According to most accounts, George Bush's plan to post 6,000 national guard reservists on the Mexican border is an attempt to win stronger support among his base for a domestic agenda that goes against their instincts.
The big question on US political blogs is whether he will succeed, writes Javier Espinoza.
Liberal-minded Slate's Mickey Kaus calls the initiative an "uninspired attempt to buy off immigration conservatives". His attitude to those among them who would allow themselves to be bought off in such a manner is less than complimentary. "If conservatives are impressed by this, they're the cheapest dates around," he writes.
On the other hand, Indian Chris from Right-Wing and Right Minded says: "I couldn't find anything I disagreed with".
This blogger, who hosts a picture of former US president Richard Nixon, asks: "Did you agree with his plan or was he showing his true racist colours?"
Kevin Drum, in the Washington Monthly's Political Animal, is among those who call the noisiest of Mr Bush's supporters "wingnuts". He labels the proposal "the same 'ol same 'ol", arguing that the president's words were just euphemisms for the "militarisation" of the Mexican border and "a guest worker programme that's not a guest worker programme".
Drum adds he does not "really have anything against it", though relished the sight of Mr Bush "watching him bob and weave and choose his words with such delicate care" so as not to upset the "wingnut base he's spent his life pandering to".
Commenting on his blog, Matt, a reader, says: "The fact that we have to put military on the border is bad news, the real solution is to focus out attention more closely on economic efficiency down there and up here."
In his defensetech.org blog, defence expert Noah Shachtman agrees with Matt and writes that the proposal is likely to be "costly and ineffective". He analyses the more practical aspects of the proposal, including the quality of the guard's training, their skills, housing, communication and teamwork.
Jacaranda puts it in a nutshell: "Analysts say Mr Bush was trying to appeal to opposing sides of the debate. They say he was trying to appease both grass-roots conservative Republicans and the country's growing number of Hispanics."
Omar from Colombia, in a (Spanish) post titled The carrot and the stick from Bush, notices the irony that many of the guards sent to secure the border are second-generation immigrants.
