Defeat is victory: Rubio's immigration reform plan

By Mustang Bobby 

Greg Sargent had a piece up the other day about Sen. Marco Rubio's plan to frame the immigration reform debate in purely win/lose-for-the-GOP terms:

So how can Republicans who want immigration reform get conservatives to accept it, given that Obama also wants it?

Republicans pushing for reform have come up with a strategic answer to that question, one that isn't really acknowledged openly. They are subtly making the case to their base that a defeat for immigration reform is actually a hidden victory for Obama, and that passing the Senate compromise is actually worse for the President than the alternative, i.e. doing nothing.

In other words, putting the immigration bill in terms that the Republicans can understand — what can we do today to destroy Barack Obama? — they make it an easy proposition. So pass the Gang of Eight proposal that the president backs and we've actually made things worse for him. That's all that matters anyway.

It's like the country is being run by eighth-graders.

(Cross-posted at Bark Bark Woof Woof.)