold off on some executive orders until after the election.
There are only two months to go. As long as they do issue the orders soon after the election it's hard to see it as a serious betrayal. As long as they do issue those orders ....