President Obama spoke to his Latino base yesterday in El Paso, Texas and mocked the Republicans for asking for greater border security before tackling immigration reform. In what has become a typical Obama rhetorical twist he chided his opponents by saying, "Maybe they'll need a moat. Maybe they'll want alligators in the moat [to stop illegal immigration]." Now, I could be wrong (as I have occasionally been in the past), but being snide does not come across as being presidential. Jibing your opponents may be a self-satisfying strategy when you are way ahead on the scoreboard. But, if Obama wants to work with these same people sometime to get reasonable immigration reform accomplished, I doubt that such banal tactics will work when the game is tied.
