Monday Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo announced he was joining the legions seeking the Republican presidential nomination. Now, if he can only win it. I for one fervently hope he can.
That might sound odd coming from one who has been somewhat critical of Tom Tancredo in the past, who was dismissive of his presumed run for the presidency and offended by his characterization of Miami as a “Third World country.” But I’m serious, I really do want him to win the Republican presidential nomination. Honest, I do.
I know it will be difficult for Tom to compete with the likes of Mitt the Money Magnet in fundraising, but he’s got that covered:
[Tancredo] said he wasn’t intimidated by other campaigns with more money and resources. Tancredo said he had raised a little more than a million dollars for his presidential bid. In comparison, aides to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney announced on Monday that he had raised more than $20 million.
“We have something they don’t have — a group of people out there who are there because of an issue,” Tancredo said. “And they’re never going to have that. They can use their 100 million to try and buy constituency. I have it. It’s natural. It’s there.”
And we all know what Tom’s issue is — immigration. It’s the number-one issue for Tom and his constituents, just not for a majority of Americans. But that’s okay, too, because you don’t need a majority of Americans to win the presidency anymore. Tom’s counting on that, which is why he said to heck with tradition and announced his candidacy, not in his home state of Colorado, but in Iowa. On the radio.
Tancredo said he chose radio because talk radio had for years given him a platform for his stand against illegal immigration. And he made the announcement in Des Moines rather than his home state of Colorado because of the importance of Iowa in the nominating process.
“That’s how you get there,” he said. “You do well in Iowa, you do well in New Hampshire.”
Now that sounds like a solid plan for winning the nomination — do well in Iowa and New Hampshire. I tell you, this guy has the juice!
That’s why I am breaking with my co-editors and endorsing Tom Tancredo for the Republican nomination for president of these United States. Because if the GOP nominates a single-issue loose-cannon headcase like Tancredo, the Dems are sure to win.
We Third Worlders are behind you Tom, and I speak on behalf of my fellow Miamians when I say that were most of them in the country legally and registered, I’m sure they’d vote for you. Honest.
Sorry, compadre, although Tancredo would be even easier to beat than Newton Leroy Gingrich, I’m still rooting for the former House speaker to be the GOP nominee in 2008. Why? Because there is an outside chance that if Newt were to win, his campaign in the general election would be so negative and divisive that it would kill off the GOP which has been fatally wounded by six years of Bush.
Run, Newt, run!
Why were you offended by the Tancredo description of Miami as that of a third world country?
I’d be tempted to try and make a case for Duncan Hunter as the Repuglican candidate most likely to spew the ugliest campaign in the history of the universe.
I’m just too afraid Amrka might fall for it. Not too much danger of that with Tom. :)
Alexander, I wasn’t really offended by Tancredo’s characterization of Miami as a Third World city. It’s just that he’s wrong — as everybody down here knows, Miami is a banana republic.