Barack Obama doesn't have to worry about getting reelected, so conceivably he's poised to take on one of the most divisive issues of our time – immigration reform.
A whopping 71 percent of Hispanic voters said they voted for Obama, according to a Fox exit poll. Republicans might think twice about opposing immigration reform given their low standing with this group.
Indeed, Republicans have shown some signs they might be willing to compromise, Lucy Madison pointed out in CBS News. House Speaker John Boehner just called immigration "an important issue that ought to be dealt with."
But advocates for immigration reform shouldn't get too excited.
While Obama has pledged to reform immigration, we've all heard this song before, Ted Hesson notes on ABC News.
The president vowed he'd reform immigration his first year. Even with Democrats supporting both chambers of Congress, the president couldn't push for that particular type of change.
During his next term, Obama will be working with Senate Democrats in red states who are up for re-election in 2014 and might not want to anger their right-leaning constituents, an analysis in The Week pointed out.
But the power to reform immigration really rests with the House, Hesson notes.
"Will Republicans, smarting from the presidential loss, be willing to address what many Latinos consider a core issue?" he wrote. "Or will it be an encore presentation of the so-called 'do nothing' Congress from the past two years?"
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