Why didn't Obama pass immigration reform when he had the chance?

Wasn’t the immigration system just as “broken” then as Obama says it is now? The answer is, in Obama’s world, there was always something more important than immigration reform. And no, it wasn’t because the economic crisis was so severe that Obama could focus on nothing else; indeed, for him, the crisis year of 2009 was mostly about Obamacare.

During the days when his power was at its peak, Obama pursued higher-priority issues even as he led immigration activists to believe they were up next. Which leads to the conclusion that perhaps immigration reform — the substance of it, not the politics — has never been all that important to the president.

Now, there’s still something more important: protecting vulnerable Democrats from voter disapproval of unilateral presidential action on immigration.

Obama says he will finally act, after the election, after voters can no longer hold him or his party accountable. But who knows? Maybe something more important will come up yet again.