Harsh Conservative Reaction to the President's Speech

The reaction to the President's speech last night on immigration reform by many of the conservative blogosphere has been swift, harsh and blunt.

Many, many conservatives are very angry with the President for his speech last night. They feel that not only did he hold back from saying what they wanted him to say; build a fence, deport many illegals, etc., but that he has no intention of backing any of what he said up with actual action.

His deployment of National Guard troops is being seen as mainly a political ruse. And many conservatives feel that the President is attempting to run some sort of con game. We shall see.

Here are some reactions:

National Review's John Derbyshire

Got home, read speech. Total blather, and insincere and dishonest to boot. Tried to give impression the govt. has been struggling with the issue for years. In fact they have done next to nothing. Elaborate schemes for new kinds of immigration categories (there are a dozen or more already!) and employee-verification schemes, when we all know the federal govt. couldn't find its rear end with both hands. Complete gas. Nothing will come of this.
Demand clear, unequivocal action. Demand a wall. Anything less is smoke and fudge. The elites — Dem, GOP, Prez — are determined to pull a con job on us. Don't fall for it. Let's have something we can see, plain, clear, and indisputable. A wall! A wall!

Michelle Malkin

"Bush has lost touch with reality, arguing that guest worker/amnesty will reduce the incentive to cross the border...Too little, too late."

Hugh Hewitt

President Bush did exactly what he had to do tonight: Hit the middle, agreeing to the fence, to a large increase in Border Patrol personnel and funding, tamper-proof identification, National Guard back-up of ICE for at least a year, the end of catch-and-release, blunt talk on the impossibility of mass deportation, an insistence on English, and a commitment to a guest worker program that will take pressure off enforcement by funneling large numbers of immigrant workers into the legal line.


Now the Senate needs to add specifics (especially on the fence) and get to the conference committee asap. There is no excuse for delay.


UPDATE: My interview with Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Julie Myers staggered me, undoing in a handful of minutes my confidence in the president's commitment to border security first. Either the president's team had not communicated effectively with sub-cabinet appointees about the fence, or the president doesn't really believe in the fence, because Assistant Secretary Myers is clearly not a proponent of the fence.

Washington Post "One Nation"

However, as you can see in that last article by the Wash. Post, there are some conservatives who are thinking positive things about this speech. Overall, people are still optimistic about our country, however many of them do not think that the president is going to do what it takes to secure our border and protect our country.