Day after call for political truces, Obama visibly snubs Arizona GOP governor

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer points at President Barack Obama after he arrived at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012, in Mesa, Ariz. Brewer greeted Obama and what she got was a book critique. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)

Ultimately, the tension between Obama and Brewer may be based on their differences over Hispanic voters.

Brewer said she met with Obama at the airport to hand him an invitation to meet about Arizona’s border problems, and about its recovery, which she dubs the “Arizona comeback.”

“[I] reiterated an invitation that I’ve extended to him before with regards to coming to Arizona and going to the border with me. … We’ve had a remarkable comeback here and I want to share that with him,” Brewer said during the radio interview.

Arizona’s unemployment rate has declined from 10.3 percent in Oct. 2009, to 8.7 percent in December 2011.

That decline has occurred while the state began a partial enforcement of the 2010 immigration reform, amid furious opposition from Obama’s allies.

In July 2010, Obama’s lawyers sued to block the law and won a partial victory in a federal court. In December, the Supreme Court said it would consider the validity of the popular reform.

Obama’s re-election chances, and his odds of wining Arizona’s electoral votes, are heavily dependent on the Hispanic voters who comprise roughly one-third of the state’s electorate.

In November, Obama had only a 41 percent approval rating in the state, according to a poll conducted by the Democratic-affiliated firm Public Policy Polling.

Obama’s allies have tried to spur Hispanic support for Obama by portraying the enforcement of the popular law against illegal-immigration as racist, and he has repeatedly supported the lawsuit against Brewer’s state.

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