President Obama channels his inner Colbert

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Oh, you know Stephen Colbert will be doing a segment on President Obama's immigration speech in El Paso on Tuesday after this.

I was struck by one passage from the president's speech that sounded all too familiar. Remarks by the President on Comprehensive Immigration Reform in El Paso, Texas:

So, here’s the point. I want everybody to listen carefully to this.  We have gone above and beyond what was requested by the very Republicans who said they supported broader reform as long as we got serious about enforcement. All the stuff they asked for, we’ve done.  But even though we’ve answered these concerns, I’ve got to say I suspect there are still going to be some who are trying to move the goal posts on us one more time.

You know, they said we needed to triple the Border Patrol. Or now they’re going to say we need to quadruple the Border Patrol. Or they’ll want a higher fence. Maybe they’ll need a moat. (Laughter.) Maybe they want alligators in the moat. (Laughter.) They’ll never be satisfied. And I understand that. That’s politics.

President Obama was channeling his inner Colbert. You see, Stephen Colbert gave a commencement speech to Knox College on June 3, 2006 in which he joked:

"So we must build walls. A wall across the entire southern border. That’s the answer. Obviously that may not be enough, maybe a moat in front of it, or a fire-pit. Maybe a flaming moat, filled with fire-proof crocodiles. And another across our northern border as well. Keep those Canadians with their socialized medicine and their skunky beer out. And because immigrants can swim, we’ll probably want to wall off the coasts as well. And while we’re at it, we need to put up a dome, in case they have catapults. And we’ll punch some holes in it so we can breathe. Breathe free. Time for illegal immigrants to go—right after they finish building those walls. Yes, yes, I agree with me."

Stephen Colbert has reprised his "flaming moat filled with fire-proof crocodiles" line several times over the years on The Colbert Report.

I thought the president would go for the fire-proof crocodiles joke, but he stopped short.