A lot has been said about the Rasmussen poll and his analysis: "Why the Senate Immigration Bill Failed" (full article here).

Quoting Rasmussen:

"The immigration bill failed because a broad cross-section of the American people are opposed to it. Republicans, Democrats, and unaffiliated voters are opposed. Men are opposed. So are women. The young don’t like it; neither do the no-longer-young. White Americans are opposed. Americans of color are opposed."

End quote.

Continuing our "Immigration Reform 2007 is dead. Now What?" conversation (see here):

Let me posit that many of us are making an erroneous leap of logic in the aftermath of the great grassroots rebellion on the Right (over which even I am heartened).

We keep hearing that only 22 percent of Americans were for the immigration compromise. Some of us seem to infer from that statistic that, conversely, 78 percent of America is with us. That is a shaky assumption.

The bill was defeated, which as I said, if nothing else, illustrated that conservatism remains independent and not without a modicum of residual power in American politics. This is a good thing. We are right to take heart from this fact. In life, we should take pleasure in small victories.

On the other hand, nothing much has changed. We have proven that we can stop a flawed immigration compromise--but we are thousands of miles away from having the power to secure the legislation we desire.

We are still faced with the same choice: compromise or maintain the status quo, which means de facto amnesty.

We can all yell: "secure the border and enforce the law" until the cows come home--but I am not expecting George Bush to suddenly convert to the Tancredo position. I don't expect Hillary Clinton to be very friendly to us either.

I guess we can hope for Fred Thompson. Why not? This is the part of the season when hope springs eternal. I suppose anything is possible, but what is Plan B?