On Immigration, Clinton Has Been a Tumbler

SAN DIEGO -- Having written about immigration for a quarter-century, I've heard more than my share of lies, contradictions and inconsistencies from elected officials in both parties.

So it's been extremely refreshing these last few weeks to see my colleagues in the media get so worked up over a politician who appears to have reversed course on the immigration issue. It's a familiar story that many of them have missed over the years.

First, as I've said before, I don't think Trump really did a hard flip-flop on immigration.

It's not like he talked about building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, and then announced that it's not going to happen. That would be a flip-flop.

Instead, Trump has been clumsy. Immigration was always going to be a tough issue for him because, while Trump has been a politician for just 15 months, he's been a developer, builder and businessman for nearly 50 years. He must know that the U.S. economy would crumble without illegal immigrant labor. No matter what the politician says, the businessman won't be eager to rid the country of all undocumented workers.

Even after his fire-breathing speech in Phoenix a couple weeks ago, Trump appears to have once again left the door open to giving at least some of the undocumented a path to legal status. Speaking to reporters aboard his plane, Trump said: "I'm not ruling out anything. We're going to make that decision into the future."

And just a few days ago, during an NBC News forum, Trump hedged again when responding to a question about whether an undocumented person who wants to serve in the U.S. military "deserves to stay in this country legally."

The Republican nominee called that "a very special situation" and said he could imagine himself "working that out."

Still, if flip-flopping on immigration were an Olympic sport, Trump's performance would only be strong enough for a silver medal.

Hillary Clinton is in a different league.

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