The 80-20 Solution

Bill Hobbs seems to think that President Bush ought to take a stand against the Democrats and left leaning Republicans because there is absolutely nothing that those folks will ever find palatable coming from the mouth of Bush in the first place. These folks are intractible.

He has a point. No matter that the economy is humming along quite nicely, that the US has eliminated two totalitarian regimes and liberated 50 million people, and continues to oversee the transition to a democratic and representative government, this 20% will never approve of Bush's actions - instead carping on failures (seeing the trees and not the forest).

Dealing with the remaining 80% of the population not only marginalizes the hard left of the Democratic party, but one will find that consensus on issues ranging from immigration and the need to develop new energy sources within the US borders will be easier to attain.

This is one of those areas where reducing the problem, instead of enlarging it, may pay dividends.

President Bush has an oil background - and it's one that he is often forced to run away from because the hard left attacks him for being too cozy with the various companies and interests. Maybe it's time he uses that to his advantage.

Say that the Democrats and the hard left have this issue absolutely wrong and that even Ted Kennedy opposes having wind power in his own backyard - show that the Democrats are obstructionists and that he's going ahead and doing something about the problem. If he declares that the US should open up oil exploration in ANWR and areas along the Gulf Coast - including in waters off Florida, and then follows up with a clear and cogent defense of his actions, people will rally to his side on energy policy. Quite a few people note that his polling is tied to the perceived energy price spike. Breaking the logjam on that issue might not only improve his standing personally, but could help wean the US from foreign sources of oil that come from rogue regimes and bad actors (Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Sudan, Nigeria, etc.)

On immigration, Bush has a much harded time of it because he's not only trying to deal with the issue domestically, but has to try not to push Mexico into voting for socialists who could and would allign with Chavez in Venezuela. This could be one reason why he's not pushing for securing the border before dealing with the illegal aliens who are already in the country. However, it would be a mistake to not do more with the border fence and securing the border in some fashion. A lot of what is going on with the immigration debate is about symbols and language.

Much of this language can favor the Administration on this debate if it is used correctly. Most people want a secure border with Mexico, even if it means that people can freely enter the US after going through checkpoints. If the National Guard is sent to the border, and is tasked not with the job already assigned to ICE, but instead to build mile after mile of security fencing and installs new technologies to secure our Southern border, then we've gone a long way to improving our security. The devil is in the details with the border security package - and I still think it needs to come before dealing with those illegals already here in the states.