Tom Tancredo Quitting?

Tom Tancredo Quitting? Susan Walsh / AP Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., waves after speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington on March 2. Tom Tancredo has scheduled a “major announcement” for tomorrow, fueling speculation that he’s about to withdraw from the race.

Republican presidential candidate Tom Tancredo says he will make a “major announcement” Thursday about his long-shot campaign but did not say what it would be. Tancredo, a congressman representing the southern Denver suburbs, scheduled a news conference in Des Moines.

Tancredo has consistently polled at the back of the seven-person GOP field. He has based his campaign on opposition to illegal immigration, running television ads that link lax border security to terrorist attacks, rape and other crimes.

Frankly, it’s hard to imagine that anything Tancredo says could amount to a “major announcement” but I suspect my Ruckus colleague Adam Fogle‘s guess that Tancredo is pulling the plug on his sorry excuse for a campaign is right. He cites Dan Hoover who snarks, “Unless he’s naming his running mate, I can’t imagine anything else he’d consider major beside getting out.”

Consider that Tancredo’s dead last in the polls — when he’s included in them at all — the impact of this will be less than that of the proverbial tree falling in a forest when no one is there. Or, as those inclined to Zen philosophy might say, the sound of no hand clapping.

Photo credit: Susan Walsh/AP

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James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.

Comments

  1. Anderson says:

    I predict he’ll name his running mate … Alberto Gonzales.

  2. yetanotherjohn says:

    In a situation like this, his greatest influence is to pull out and announce support for another candidate now. Post a dead last finish in Iowa and NH (admittedly speculation on my part) he has even less to offer.

    If he pulls out without announcing support for someone, he is not likely to be asked in 3 weeks or noticed over the Christmas holidays.

  3. Triumph says:

    Frankly, it’s hard to imagine that anything Tancredo says could amount to a “major announcement”

    “I’m a Gay Immigrant and the secret half brother of Norman Fell, so I’m Jewish, too”- Tancredo

  4. legion says:

    Indeed, yaj, many of the front-runners are being looked at for their running-mate opinions now, and bailing now may also be the only way to salvage any leverage Tancredo has to get into that business.

    But I must admit, every time I hear about this Ruckus blog, I think about this. Especially when the subject is bigoted GOP politicians. Heh.

  5. Tlaloc says:

    Or, as those inclined to Zen philosophy might say, the sound of no hand clapping.

    What is the sound of no race baiting? Ah, Tom, we hardly knew ye, and we liked what we did know even less…

  6. floyd says:

    Tlaloc;
    Are we to believe that you think illegal immigrants [Or perhaps Mexicans]are somehow a different race from mainstream U.S. citizens?

  7. Margaux says:

    Ding dong the witch is dead! As a resident of Colorado, he has embarassed most of us out here. It is time for compassion for our immigrants and their US born children, and a time to get racists like him OUT of the public eye!