THAT WOULD BE THE ELEPHANT'S TAIL:

On immigration, Obama is bound by race and politics: His image depends on a racial identity even it downplays it. Which makes confronting immigration problematic (Richard Benjamin, 5/22/10, Salon)

With his crammed domestic agenda and teetering approval ratings, President Obama is moseying away from immigration reform before the midterm elections. Even as he denounces Arizona's drastic new measure, law-professor-style, the president is sending mixed signals. In an episode still rankling Latino advocates, the president recently declared that Congress might not have the "appetite" to push for reform — just as Democratic senators were poised to roll out … a reform agenda.

Further clouding Obama's message is the fact that more immigrants were deported during his first year in office — more than 388,000 — than any other year in the republic’s history. To progressives, the president’s apparent "security first" approach makes it seem as though he's trying to appease conservatives at the expense of Latinos.

The big elephant in the room, one that Democrats and the media willfully ignore, is race. Not the race of immigrants — the race of the president.

The UR is purposelessly and sufficiently opaque that we can't draw any firm conclusions about his views on race, but a story that pretends to be discussing hidden racial themes that specifically arise when a black politician deals with the immigration question really ought to note the tension between blacks and the Latinos who they see supplanting them as the country's largest and most powerful "minority."

Posted by Orrin Judd at May 22, 2010 8:49 PM