DES MOINES, Iowa - Rep. Tom Tancredo, who built his longshot presidential campaign on opposition to illegal immigration, dropped out Thursday and endorsed Republican rival Mitt Romney as the best man to carry on the fight.
Tancredo, a five-term congressman from Colorado, has consistently polled at the bottom of the nine-person Republican field. He announced his withdrawal two weeks before Iowa begins the presidential nominating process with its precinct caucuses.
He said he decided to drop out in part because of concern that staying in could split the vote for other candidates who have taken a hard line on immigration, helping those who would take a less restrictive approach.
Tancredo dropped out of the race because staying in could split the vote for other candidates? More than likely Tancredo dropped out because he didn't have enough money to continue on campaigning in Iowa, and realized that he was consistently polling last in the GOP race.
I looked back at an early analytical posting I did for the first Republican debate, and there was some interesting details about Tancredo. In that first debate, Tancredo positioned himself about as hard-lined to the right as he could, even going to the point of telling former First Lady Nancy Reagan that stem cell research was "morally reprehensible," even though such research may result in the cure for Alzheimer's Disease, which killed former President Ronald Reagan. Even Steve Benen at Carpetbagger Report provides some interesting details on Tancredo's hard-lined ideology:
I think Tancredo has generally had an exaggerated sense of his own worth. At a GOP debate in late-November, after hearing the rest of the candidates take a hard, conservative line on immigration, Tancredo boasted:
“Yeah, well, I tell you, this has been wonderful. I — and Senator McCain may not be happy with this — the spirit of this debate. As — for a guy who usually stands on the bookend — here — side and just listens all the time, that’s kind of frustrating, you know, in other debates. I have to tell you, so far it’s been wonderful — (laughter) — because — because all I’ve heard is — is — is people trying to out-Tancredo Tancredo. (Laughter.) It is great. I am so happy to hear it. (Applause.) It is a wonderful thing, and it’s a good message.”
Indeed, as far as Tancredo is concerned, he got in the race to pull the party to the far-right on immigration, and after eight months of campaigning, he’s succeeded. He admitted as much today, saying he successfully pushed his anti-immigration position to the forefront of Republican politics.
I don’t think that’s true. Tancredo has barely had a campaign operation to speak of, barely campaigned outside the debates, and never actually tried to win the GOP nomination. By his reasoning, he would run for president, draw tons of support with his anti-immigration platform, and force his Republican rivals to run to the hard-right, just to pick up voters who would otherwise gravitate to Tancredo.
That clearly never happened. Tancredo never caught fire; he didn’t even cause a spark. Yes, other Republican candidates have embarrassed themselves with anti-immigration positions of their own, but by all indications, they would have done that anyway in response to demands from the party’s far-right base.
Tancredo did have a role to play in this election--that of the extremist. Even though his shoestring campaign never caught fire with the GOP base, his hard-lined views provided kindling to keep the anger burning with the far-right base. It is certainly obvious that the GOP front-runners were going to kowtow to the right-wing base, but even a failed Tancredo presidential campaign can have an effect in GOP presidential politics--especially if the front-runners are watching how the base reacts to Tancredo.
The next interesting detail is that Tancredo endorsed GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney here, saying that Romney was the best candidate for opposing illegal immigration. I'm not exactly sure why Tancredo endorsed Romney, unless Tancredo opposes any form of amnesty program for long-term illegal aliens, and doesn't trust either John McCain or Mike Huckabee to continue on with the GOP immigrant-bashing. Still, we can always say goodbye and good riddance to the Tancredo campaign.
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