President Obama's speech on immigration reform last week was long on aspiration but short on specifics.

It is, unfortunately, what we have come to expect from this president who has really failed to move the dial on the issue despite numerous promises.

The script is already set in stone – if only those pesky Republicans would get on side on a comprehensive bill then we could all get along.

There's a better likelihood of a man landing on Mars by the end of the year. Obama knows it, and so does everyone who has trooped through the White House in the past few weeks in the lead up to his speech, including the Hispanic Caucus which has remained remarkably civil despite broken promises to them.

But they too need to face facts.

We have written here before that comprehensive reform does not have a snowball's chance in hell.

The political temperature is too high, the advocates too angry. Any effort will end in failure.

Opponents welcome the all-or-nothing approach, as they know they can demonize immigration reform as one big giveaway to the undocumented. It allows them to blur the lines of any debate on the issue.

Advocates also sometimes seem just as happy with the status quo, an unpassable bill that nonetheless allows them the moral certainty of the righteousness of their cause.

Vested interest on both sides are spending and raising huge amounts of money to accomplish exactly zip. Everyone gets to admire the problem, not solve it.

What does have a chance is passage of individual aspects of an immigration bill. A massive comprehensive effort has too many pitfalls.

Taking issues such as the Dream Act, which would allow children brought to the United States at an early age to legalize their status, is a piece of legislation that even the most cold-hearted Republican should be loathe to deny.

Working with business and agricultural groups to create a proper method of bringing needed labor in at fair prices could also be agreed by both sides.

A system of allowing top-level brains from other countries to come and work here would benefit all Americans.

All those kinds of provisions are eminently passable.

Sometimes it seems that advocates are as firmly rooted in the quagmire of comprehensive reform as enemies of reform are. They are wedded to the comprehensive model as if no other viable plan exists.

Every so often the White House throws a bone in their direction, and it confirms their perception that comprehensive is the only road, so they continue on.

Everyone needs to take a step back.

Obama should tell the American people that he is taking on the issue on a piece-by-piece basis. Those issues such as the Dream Act deserve to pass, and he should dare his opponents to oppose him.

Then he should go about passing it.

Then gradually the issue of illegals can be dealt with when people realize the sky does not fall and that enforcement is continuing side by side.

But there will be no big bang, no bill that can be whisked through the legislatures.

We tried that in much more favorable times with the Kennedy/McCain legislation.

It is time we all came clean, including the president, and followed a path of gradual change rather than a big bang, which has become a big fizzle.

Does anyone have the courage to tell all the interest groups that?

We hope Obama does, but we're not holding our breath.