What certain people don't get is that politics is about building coalitions, not appeasing the MSM. Every successful political movement in this country was built through building coalitions and reaching out to different groups that shared similar objectives. Deals were made. Not everyone was happy, but that's a fact of life in politics. Purity contests are a sure way to break up any coalition.
Lincoln was one of the greatest Presidents in US history. He held the country together when it threatened to break up during the Civil War. But you would not have known it from reading the papers of the day. They figuratively tarred and feathered him. They were just like certain Republicans today towards Obama -- it didn't matter what Lincoln did, it was never good enough for the MSM. And yet he won reelection handily.
Roosevelt was another example. He was also one of the greatest Presidents in US history. He brought the country out of the Great Depression and led us to victory in World War II. But you would not have known it from reading the MSM of his day. They were running front page editorials claiming that he stood for unconstitutional government and all but demanding his impeachment and removal from office.
And do you think that the Civil Rights Movement was caused by the MSM suddenly starting to care about Blacks? No; after Jim Crow became the law of the land, it took nearly 100 years of organizing, ideas, and lawsuits before it was finally abolished. And it took decades before all of a sudden Civil Rights hit the front pages of the MSM. It didn't happen because the NAACP, Martin Luther King, and the other civil rights groups all of a sudden figured out what would appease the MSM.
By way of contrast, John McCain was a darling of the media. He was a regular guest on the Sunday talk shows, and he was so well-liked by that crowd that they were tacitly rooting for him throughout his failed 2008 campaign. In fact, one of their most favorite phrases was, "...and that's good news for John McCain..." But he lost by a landslide because his views on foreign policy, like attacking Iran and perpetual warfare in Iraq, were too radical and outside the mainstream of political thought. And he did not have the temperament to handle a major crisis as evidenced by how he tried to tank the meeting on the international financial crisis that broke right in the middle of the campaign instead of working constructively to try to solve it.
The fact that 1200 immigration detainees are on hunger strike in Washington should tell Obama that he has a serious problem on his hands if he wants to win this next election. The Latinos are reliable Democratic voters. They were open to voting Republican while Bush was in power, but they turned on the GOP once they tried to pass a mean-spirited bill, with the support of President Bush, that would have made it a felony to assist illegal immigrants. They are why certain parts of the West are now in play that were not just 20 years ago. Yet Obama refuses to end deportations in order to raise the heat on the GOP to pass immigration reform.
Politics is about give and take. If Obama does not think that ending deportations is expedient, the least he can do is get rid of the deportation quota system that carries a serious risk of deporting people that are legally here in this country. And the least he can do is meet regularly with coalition partners -- like women's groups, Blacks, civil libertarians, environmentalists, LGBT, La Raza, Native American groups, and others -- and touch base with them regularly. To his credit, Obama did meet with a group of women legislators yesterday. In one of his books, Tip O'Neill said that one of the basic rules of politics is to always ask people for your vote, even if you think you have it. Even if they are totally on board with what you are trying to do, people want to be asked. To do otherwise means that you don't think they are important anymore. We have seen this phenomena at work in the sales business as well. He would know -- he helped end the GOP stranglehold on Massachusetts politics.
It is embarrassing that 50 years after the Civil Rights Act was signed, people are still being treated like cattle in this country. President Obama promised that this would be a year of action. He needs to follow through with that promise when it comes to immigration.