Campaign News

Romney Declines To Say Whether He Will Overturn New Obama Deportation Policy Mitt Romney's replies to questions regarding President Obama's new deportation policy drew by far more coverage than the rest of his Saturday interview shown on CBS' Face The Nation Sunday. The CBS Evening News reported that Romney "criticized President Obama's decision on Friday to let young undocumented immigrants stay in the US, but...did not say whether he would repeal that."
Romney's perceived failure to offer a clear statement regarding his position on the deportation of illegal immigrants who entered the country as minors is widely described as evidence that he is taking a more moderate course on immigration policy than he did before clinching the GOP nomination. For instance, ABC World News said that in the GOP debates, Romney said "people here illegally should go home and get in the back of the line like everyone else," but now he is also "calling for a long term solution for the children brought here by their parents." David Plouffe was shown saying, "It's ironic coming from Governor Romney, who said he would veto the Dream Act, whose immigration policy during the primary seemed to consist of just sending 11 million people home, asking them to self-deport."
Also on ABC World News, Matthew Dowd said, "What we've seen now is the difference between what it was like for [Romney] to run in the primaries to get votes from conservatives, who were for building a wall, and now we're seeing what it takes in order to win Latino votes. ... And that's why you've seen him be very reluctant to come totally against the President."
The Washington Post headlines its Romney coverage "Romney Knocks Obama's Immigration Move But Struggles To Offer An Alternative Plan," and reports that Romney "criticized" the President's "decision to stop deporting some illegal immigrants who were brought to the United States as children as an election-year political move, but he repeatedly declined...to lay out an alternative plan."
Plouffe, appearing on NBC's Meet The Press, insisted that the President's shift "wasn't about politics," and, instead, it was actually a "decision made by the Homeland Security Department to allow them the discretion to focus our enforcement on criminals, people who pose danger to the communities." Plouffe added, "That's really where the law enforcement focus should be. ... Obviously deportations are up. We're doing a terrific job on the border."
Plouffe, on Fox News Sunday, added, "The President can't change the law on his own. This is not a permanent fix. This was prosecutorial discretion announced by the Department of Homeland Security, not a change in the law. So, this is going to allow our law enforcement agencies to focus on deporting criminals -- that's up 80%, by the way."
The Washington Post notes that Sen. Marco Rubio "has been trying to draft compromise legislation for young immigrants," but Romney "largely has been standoffish, declining to take a position on the outlines Rubio has described."
However, Politico reported that on Friday, Romney said he "supports...Rubio's proposal." Politico quoted Romney as saying, "This is something Congress has been working on, and I thought we were about to see some proposals brought forward by Sen. Marco Rubio and by Democrat senators, but the president jumped in and said, 'I'm going to take this action.'"
Other Conservatives Object To Bypassing Congress Sen. John McCain, on NBC's Meet The Press, commented that "the thing that may disturb people after the initial euphoria is over about this is that the President of the United States is now dictating that certain laws will not be enforced. That is a rather serious step. It's one thing to say you're not going to challenge a law in court, or something like that. But I don't recall a time when any President has basically said, we're not going to enforce a law that's on the books."
Sen. Lindsey Graham said on CBS' Face The Nation, "I think it's pretty clear that there are 10 million illegal immigrants not affected by this. What about them? I don't think it's a brilliant move when the President of the United States tells a federal agency, stop enforcing the law. I can't ever remember that happening, and that's what they're doing. They're just stopping enforcing the law."
Rick Santorum, on CNN's State Of The Union, "My father was an immigrant to this country. I am very pro-immigration. I don't like a lot of the rhetoric and tone that I hear from some on our side with respect to immigrants and even the issue of illegal immigration. Having said that, it is illegal."
Karl Rove said on Fox News Sunday, "I appreciate President Obama continuing the Bush-era policies of prioritizing investigations and removals of criminals, criminal aliens. But we examined these questions significantly during the Bush years and concluded we had no statutory authority to offer in essence a blanket exemption from deportation without a change in the law. And this is what troubles me."

Romney, Boehner Stump Together In Ohio Politico reports that, making "their first public appearance on the campaign trail" yesterday, Mitt Romney and House Speaker John Boehner "shared a burger" during a stop in Troy, Ohio. With Romney in the midst of a bus tour of several swing states, the pair "appeared together at K's, a local haunt in Boehner's western Ohio district." While stumping together, Boehner "praised Romney's business background," saying, "Before I got into this crazy business, I ran a small business just like Rob Portman did and just like Mitt Romney did. We understand how the economy works and we understand what it's going to take to get the American people back to work."
USA Today reports that yesterday in Ohio, Romney told "crowds in three small towns that President Obama's policies have hurt the economy and slowed job growth." For example, "during a stop in Brunswick," Romney said of Obama, "He wants you to think that somehow he made things better. There's a way for you to find out who is telling the truth -- one is to look at the record of the last 3½ years."

