Romney Camp’s Honest Implosion On Immigration

By Victor Landa, NewsTaco

You know that feeling when you’re at the movies, watching the trailers before the feature and you go through a mental check list: “I’d pay money to see that,” “that’s gonna be a good movie,” “pass,” “wait for DVD…”  I got that same feeling reading the avalanche of stories, opinion and analysis this morning regarding Bettina Inclan’s face-splat stumble at an RNC news conference.

In case you missed it: Inclan is the Republican National Comittee’s Hispanic Outreach director, and yesterday she unveiled what was supposed to be her party’s Latino surge. BuzzFeed Politics reports that the RNC folks present at the press conference admitted to an uphill climb to reach Latinos in the months to come. Then…

But while the team of swing-state outreach coordinators — six in all — talked up their social media efforts and economic message, Inclan seemed to hint that they had a blind spot on one of the most crucial issues for the Hispanic community: Mitt Romney’s position on immigration.

“I think as a candidate, to my understanding, he’s still deciding what his position on immigration is. I can’t talk about what his position is going to be,” Inclan said.

That’s what happened, and that’s what has the punditsphere aflutter. And I can’t muster a wide enough slice of my attention span to get worked up about it.

Inclan’s comment was the most honest and most refreshing political statement I’ve heard about the immigration issue in months. It’s the most accurate reflection of the all-but-anointed GOP presidential candidate’s position on immigration. Even Romney himself hasn’t been so on-point: he dithers, says one thing in English and another in Spanish, floats ideas like self-deportation…

What was Inclan supposed to do?

When my kids were little I’d take them to the movies and when the Columbia Pictures lady would fill the screen at the beginning I’d say, “oh I already saw this one.” The kids would giggle and roll their eyes. That’s what this is like. I’ve already seen this one. And like the trailers and my mental check list, I know how this is going to end.

It’s too easy to take pot-shots at Romney “still deciding what his position on immigration is.” Not that it’s important or anything. Not that he says, in Spanish, that he holds Latinos in high regard – so much so that he’s dragging his feet on immigration (that’s what he says now, in English, to a Latino audience, after sounding like an immigration hawk to a different English audience in months past).

I just can’t get my dander up over this. Think about it: Romney isn’t even an official nominee yet and he’s tossing around the immigration wedge like he just got it out of the microwave, piping hot. Then he tosses it to Inclan who puts it down, as is. So there it is, uncovered for the folly it’s been all along.

I’ll be interested to see Romney explain his way out of this one.

This thing is so full of holes it’s going to collapse under its own weight, so I’ll just wait for the DVD.