President Obama had millions of people to select from in choosing a head of Homeland Security.
He chose Janet Napolitano, pulling her from her position as governor of Arizona. That put Republican Janice Brewer in Napolitan's place, as AZ Governor.
Brewer signed the hateful new immigration legislation into law.
NPR's John B. Judis writes, "The bill might not have become law if Democrat Janet Napolitano had still been governor. Napolitano vetoed similar measures. And Arizona's Latino community hoped that Brewer, who replaced Napolitano, would veto it."
Obama not only set up the circumstances so a bill like this could pass, he set up Brewer to be an incumbent with an edge in the next election. Of course, Obama didn't do it alone. John Podesta, his transition director probably had a hand, as did his closest advisors.
Every decision has consequences. Obama took a gamble appointing Napolitano. Maybe he owed her a favor. It doesn't matter. The decision he made contributed to the passage of this bill. Who knows whether this bill be inspire copycats in other states? Sometimes a small step, what seems like a discrete, isolated decision has extended consequences. This is one of those cases.
He chose Janet Napolitano, pulling her from her position as governor of Arizona. That put Republican Janice Brewer in Napolitan's place, as AZ Governor.
Brewer signed the hateful new immigration legislation into law.
NPR's John B. Judis writes, "The bill might not have become law if Democrat Janet Napolitano had still been governor. Napolitano vetoed similar measures. And Arizona's Latino community hoped that Brewer, who replaced Napolitano, would veto it."
Every decision has consequences. Obama took a gamble appointing Napolitano. Maybe he owed her a favor. It doesn't matter. The decision he made contributed to the passage of this bill. Who knows whether this bill be inspire copycats in other states? Sometimes a small step, what seems like a discrete, isolated decision has extended consequences. This is one of those cases.
update: I added this note in today's daily newsletter.
I am an eternal optimist, and I'm into positive psychology and positivity. It drives some of the people in my life crazy, the way I always try to see positives in things, the way I frame things positively. That applies to Obama too. Though I am profoundly disappointed with him so far, I still hold on to some hope that he will wake up and take the power we gave him and start doing real good, instead of selling out to corpos and banksters as he's done. And I'll call it for what it is when it comes to his role in enabling the racial profiling hate law that would not have passed if he hadn't appointed Janet Napolitano, vacating her seat and giving it to a republican.
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