Obama's Former Spokesman: Yep, This Is a Big Ol' Flip Flop

Freed from the constraints of having to torture the English language to justify Barack Obama’s actions, Jay Carney wound up telling some truth last night.

The president’s former spokesman appeared on CNN, and host Anderson Cooper did something that’s really unfair. He played clips of Obama’s previous statements denouncing what Obama did last night regarding immigration, and asked Carney to respond directly to them.

That didn’t leave Carney much wiggle room, and he admitted that Obama has committed a flip flop on immigration.

COOPER: “I just want to play again the president’s past comments on this because there is a stark distinction between what he said tonight and what he had said in the past. Let’s just look at some of his commentary.”
[clip starts]
OBAMA: “With respect to the notion that I can just suspend deportations through executive order, that’s just not the case.

…I can’t do it by myself. We are going to have to change the laws in Congress.

…The notion that somehow by myself I can go and do these things, it any just not true.

…What I have said is that there is a path to get this done. That’s through Congress.

…I’m the president of the United States. I’m not the emperor of the United States. My job is to execute laws that are passed.”
[clip ends]
COOPER: “So, I mean, other than his frustration, what has changed — constitution scholar. What changed to allow him to do this?”
CARNEY: “Here’s what I say. I think, If he could have the word back, the first clip where he talked about suspending deportations. That is literally what he is doing today. In, later — instances including when I was there he would speak carefully about what he could not do as president.”

Barack Obama has proven over and over again that he simply does not care and will not be bound by any of his previous statements. He does not care about lying, and cares even less when he is caught. Obama lied through his teeth when he promised that “If you like your healthcare/doctor, you can keep your healthcare/doctor.” He knew it was a lie at the time, and that his law would hurt the people he was lying to. But he lied anyway.

As the new Republican-controlled Congress and state governments grapple with Obama’s actions and consider what remedies they may deploy, it’s time to absorb one critical lesson. That lesson is: Never give the Democrats a nanometer, never mind an inch. The 1986 amnesty that President Reagan signed was controversial at the time, but it followed a true national debate on the matter and it depended on the Democrats following through on their obligation to increase border security. They reneged on that promise almost immediately. That fact is not finding its way into media reporting now. It ought to, because it explains much of the skepticism that many Americans have toward any alleged immigration reform now. Once bitten, twice shy, as the saying goes. In Obama’s case, it’s more than 30 times bitten, thanks to his unilateral re-writes of Obamacare for obviously political reasons.

But the 1986 amnesty law itself and the subsequent efforts to clean it up are being used, dishonestly and with malice in mind, to justify Obama’s action now. Republicans worked with Democrats on that law 28 years ago. The Democrats’ response ever since, and especially now, is to pocket what they gained, break their own promises, and give Republicans, American workers, and the rule of law a giant middle finger.