Frank James

It's a given of American politics. The president and political party that can achieve immigration reform, or at the very least appear to be trying hard to do so, are likely to gain the loyalty of voters with ties to recent-immigrant communities.

Also, it's clearly not sustainable for the U.S. to have relatively poor control of its borders and an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants living in the shadows.

That's the backdrop for President Obama's visit to the U.S.-Mexico border Tuesday, El Paso, Tex. specifically, to talk immigration reform.

The posturing between Republicans and Democrats over raising the debt ceiling continued apace Monday.

Excerpts released late in the day of what was being billed as a major policy speech by Speaker John Boehner at the Economic Club of New York Monday evening revealed a fairly hardline position likely to resonate with the Tea Party movement segment of the party but leave Democrats cold.

Boehner will say, for instance, that while not raising the debt ceiling would be "irresponsible," even more irresponsible would be to not make real cuts in federal spending.

It looks like Newt Gingrich has decided to ignore the advice of conservative columnist John Podhoretz that he shouldn't run for the White House.

The conventional wisdom on Jon Huntsman, former U.S. ambassador to China and ex-Utah governor, is that if he should announce a run for the Republican presidential nomination, his candidacy would readily be sunk by the WOE (Was Obama's Emissary) factor.

According to the same thinking, complimentary things Huntsman said about the president, and vice versa, would disqualify him in the eyes of enough GOP primary and caucus voters to prevent him from getting the 2012 nomination. The Obama re-election campaign certainly hopes that's the dynamic.

Now I don't feel so badly.

I missed the first Republican presidential debate of the election cycle because of other responsibilities.

And I apparently was in good company. CBS News' Hotsheet blog reported that Speaker John Boehner also missed the debate co-sponsored by Fox News Channel and the South Carolina Republican Party.

If President Obama could send Navy SEAL commandos into action to find, say, a six percent jobless rate the way they cornered Osama bin Laden, Democrats might feel a lot more confidence about the 2012 election landscape than they do.

But, alas, even Navy SEALs have limits.

The Labor Department reported Friday what should have been the unabashed good news that the economy had an unexpectedly large net gain of 244,000 jobs in April.

When President Obama decided to make public a copy of his actual birth certificate, some people thought it was a mistake for him to do so, that he was needlessly dignifying those on the fringe who doubted he was born in Hawaii.

Looks like the president's political instincts were solid.

Would Americans be willing to pay a tax based on the mileage they drive with the money raised going to fix the nation's highways and bridges?

Maybe. Then again, anyone who knows how Americans feel about their cars and and how important getting out on the open road is to so many of us can be excused for having doubts.

Still, the federal gas tax isn't raising enough money. First, the 18.4 cents a gallon tax hasn't been raised since 1993. That isn't a typo.

Looks like billionaire David Koch is getting himself psyched up for the 2012 general election.

Associated Press and Reuters photographers are pretty much everywhere news occurs, be it war zones, Super Bowls and the myriad of lesser events that are soon forgotten.

But they apparently won't be at Thursday night's Greenville, SC debate between some of those Republicans mulling a run for their party's presidential nomination.

It's still unclear, at least to those of us outside the head of Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, if he will run for the Republican Party presidential nomination.

Daniels gives the impression that it's unclear to him, too.

During a speech at the American Enterprise Institute Wednesday, if Daniels displayed any of the burning ambition it takes to run for the White House, it must've slipped by unnoticed.

The Indiana governor proved that he could get in a dig at President Obama as well as the next potential 2012 Republican presidential candidate.

If a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, agreements to raise the federal debt ceiling and on deficit reduction start with a Thursday White House meeting, the first of likely many between Vice President Biden and a bipartisan group of lawmakers.

Most immediately, the White House and lawmakers need to agree on raising the debt limit so the nation doesn't default for the first time in its history on its financial obligations.

The capture and killing of Osama bin Laden, and the nation's bipartisan sense of satisfaction about it, caused President Obama to ask lawmakers Monday evening to extend that feeling to other areas.

No such luck. As NPR's Andrea Seabrook noted on All Things Considered, House Republicans on Wednesday approved controversial anti-abortion legislation. And that vote came a day after they rolled past the Democratic minority to approve a ban on significant funding of the new health care law.

The old divide between fiscal and social conservatives may not be completely gone but it appears to be eroding as more conservatives combine both opposition for abortion and gay marriage with antipathy for deficits and the debt.

That's one finding from the Pew Research Center which released its latest update of U.S. voters on Wednesday.

Osama bin Laden in death continues to be one of the few unifying factors between President Obama and congressional Republicans.

Even before news emerged Wednesday afternoon that Obama had decided against releasing death photos of the arch terrorist (he was said to be leaning against it before then) Speaker John Boehner let it be known that he didn't need to see the photos to know bin Laden was dead though he didn't have an opinion one way or another on a release.

