Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer has released the letter she handed to President Obama in Phoenix Thursday.
The letter says in part:
“You’ve arrived in a state at the forefront of America’s recovery — and her future,” she wrote. “We both love this great country, but we fundamentally disagree on how to best make America grow and prosper once again. I’d love an opportunity to share with you how we’ve been able to turn Arizona around with hard choices that turned out to be the right ones. And, of course, my offer to visit the border — and buy lunch — still stands.”
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As has become typical when a red state governor gets into a confrontation with Obama, the state’s Democrats want Brewer to apologize for the finger-wagging rather than standing with the leaders and interests of their own state. Texas Democrats consistently stand with Obama and against the voters and leaders here, and that’s one reason Democrats can’t win anything significant. The AZ GOP should have an easy time depicting the state’s Democrats as out of touch with state after this. It’s possible though that Obama sparked the confrontation intentionally to court Hispanic voters angry with Brewer over Arizona’s immigration law. Liberal Jonathan Chait suspects as much, and so do I. Brewer wins with the GOP base for the confrontation, and Obama scores points with his base for taking a governor that they hate. Both have reasons to frame that now famous photo.
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