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Probably not. This country already has enough problems already.
Not unless Obama want's to forfeit any chance of being elected to a second term.
He pretty much already has.
Where is papadawg on this one?!?!
Other than the part that there's nobody in the field yet that could win (the generic polyglot GOP candidate with the combined strengths and none of the weaknesses only possible in the imagination rather than in reality could, but none of the current actual people have a shot), yes, I agree.
At the moment, I don't see how he doesn't get a second term. I can think of people I'd prefer to see in office of course. But they're extremely unlikely to win the GOP nomination and thus to defeat Obama in the single combat that passes for elections in this country.
I'm not sure how this issue would do much damage in truth. The main element he needs to resolve for 2012 is flagging progressive support. Unions may be less supportive than they were in 2008 if he makes a more pro-immigration stance, but they're certainly not likely to move to any Republicans either. In reality the best approach would be to push for a general immigration reform and to ignore the state laws that are passed until that is passed at a national level. Something like auctioning off the visas in a cap-trade like setup I could get behind as a compromise to the people who are somewhat less supportive of immigration per se than I am. I don't think that's what will come of any attempt at immigration reform of course (I'm quite convinced it would be an extremely ugly bill). Nor do I think anything that emerges would remotely resemble the laws and attempts made by Arizona (or Nebraska and others) and thus satisfy the calls to action those states are demanding. Not in the slightest.
But I do think addressing the issue at all, much as Bush calculated and was defeated by his base for doing so, could help mollify Hispanic voters in particular (plus Asians, who make up about a quarter of the immigration pile). I think increasing his base of support cancels out the loss of a few quasi-moderate voters who were probably not voting for a Democrat anyway (and were probably already voting in a motivated anti-Obama fashion). So the calculus still doesn't look very bad for him to address what appear to be draconian tactics on the state level, at least if he pairs it with national level reform of any kind.