The _New York Times_ analysis of President Bush’s speech yesterday on immigration paints it as a calculated approach that could very well backfire, but that Bush is pushing because it is an issue he has experience with and believes in through his time in Texas. When I was listening to the speech it struck me that, for once in recent memory, the President was actually advocating what sounded like a sensible middle path, doing the standard political thing in attempting to appeal to various factions and bring them to the bargaining table while still putting forth a plan based on his “deeply held convictions” or whatever — i.e. what he *promised* to do way back in 2000 when he said he would “change the tone” in Washington. Having seen him over and over again behave in profoundly misleading and hypocritical ways, I can’t put much stock in Bush’s pledges this time around, nor do I expect he has the political capital to really bring his plan to fruition in the highly fractous House (see: Social Security reform), but I guess I can admire the effort, at least a bit. Ah, to put forth too little, way the hell too late…