Thursday, November 15, 2007

Is That A Bit Of Leadership I Smell?

Yesterday we saw Spitzer bow to the local, state and national pressure to abandon giving drivers licenses to illegal immigrants. Not only did he take heat, but Senator Clinton did as well for not giving a straight answer until she could follow Eliot's lead. No one is particularly surprised at her actions because she is a follower. A follower of others, polls and focus groups. Now for Barack, he is a contradiction of sorts. He stumbles here and there, follows others here and there, but sometimes he'll actually take a stand, and he's doing it on this controversial issue.

From The Huffington Post:

Sen. Barack Obama, D-Il, is standing by his support for granting driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants, even after Gov. Eliot Spitzer, D-NY, abandoned the proposal amidst rising political opposition.

"Obama said in the debate he supported it and he's standing by it," an aide to the Senator told the Huffington Post. "He supported a similar bill in the state senate as a law enforcement measure."

Obama's backing stands in stark contrast to the position taken by Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, whose campaign now cites the issue as a basic policy difference between the two Democratic frontrunners.


Is it the right move, the wrong move, who cares, at least it is his stand and he's sticking to it. All along I've supported the plan, I'd rather people who are going to drive anyway have some preparation to be out on the roads. Sometimes you need to put your xenophobia to the side to make way for common sense. I'm glad to see that Obama sees it that way too.