That was a strong indication that he, for one, wasn't planning on politicizing the issue.

The first debate of the likely candidates for the Republican presidential nomination takes place Thursday. We know you've been waiting breathlessly for this one.

Even before the killing of Osama bin Laden, the debate in Greenville, S.C. was already viewed as likely to be a lackluster affair. The politicians thought to have the best shot at the nomination, former governors Mitt Romney (Massachusetts) and Mike Huckabee (Arkansas) had already said they wouldn't be attending.

This week's elimination of the terrorist leader just further eclipses the event.

Former President George W. Bush declined President Obama's invitation to join him on Thursday at Ground Zero in New York City to mark the killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan.

The New York Times reports that Bush's spokesman said it's part of the former president's pattern of keeping a relatively low profile in his retirement.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney and Rep. Peter King of New York are among Republican conservatives suggesting that the Bush Administration's harsh interrogation of detainees through techniques like waterboarding resulted in key intelligence that eventually allowed U.S. Navy Seals to kill Osama bin Laden Sunday.

Lawmakers' response to constituents can differ based on the perceived race of the voter seeking the legislator's help, according to an interesting study by a Yale University political scientist.

The researcher sent 4,859 state legislators across the nation an e-mail from a fictional constituent with either a white-sounding name (Jake Mueller) or black-sounding name (DeShawn Jackson.) The emailer sought help in registering to vote.

The stunning news that President Obama ordered a lightning raid of a Pakistan safehouse that resulted in the killing of Osama bin Laden could dramatically reshape the political landscape though only time will tell how durable any such change will be.

Only days ago, the pundit class was consumed by the relatively low voter approval of the president's performance, particularly for his management of the economy.

They came, fiirst by the scores, then by the hundreds, to the streets outside the White House in Washington, near Ground Zero and in Times Square in New York City to celebrate the death at the hands of U.S. Navy Seals of the world's most wanted man, Osama bin Laden.

In both cities that formed the twin epicenters of Sept. 11 attacks, spontaneous chants of "USA, USA. USA" were heard from people who came out to share the moment that Americans had waited ten years for and that many Americans thought they might not ever see.

So is Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels going to run for president or not?

That lingering question which has occupied the minds of political observers for weeks now will only be asked with more intensity now that he's let it be known that he intends to sign a bill banning Planned Parenthood from receiving state taxpayer funds.

Daniels' decision would make Indiana the first state to enact such a ban. Planned Parenthood's receipt of taxpayer funds has angered conservatives because, along with the preventive health-care services it provides to women, it also provides abortions.

Natural disasters are no respecters of political parties or any of the other numerous ways humans use to separate themselves from each other.

That seems to get largely ignored until calamities happen. Then, state officials who usually criticize the federal government as overly intrusive welcome help from Washington. Northern liberals and southern conservatives, Democrats and Republicans can't offer enough kind words for each other.

The birther revival fueled by Donald Trump reintroduced the issue of just how much influence race and racism have had on Obama's political career.

Democrats have decided they won't unilaterally disarm in the war for campaign cash even though the leader of their party has publicly opposed certain fundraising tactics, like raising money from donors who remain anonymous.

Two new Democratic groups will officially kick off Friday, according to a piece by Jeanne Cummings in Politico. One is called Priorities USA, the other Priorities USA Action.

Something to note about the members of President Obama's reshuffled national security team is that they should all be fairly easily confirmed by the Senate which has confirmed all of them for other key posts.

Something else to note is that at least when it comes to the national security experts who flanked him Thursday, partisanship really does seem to end at the waters' edge, at least with Obama.

Several of those named to new jobs on Monday played prominent roles on President George W. Bush's national-security team.

President Obama will visit Alabama Friday to see first-hand the damage done by a massive outbreak of tornadoes that killed more than 200 people Wednesday.

In a statement, the White House press office said besides inspecting the devastation, the president will meet with state and local officials, including Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley.

If nothing else, Wednesday's unprecedented birther briefing by President Obama at the White House gave him a new line to use in opening his fundraising appearances.

At a Democratic fundraiser in the Manhattan apartment of Jon Corzine, former New Jersey governor, Obama said, according to a White House transcript of the event:

Here's an interesting piece of fallout from the Wisconsin fight between Gov. Scott Walker and the public-employee unions.

The University of Wisconsin medical school is investigating for sanctions some of its doctors who gave government workers sick notes so they could attend protests at the state capitol.

According to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:

Paul O'Neill, who served as Treasury Secretary during President George W. Bush's first term, has long been known for his bracing candor.

He apparently hasn't lost his edge. In a Bloomberg News interview, O'Neill said lawmakers who are threatening not to raise the federal debt ceiling are the "U.S.' version of al Qaida terrorists." O'Neill is definitely not one for sugarcoating his words, that's for sure.