The latest entrant in the Presidential sweepstakes is Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO).
Tancredo, if you don't know who he is, made headlines a couple of years ago when he suggested on a radio show that if the United States is attacked again by terrorists then we should 'take out Mecca.'
More recently, he guaranteed he will lose Florida by comparing the state to a third-world country.
Well, at least he is speaking what's on his mind. But I'm glad he's not running in my party.
Of course here in Arizona we have recent experience with Tancredo. He came down to campaign for his good friend Randy Graf in a race for an open Congressional seat along the border. Graf, like Tancredo, supports kicking out all undocumented aliens and then building a wall along the border, and he loves to verbally attack 'them Mexicans.' And the results of the race were pretty telling-- in a district that had not voted for a Democrat in well over a decade, he lost by double digits to new Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. People along the border, where trade with and through Mexico provides a significant source of income, just didn't buy into the rhetoric.
Tancredo however has always been popular with the same folks who used to idolize Helen Chenowyth; the black helicopter folks who have a xenophobic outlook and who believe (contradictorily) that America should not have anything to do with the rest of the world and that America should use military force to do whatever it wants, wherever and against whoever it wants. They are big supporters of the militias, and believe that people in other countries (especially people with dark skin in those countries) are out to 'get' America.
It will be interesting to watch Tancredo in the GOP debates. Not for the inevitable bombs he will hurl that may embarrass some of the other candidates. But to watch and see how often they agree with him.
1 comment:
He's a freak, but his presence in the race will only serve to legitimize the facsist views of Giuliani and Romney, neither of whom are uncomfortable with the idea that a president can just toss people in jail without review.
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