Are You An Obama Hater?

President Obama, in case you didn’t notice, is talking immigration reform again.

The Dude, admit it, is indefatigable.

Just last week I went all dizzy Miss Lizzie over Obama for taking the high road and refusing to release a Bin Laden shot-in-the-head photo. And also for being, you know, just an uncommonly wise son of a gun in general.

I was bludgeoned in the comments section, no surprise. Mostly I was called delusional, a depiction best to never confirm nor deny, lest evidence be brought.

I had no intention of climbing aboard the Obama love train again so soon, despite the temptation to offer up more red meat to haters. Banging on the same topic in quick succession can cause vertigo in readers.

Better to give the subject of President Obama a blow and address a topic of less consequence, like how the run-up to the NBA Finals is so much sweeter with Kobe Bryant, the undisputed girly-girl of basketball, out of the equation; or what we should read into the fact that HBO has been airing Lady Gaga’s Monster Ball Concert near 24/7?

But the recent stories about Obama (again) looking to find a path to citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants proved irresistible, mostly because it’s so puzzling. He just killed Osama. Obama’s poll numbers had a nice bounce. Why jump into this cauldron of red-hot hate?

Maybe, probably, likely, because this President’s favorite thing to do in life, besides posting up for a three in the White House gym, is to make sense of things that don’t make sense. And nothing in our immigration policy makes sense.

Obama wants to secure the borders, prosecute businesses that exploit undocumented workers, make sure the illegal pay taxes, a fine, learn English and undergo background checks. That’s the path.

Republicans say the borders are still not secure and that Obama is offering amnesty to criminals. They accuse him of talking about immigration to get the Latino vote.

Don’t hold your breath waiting for their alternative plan.

“E pluribus unum,” the President said the other day in El Paso. “Out of many, one. We define ourselves as a nation of immigrants—a nation that welcomes those willing to embrace America’s ideals… the Asian immigrants who made their way to California’s Angel Island. The German and Scandinavians who settled across the Midwest. The waves of Irish, and Italian, and Polish, and Russian, and Jewish immigrants who leaned against the railing to catch their first glimpse of the Statue of Liberty…“

He went on for a bit, building his case with this brushed up vintage Americana prose, and then he said, simply and plainly, immigration reform is going to get done.

Something about the way he said it, without bravado, that despite the long odds, you wouldn’t want to bet against it.

Tim Whitaker (twhitaker@mightywriters.org) is the executive director of Mighty Writers, a nonprofit program that inspires city kids to write.