Houston Of course Governor Brewer (R-AZ) wanted a meeting with the President at the White House. Her agenda was clear: she needed cover for the racist bill she had signed while steadily trying to put lipstick on the pig. She needed Obama to allow her to say she was putting Arizona first, but “protecting” the country through her foolish and cowardly acts as governor. All of that’s easy to understand, but here’s the hard one: what did Obama have to gain from this meeting and why did he wimp out so badly on the immigration issue? Was this a bad day or just another hugely bad play? Was he distracted by the first Celtics vs Lakers game being played later? WTF?

He seems to have told her more about the troops and maybe (according to Ms. Self-Serving) have promised her that the majority of the 1200 National Guard troops would be along the Arizona border. He seems to have stayed with the bad message line that he is doing more to secure the borders. When it came to suing her and everyone else with their hands around the throats of any Arizona resident with even a good tan, he seems to have said he’s leaving that the Justice Department to figure out. When he really got hard on her, Obama seems to have said that he was sending “federal officials” down to the desert to “dialogue” with Arizona officials about the law. I know this wasn’t a threat, and who even cares if it was a promise. It certainly was not an example of an exercise of the art of Presidential power!

I live in Louisiana, so I know the President is drowning in his own private Katrina with oil up to his ass (though this is another case study in the flacid and flabby exercise of Presidential power as well (when are we going to ask Napolitano to resign and when are we going to chant with Carville “whose your daddy” to BP?!?), but of all of the contradictory signals Obama has sent about immigration, playing footsie with Governor Brewer in his own house, has to be in the running for the worst of the lot.