Here are a few real zingers against Obama

Charles Krauthammer in the Washington Post:

“The [border] fence is now basically complete,” asserted the president. Complete? There are now 350 miles of pedestrian fencing along the Mexican border. The border is 1,954 miles long. That’s 18 percent. And only one-tenth of that 18 percent is the double and triple fencing that has proved so remarkably effective in, for example, the Yuma sector. Another 299 miles — 15 percent — are vehicle barriers that pedestrians can walk right through.

Obama then boasted that on his watch 31 percent more drugs have been seized, 64 percent more weapons — proof of how he has secured the border. And for more proof: Apprehension of illegal immigrants is down 40 percent. Down? Indeed, says Obama, this means that fewer people are trying to cross the border.

Interesting logic. Seizures of drugs and guns go up — proof of effective border control. Seizures of people go down — yet more proof of effective border control. Up or down, it matters not. Whatever the numbers, Obama vindicates himself.

You can believe this flimflam or you can believe the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office. The GAO reported in February that less than half the border is under “operational control” of the government. Which undermines the entire premise of Obama’s charge that, because the border is effectively secure, “Republicans who said they supported broader reform as long as we got serious about enforcement” didn’t really mean it. . . .

From Steve Huntley at the Chicago Sun-Times:

Someone seeking to build bridges wouldn’t ridicule the other side as Obama did in mocking Republicans as maybe wanting “alligators in the moat” along the U.S. border. That kind of derision certainly wasn’t in keeping with his 2008 campaign pledge to walk the nation back from the divisive politics of the past.

No, Obama was out to paint the GOP as a foe to immigration reform because of its stance that border security must come before a plan to resolve the status of 11 million illegal immigrants, a position not foreign to millions of voters of both parties.

Self-interest might inspire Hispanic voters to wonder why Obama squandered nearly two years of a 60-vote, filibuster-proof Democratic majority in the Senate in failing to push reform if this were such a vital interest to the administration. Could it be that immigration reform works better for Democrats as a campaign issue than it would as a legislative accomplishment? . . .