Posted by Damozel | (1) According to Fox News (and who would know if not Faux?), far right evolution-denier Tom Tancredo apparently plans to drop out of the Republican race. Tancredo refused to confirm that he is dropping out. But when interviewed by The Rocky Mountain News his wife seemed to think that the chances were on the whole small that he'd remain in the race, though she felt that the reports of his withdrawal were a bit premature. And Tancredo told Fox News, "“I will neither confirm nor deny that report...I
wouldn’t have a press conference if I didn’t have anything to say.”(Fox News)
Tancredo aired a startling ad a month ago tying illegal immigration to terrorism. The ad showed a man in a hooded sweatshirt and backpack walking into a crowded shopping mall, with the sound of an explosion ringing out after the screen goes dark. The ad then showed bloody pictures of victims of terrorist acts in Europe, while the narrator said: “The price we pay for spineless politicians who refuse to defend our borders against those who come to kill.”
Tancredo focused on the issue at the Republican presidential debate a week ago in Iowa, saying immigration without assimilation is a “catastrophe.”
He also refused to participate in a Spanish-language debate on Univision in early December. He told FOX News he did not want to encourage immigrants in America to speak Spanish as their primary language. (Fox News)
Check out these sources: Democratic Strategist; TalkLeft; Shakesville; The Politico
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- I Wish God Would Let me Vote for Sam Tancredo
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- Salon's Helpful Advice for Log Cabin Republicans: The Illustrated Nutshell version
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(2) Meanwhile, elsewhere in the world, The Politico calls Fred Thompson "Lazy As Charged."
When is retail politics not retail politics? When candidates refuse to get off their big buses and go do it.
Fred Thompson rolled into this small town on the Cedar River in north-central Iowa on a giant brown bus Tuesday. He also had a van, an entourage of guys with earpieces and a press aide.
Thompson’s public schedule said: “Fred Thompson Tours Downtown Waverly and Drops by Waverly Democrat.”...
What happened to the “tour of downtown Waverly” that was on his schedule?
Canceled. Not going to happen. He was not going to walk the streets of Waverly in search of voters.
Instead, Thompson rode four blocks to the local fire station. Local fire stations always have captive audiences (unless there is a fire).... Thompson... posed for a picture or two and the event was over. He and his entourage got on his bus and roared out of town.
Also according to The Politico, he gratuitously insulted the local fire chief's personal helmet and by extension the professional gear of firefighters everywhere.
Inside [the fire station], Thompson shook a few hands — there were only about 15 people there — and then Chief Dan McKenzie handed Thompson the chief’s fire hat so Thompson could put it on.
Thompson looked at it with a sour expression on his face.
“I’ve got a silly hat rule,” Thompson said.
In point of fact, the “silly” hat was the one Chief McKenzie wore to fires and I am guessing none of the firefighters in attendance considered it particularly silly, but Thompson was not going to put it on. He just stood there holding it and staring at it.
To save the moment, Jeri Thompson took the hat from her husband’s hands and put it on her head.
“You look cute,” Thompson said to her. She did.... ("Lazy As Charged.")
The Sundries Shack says the story is wrong.
[W]atch this video of the “silly hat” moment (via Jonathan Adler).
Did you see him standing with “a sour expression on his face” and just holding the hat and “staring at it” or did you see what I saw - a guy with a bit of a smile cracking a joke and getting a good amount of laughter for a crowd of “only about 15 people”?
Did you see his wife take the hat from him and put it on herself? If you did, you’re watching a different video than I. He pretty clearly put the hat on his wife’s head. She couldn’t take the hat from him because her hands were full with her own hat, among other things...
As the chief is handing him the fire helmet, Thompson clearly says, “I’ve got a silly hat rule, that I’m about to violate”. Then he laughs, several times. He even puts a little pump-fake up there, as if he’s going to put the hat on but stops as his wife comes up and volunteers for hat duty. (The Politico Story on Thompson is Wrong (Update: Not Just Wrong. Really, Really Wrong)
So instead of being lazy and tactless, he's just sort of goofing on the fire chief? Jesus. I mean, that's clearly better than insulting the guy, but it isn't exactly a convincing display of a man who really wants the presidential nomination, is it?
Given all the people who say that Thompson is lazy---i.e., isn't that into becoming president---he's either really not into it or really terrible at getting across that he is. And from what I've seen of him, he's not that bad an actor. I'm guessing he's just really, really not into it. Why, then, does he bother?
Hey, at least Reagan did a credible job of playing the part of a man playing the president. He left a big empty suit to fill. I know Thompson's supporters think he's up to it, but if Thompson can't sell other people on the idea that he's up to it, he might as well follow Tancredo's lead now. Will he pull himself together and deliver at least an Emmy-winning performance?
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