Forget President Obama’s prime-time address.
Carly Fiorina had his number on “Meet the Press” this past Sunday. And it tells you all you need to know about the failure of our press to hold the president to his own words that she was completely ignored.
Fiorina is the former Hewlett-Packard CEO who ran, unsuccessfully, in 2010 on the Republican ticket for the Senate seat held by California’s Barbara Boxer.
She brought up immigration in a discussion of how Republicans should react to a president behaving as if the walloping his agenda took at the elections earlier this month had never happened.
Fiorina pointed to the elephant in the room: For all the president’s big talk about how much he wants an immigration bill, whenever he’s had an opportunity to advance one, he’s either let it slide or worked behind the scenes to sabotage it.
Here’s how she put it: “He sunk comprehensive immigration reform in 2007. He did nothing to push forward immigration reform when he had the Senate, the House and the White House. He said in ’11 and ’12 he couldn’t do anything. And then he delayed his action for the elections. Unbelievable cynicism.”
Let’s take them one by one.
Still, he’s given a complete pass.
When Fiorina brought this up on “Meet the Press,” you’d think someone might say, “Now that’s interesting. Let’s talk for a minute about President Obama’s record instead of his rhetoric.”
Instead, NBC moderator Chuck Todd opted for the standard Beltway reaction when a conversation strays outside the accepted narratives: Nothing to see here, folks, move along.
It’s not hard to imagine both sides coming out of Thursday night’s announcement the worse. Far from showing himself in command, the president may end up only confirming his weakness if Republicans use the power of the purse to stymie this dubious order.
As for Republicans, it’s more than possible they win this standoff — but at the risk of becoming perceived as the anti-Latino party.
Whatever the harvest, we can be sure it will be bitter.
Someday, perhaps, the press may revisit the actual Obama record on immigration the way it has since revisited all those false promises that helped push ObamaCare over the finish line.
And if that day comes, the words “I want to work with both parties to pass a more permanent legislative solution” for immigration reform may come to rank right up there with “If you like your plan, you can keep it.”
In the meantime, Americans have been treated to another Obama speech.
And no one thinks to ask the obvious question his record on immigration raises: Apart from the parts designed to goad Republicans, does this president believe one word of what he’s telling us?
William McGurn is The Post’s Editorial Page editor.
