President Barack Obama was heckled by a protester during his speech on Monday in San Francisco, and he tried to use the incident as a teachable moment.
An immigration reform activist began shouting for Obama to use executive orders to halt the deportation of America's undocumented immigrants.
"You have the power to stop deportations!" yelled the heckler.
Instead of allowing the Secret Service eject the activist, the Commander-in-Chief flipped the script instead and made a point about the limits of authority.
"Actually, I don't and that's why we're here," Obama replied.
Obama motioned for the Secret Service to let him stay, praising "the passion of these young people [who] feel deeply about the concerns of their families."
Then he tried to explain the position he's in as President.
"Now, what you need to know ... is that, in fact, if I could solve all these problems without passing laws in Congress, then I would do so," said Obama.
"But we're also a nation of laws. That's part of our tradition. And so the easy way out is to try to yell and pretend like I can do something by violating our laws."
"What I'm proposing is the harder path, which is to use our democratic processes to achieve the same goal that you want to achieve, but it won't be as easy as shouting."
"It requires us lobbying and getting it done."
Regardless of what you want the man to get done (or not get done), Obama makes a valid point about the political system and the need for real discourse.
If we all stopped heckling and started talking? Imagine ...
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