MICHAELMICHELLE NEVER WENT , EITHER, DID SHE?
Obama did not go to the U.S.-Mexico border. And not only that — he thought the idea was stupid.
"This is not theater," Obama said. "I’m not interested in photo-ops."
The response was strong because the calls for him to visit the border were strong. Border-representing Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Tex.) said that Obama looked "aloof" by coming within a few hundred miles of the border without actually going there.
Like nothing else, showing up at the site of a humanitarian crisis makes the nation focus on it. Lots of people (the media included) were pretty slow to recognize what has happened at the border, and Congress was debating whether to grant Obama's $3.7 billion funding request to deal with the crisis.
An Obama visit to the border would certainly cast a spotlight and perhaps help force Congress to grant his request — and maybe even create a little more sense of urgency when it comes to passing immigration reform.
Obama seemed dismissive of the idea that being on the ground and seeing the situation firsthand would give him any additional insights. "Nothing has taken place down there that I'm not intimately aware of," he said.
But just hours earlier, Obama was talking up the importance of hearing directly from average people who were struggling. In fact, he visited Denver expressly to visit people who had written him letters — something he said was as important to his job as his daily national security briefing.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2014/07/10/why-obama-should-probably-visit-the-border/?utm_term=.479de1cacef0
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