Immigration issue hasn't generated much heat this summer

With only 55 days left before Labor Day, the White House is trying to keep President Obama on the political offensive, throw Republicans off stride and avoid the missteps that characterized last summer when the recess was marked by angry town hall encounters and a limp Democratic response.

Publicly, the president's top aides express confidence that this summer will be different, in large part because they believe Republicans have said damaging things that leave them vulnerable to Democratic attacks.

But privately, many Democrats involved in House and Senate races are already grumbling that it is the White House that has made the bigger mistake of talking too much about immigration and too little about jobs.

"Immigration among blue-collar whites, it's just anathema to them," said Democratic strategist Jim Duffy, lamenting that the president did no favor to embattled Democratic incumbents by the double whammy of delivering a big speech on immigration and then having the Justice Department sue the state of Arizona to invalidate a law designed to crack down on illegal immigrants.

"That's just not selling," he said. "What I see is a disconnect between the White House in terms of what they see as their political needs and what Democrats whose names are on the ballot see as their needs in 2010."

A Democratic pollster, speaking on background because of his closeness to the White House, laughed when asked if the immigration speech had frustrated Democratic members outside of the Hispanic Caucus. "Dead right," he said.

"There are competing imperatives here," he said, suggesting the president was looking toward his re-election campaign in 2012 and keeping promises to Latino activists. "Depending on where you are sitting, you might weigh these priorities somewhat differently. I think the White House weighs them one way and members of Congress weigh them a different way for the most part," he said. "And so there is a bit of frustration."

Republican strategist Rich Galen was blunt, reflecting what he has heard on Capitol Hill. "There is a significant difference of opinion between what the White House would like the Democrats in the House to go home and talk about and what the Democrats in the House want to talk about, and one of them for House members is not immigration," he said.

"The notion of doing that immigration speech the day before the July Fourth recess so that all these Democrats who may be on the bubble had to go to Fourth of July picnics and answer questions on immigration was the last thing they wanted to talk about," he said.

Galen said the message many took from the episode is that "the White House has given up on the House of Representatives" -- a conclusion also reached by some alarmed Democrats after Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Sunday that the House could be lost.

But the White House has been quick to counter, insisting that the president was laying the groundwork for consideration this year of a comprehensive immigration reform bill, something they say cannot be avoided. Gibbs Monday said his Sunday comment only "stated the obvious."

And he dismissed reports that embattled Democratic governors also complained about the immigration focus during meetings with Obama aides at the National Governors' Conference over the weekend.

Gibbs insisted that the talk of immigration was "a fairly small part" of the discussion. But he acknowledged "the frustration of all of those involved." He added that the timing of the speech and lawsuit "may be inconvenient." But he said, "This administration is here to do what it thinks is right and not simply to look at the calendar."

Gibbs promised that the president will vigorously stump for Democratic candidates much in the manner seen on his trip last week to Missouri and Nevada. "We're getting much, much closer to the fall elections, and the president will do more things leading up to that," he said. He indicated that staples of the president's pitch will be reminders of Texas GOP Rep. Joe Barton's apology to BP and the comment of House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, likening the near-collapse of the financial system to "an ant."

He said the two comments are "emblematic of a mind-set" that makes Republicans less attractive as an alternative to Democrats.

But Gibbs glossed over a major vulnerability for Democrats - the fact that few voters sense that a genuine economic recovery is affecting their lives and that they tend to blame Democrats as the party in power.

He described the president as "frustrated." But the frustration is more acute for Democratic campaigns which keep begging the White House to talk more about jobs and less about everything else.

"What I'm telling my clients is it's the economy. It's jobs, jobs, jobs," said Duffy.

Boston-based Democratic strategist Mary Anne Marsh added, "Whether you are in the White House or in Congress, the more the word 'jobs' comes out of your mouth, the better off you are. Half the problem has been that everyone has chosen to talk about so many other things." Most people, she said, "don't know who John Boehner is." But they know the economy is still bad.

Jerry Austin, an Ohio Democratic strategist, said voters have to see more "outrage" from Obama. "People think about their pocketbooks. They aren't thinking about Russian spies. Afghanistan is important, but it's not as important as the pocketbook," he said. "He should go on TV and kick the hell out of Republicans for not extending unemployment compensation. I know people here who are going to be very hurt by this."