Bush's Political Capital

Instapundit thinks President Bush as squandered the last of his political capital on immigration. The immigration fight appears to be the last straw for many conservatives , and those that have not already deserted him, are on their way out. Many of the freshman Democrats are more of the conservative "blue dog" variety -- Senator Webb for example is more of an old time populist/economic nationalist and has little in common with the latte drinking yuppie liberals who dominate the Democrats today. They will not support this bill. But the real question should be did President Bush have any political capital left at all?

President Bush has thrown out a Hail Mary to try and salvage some legacy, and it looks like it will fail. The bill is extremely unpopular and even though I support it I can understand why. If you are a conservative, do you trust this president to follow up on the promised enforcement. Most likely the next president is a Democrat. If it turns out to be a liberal such as Obama or Edwards, will there be the follow through on enforcement? And if it is Hillary Clinton, considering that the Clinton years saw an explosion in the number of illegal immigrants, can she be trusted with enforcement?

For many conservatives, the answer seems to be no -- they believe that enforcement will not occur tomorrow, so they are refusing to support amnesty today.

And Bush has gotten very little for his gamble. The Democrats will not support him on Iraq of course and some Democrats are now calling for a withdrawal from Afghanistan. Considering that Karl Rove is supposed to be some sort of super genius, one wonders if Bush was just lucky for all this time. The tone deafness, even to his own base, continues to be extraordinary.