Rhetorical question–how many speeches has President Bush given specifically regarding illegal immigration? Uno, dos, zero? Now, only days after new press secretary Tony Snow has arranged his desk we hear about an upcoming speech on the topic coming tonight. Coincidence? Hardly.

Tony Snow probably understands the public’s mood better than anyone at 1600 Pennsylvania. As a radio host he’s seen and heard the ground shake caused by this issue from both the city and country perspective, and has apparently convinced the Commander-in-chief of the urgent need to address it before it puts everybody there in the unemployment line. Before laughing make sure you’ve read LaShawn Barber.

The Pajama folks tipped everyone to a good read from someone across the pond who doesn’t hate us. His insight regarding our immigration problem juxtaposed with Europe’s is worth the read, especially in light of recent demonstrations both here and there. That Bush didn’t immediately commence a national address after illegal aliens poured into the streets says a lot, something that Snow probably pointed out quite forcefully.

The icing on the cake was the latest story about giving the Mexican government intel about the location of the Minutemen. True or distorted, it’s something that needs addressing.

So we have a speech, but the true test will be the content. Americans will easily spot any posturing political BS, besides, the backlash from that could be worse than saying nothing. No, this must be an action speech with plans, such as placing military assets or National Guard on the border to quell the tide. That’s the only way his guest worker program has a chance.

Surely his handling of this will affect his poll numbers, which affects the November elections, which affects his ability to get anything passed the rest of the way. A real legacy moment. Should be interesting.

cross-posted at Fore Left

SPPECH AFTERMATH 5/16/06

Tony Snow will be out front and center in the White House press room today and we’ll see how he tries to spin the speech. A quick (and non scientific) stroll around the blogosphere and MSM seems to show it was more a pop fly to short center than a home run.

Meanwhile, some of the better-known liberal blogs were not talking about the speech much at all. Guess they didn’t want to remove any screenspace from their nonstop coverage of Rove/Libby/NSA. Hasn’t Rove been indicted and frog-marched yet? Curiously, the lead story at HuffPo was about Cheney being worth 100 million. Since we found out last week that Castro was worth close to billion, Cheney appears a mere pauper in comparison. Lo and behold Arianna included an apologista story from Fidel disputing he’s worth more than Cheney. What border?

As to the MSM, a mixed bag with fairly balanced coverage from the WaPo and Times, with Reuters showing their subtle bias again. Their article was hardly backed up with anything substantive to support the headline. The AP was playing up the republican backlash.

Snow has a tough road ahead. Bush has lately become a pinata for both sides over several issues, and his presidency is hanging in the balance.

MORE 5/18

Instapundit links to some gushing reviews of Tony Snow’s first press briefing, which unfortunately came at the expense of poor Scott McClellan. It’ll be interesting to see the longer term effects.

One might suppose Mr. McClellan was chosen exactly for the qualities attributed to him in departure. In other words, put an expressionless, boring guy up there and maybe he won’t be exciting enough copy for the evening news. Instead, the press corps swallowed him up.

Conversely, Snow’s daily podium performances figure to be much more telegenic, but at the same time his straightforward manner with a splash of pontification and humor might be like Kryptonite towards the normal expected anti-Bush copy. Either Bush’s image will go up or they’ll start ignoring Snow’s reports altogether. That is, unless they can find some way to take him down a few notches.