Washington News

Supreme Court Ruling On Affordable Care Act Could Come As Early As Today The Christian Science Monitor reports, "The political world is on pins and needles, waiting for the Supreme Court to hand down its ruling on President Obama's sweeping reform of the health-insurance system. A decision could come as early as Monday. ... Publicly, Mr. Obama and his surrogates express confidence that the court will uphold the Affordable Care Act. Implementation is proceeding on schedule, they say."
David Plouffe said on ABC's This Week, "We do believe it's constitutional, and we hope and expect that's the decision the court will render. I'm not going to get into any contingencies. We obviously will be prepared for whatever decision the court renders. I do think that it's important to focus on what the healthcare law is already doing. We just saw a report this week that now 5.5 million people between the ages of 18 and 26 are able to stay on their parents' plan, millions of seniors saving thousands of dollars in prescription drugs, free preventive care, free mammography for folks. So this is making a big difference."
Sen. John Barrasso (R) said on CNN's State Of The Union, "I believe that this is unconstitutional and I believe there is going to be a stinging rebuke of this president's centerpiece legislation when the Supreme Court rules later this month, and they should rule that this is unconstitutional. If not, the Republicans want to repeal everything that is left standing. ... The whole goal of healthcare reform was to get patients to get the care that they need from a doctor they choose at lower costs. This healthcare law did nothing to deal with the fundamental problem, which is the cost of care."
Tom Daschle writes in Politico , "It appears that the argument used by many opponents of the act -- if we can mandate insurance, we can mandate broccoli -- has gained amazing traction." But "we already compel all Americans to make purchases with or without their personal consent," such as "retirement insurance through the Social Security program" and "hospital insurance through Medicare Part A. So far, not one member of Congress has had the temerity to suggest we extend that practice to broccoli."
Romney Says Health Insurance Mandates Unconstitutional "Federally" Asked on CBS' Face The Nation about the difference between the Affordable Care Act's health insurance mandate and the mandate he spearheaded in Massachusetts, Mitt Romney said, "I think federally it's unconstitutional. ... States have, under their constitutions, the right to require people to either go to school or get auto insurance or, in this case, to get health insurance. We created a solution [in Massachusetts]. ... We worked collaboratively. The President instead, on a very partisan basis, jammed through a bill, didn't get a single Republican vote."

Obama To Urge European Action On Debt Crisis The CBS Evening News reported that world leaders are "gathering in Los Cabos, Mexico for the G-20 summits." CBS (O'Donnell) added, "White House officials are trying to downplay expectations for any surprise solution to come out of this meeting from leaders of the 20 most powerful economies in the world. What they hope instead is that this summit is a catalyst for action, for a meeting that's in your two weeks from now. The Obama Administration has said this Eurozone crisis a European problem and that they have the capacity to solve it. But behind the scenes, they are deeply worried. We've learned the Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is spending a majority of his time on this now."
Reuters reports that during a two-day summit of G20 leaders in Mexico this week, Obama will urge European leaders to fix their debt crisis, White House senior adviser David Plouffe said on ABC's This Week. Plouffe said, "We're going to continue to make the case," adding, "There will be progress made over the next couple days, but no one should expect a firm resolution."
The Washington Post says the President's effort "to contain the European debt crisis is taking on greater economic and political urgency as Europe emerges as the greatest threat to the faltering US recovery and, potentially, a significant hurdle to his reelection prospects." The Post adds, "Obama's ability to speak frankly about the European crisis is complicated by his dual roles of chief executive and candidate." While it would "suit Obama's political message to convey sharply to European leaders what he believes they should do to shore up their economies," it "would be awkward for him to engage in a public debate with allies over how to solve their problems. And diplomatically, if the American president is seen lecturing Europeans on what course to take, it could produce the opposite effect."
Analysis: World Events Could Hinder Obama Reelection Efforts A front page story in the New York Times reports that "the world does not seem to be cooperating all that much with" President Obama's reelection efforts. As he left for the G20 meeting in Mexico, "the daunting array of overseas issues underscored the challenges for an incumbent who is trying to manage global affairs while arguing a case for re-election. Although American voters are not particularly focused on foreign policy in a time of economic trouble, the rest of the world has a way of occupying a president's time and intruding on his best-laid campaign plans."
Plouffe Says It Is In US Interests For European Situation To Stabilize David Plouffe said on NBC's Meet The Press (6/17, Gregory), "The European leaders are going to get together at the end of June. We believe firmly that this is in the European's capacity to stabilize the situation. We have some experience with this. We did some hard and tough things during our recession in our financial crisis. So obviously we need Europe as a source of obviously a lot of our exports. It affected the global economy. And I think for the health of our middle class and the health of our economy we need to have that situation stabilized."

Obama To Meet Putin At G-20 Summit The Wall Street Journal notes that in addition to the European crisis, President Obama will face another foreign policy challenge when he meets Russian President Vladimir Putin at the summit Monday. Obama is attempting to convince Russia to help stop the ongoing violence in Syria. The Journal notes that the Administration has been urging Russia to participate in a diplomatic process that would ultimately result in the removal of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and a transition to democracy in Syria. Putin has not indicated any interest in seeing Assad removed from power.
Politico reports that Obama and Putin "will be under huge pressure to demonstrate strength to voters back home." Politico notes that while not "a lot of diplomatic progress is expected in what's likely to be one of Obama's last major international meetings before November," even "the slightest hint that he isn't being tough enough carries political risk."
The Washington Times reports that the fall of Assad would result in Russia losing "a source of revenue and a Middle East power base," and notes that those are "two reasons why Moscow has armed the regime and blocked votes to let the United Nations punish Damascus." Russia "views Syria as its stage from which to influence military, political and energy policies in the Middle East, including Israeli negotiations with its Arab neighbors and Iran's nuclear ambitions." The Times adds, "If Mr. Assad goes and a pro-Western government takes over, the theocracy in Iran could fall next, leaving Russia in its quest to become a world power without a true partner in a strategically important region."
WPost Urges Congress To Send A Message To Putin An editorial in the Washington Post says Obama's hopes of "forging a partnership" with Putin "appear to be fading fast" as Russia "is rebuffing US appeals for cooperation in stopping the massacres in Syria, while continuing to supply the regime of Bashar al-Assad with weapons," and the Kremlin "is cracking down on Russians seeking democratic reform or fighting corruption." The Post calls on Congress to send "Putin and his cadres the message that their lawless behavior will have consequences" by coupling the repeal of Jackson-Vanik with the Magnitsky act.