2008 Tom Tancredo Is Not Running For President Anymore
posted by on December 20 at 12:55 PM
Posted by Ryan S. Jackson
Tom Tancredo has been called many things in his life: Mexican-hating Congressman, Mexican-hating presidential candidate, Mexican-hating husband and father. And now he can be called one more thing: Mexican-hating campaign failure.
U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo announced today he’s ending his long-shot bid for the White House.The Colorado Republican made his exit from the race official at a press conference this afternoon in downtown Des Moines. He’ll throw his support behind GOP candidate Mitt Romney, he said.
Tancredo ran a campaign based on fear. Not a handsome man, a well-spoken man, or in many respects even a sane man, he thought that his campaign would so unite nativist sentiment that he would ride over the field like a latter-day Pat Buchanan. He believed it so much, he hired Pat’s sister Bay to run his campaign.
Oh, how the crazy have fallen. (On the bright side, Tancredo’s announcement that he’s dropping out comes on the heels of some of his highest Iowa polling ever: 6%. Take that, Alan Keyes.)
At times like this one is tempted to look backward, toward the warm memories: The way Tancredo’s stump speech had all the charms of the maladapted Pit Bull that you’re slightly scared to look in the eyes. The way he set a firm contrast with other failed presidential candidates: The reptilian Jim Gilmore of Virginia; the pious corpse Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas; and Iowa’s own answer to chugging a bottle of Ny-Quil, former Governor Tom Vilsack. People were genuinely frightened of Tancredo; he might bite them.
Why did such a potent politician fail? It could be argued that Iowa Republicans really did want to take the Colorado congressman into their immigrant-hating hearts, but that he tried too hard. Perhaps nobody wanted a candidate who, in the end, hated all the same people they did. Perhaps they wanted a bad boy they could change, like an Arkansas governor who states publicly that he believes all people are the children of God, or a New York mayor who’s ready to finally give up his Mexican-loving ways, just for them.
Tancredo said earlier this year that he wouldn’t seek re-election to his House seat, and that if he didn’t win the presidency this might be his last campaign. As he lives up to his word and begins to fade from the national political stage (yeah right), he is passing the anti-immigrant baton to Mitt Romney, who has pledged to hate Mexicans with the same unrelenting zeal—except the ones who are tending the grounds of his sanctuary mansion.
I'm sure the Wall Street Journal is overjoyed - their chief story on the election today is how Americans are becoming anti-global (ignoring the reality that we just want our foreign treaties to include labor and environmental standards, and investigation, prosecution, sentencing, jail, and confiscation of assets of CEOs/execs who hire illegal workers, not the workers themselves per se).
GREAT picture selection. Because, you know, the slash is almost like right over his face..hehe
I hope he gets run over by a truck full of day laborers.
My prediction is that he'll get himself a radio show and / or a syndicated column, which will fail because of his utter inability to talk about anything but immigration.
There are rumors that he's considering a run for our open Senate seat but the state GOP has it's annointed candidate (former Rep. Bob Schaffer, and I might have misspelled the last name) and has successfully chased all other considered candidates, including another former US rep who has a $2 million war chest. Tank is arrogant enough to defy the state GOP and run anyway, but we'll see if he tries to hang on.
So are Hispanics hip to the fact that they're the gays of 2008 and the Republicans hate their guts?
What about all of those articles in the recent past claiming that the R's have sown up the Hispanic vote thanks to God, guns and gays? I can't imagine all this deranged, hateful, paranoid, racist xenophobia is going over well.
Well you see, getting the rest of the GOP field to hate on immigrants and pull the discussion on this issue far to the right was his entire reason for running, not to actually win the nomination. He may be batshit crazy, but I doubt he's that stupid.
@5
Right-wing 101:
The gays are attacking the American family, by being...gay, and...they're disgusting faith-ruining faggots. Solution: second-class citizenships, justified bigotry.
The hispanics are taking their jobs, not paying any taxes and still-no-speaka-English. Solution: build a fence, be a racist.
@3
While that would be sweet poetic justice, it would also add ammo to his argument.
Another rumor on the local blogs is that he's leveraging for a cabinet position which he might try to buy with an endorsement. Word is that he's going to support Huckabee, not Romney, but we'll see.
@10,
He explicitly said he's endorsing Romney at his speech this afternoon. Otherwise, that's totally horrifying, even in rumor form.
@5 - Yes, we are aware of that.
@8 - Did I mention that the day laborers have laser beams attached to their heads?
What @6 said. Why waste time and money running on this issue now that all the Rs are on board the hate bandwagon? I hope after he gets run over by that truck he winds up in a hospital where all the immigrant staff is on strike.
@4,
I think it's Schaffer and he's King of the Douchebags for sure. I can't remember what District Tancredo has (had), but Schaffer would actually be worse. He's the worst kind of politician and that's really saying something these days. Anyway, good fucking luck. I hope you live in Degette's district.
@ 10, thanks for the correction.
@ 13, I do live in DeGette's district, but I kinda wish I lived in Tank's district (the 6th, covering southern 'burbs) just so I could be one more liberal that's diluting the GOP makeup of the place. Schaffer used to be the 4th district rep (most of eastern Colorado, seat currently occupied by anti-gay marriage amendment sponsor Marilyn Musgrave, who almost lost re-election and has made a run for the center this term.)
@4 is correct, tho. He'll be back - on talk radio.
Can you remind us again, who this Tom Tancredo person is?
@16 he is Duncan Hunter with an ethnic sounding name
who?
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