Rep. Tom Tancredo says his fellow Republican presidential candidates are aiding immigrants in breaking the law by taking part in this weekend's Spanish-language debate in Miami. "What all my colleagues — what the other candidates are doing — it's encouraging violation of the law because it's saying, 'Don't worry about the fact that you have to know English to earn citizenship,' " said Mr. Tancredo, the only Republican to turn down the invitation from Univision for Sunday night's debate and who said the other candidates' participation was worse than pandering. For the Colorado congressman, it's a matter of principle: He said the other candidates are contributing to the Balkanization of the country by joining the debate, in which the candidates will speak English, but their answers will be translated into Spanish for broadcast on the nation's largest Spanish-language network. And it's one of the few areas left to Mr. Tancredo, the original anti-illegal immigration candidate in the Republican field, as he struggles to set himself apart from the others who have adopted many of his stances on the issue — so much so that he said he is being "out-Tancredoed."Yesterday, he released a stark television ad here that shows photos of bloody bodies, including those of children, lying in a street, victims of gang violence. The ad warns that the violent criminals behind those kinds of attacks are sneaking into the U.S., and calls for deportation of illegal aliens — something most other candidates have shied away from, calling for attrition through better enforcement instead. The ad blames "gutless politicians" for not acting to secure the borders and remove illegal aliens. Mr. Tancredo said he has a little money and a short period of time before the caucuses, so he figured he needed to make as much of an impact as he could. But he said he wasn't going for shock value in order to try to regain territory."That wasn't the purpose in this," he said. "It helps, but that wasn't on my mind." Also campaigning in Iowa yesterday was former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who accepted endorsements from Tim LaHaye, co-author of the apocalyptic evangelical "Left Behind" series, from his wife Beverly LaHaye, founder of Concerned Women for America, and from two former supporters of Sen. Sam Brownback, the Kansas Republican who ended his bid for the nomination. Mr. Huckabee, a former Southern Baptist pastor who was governor of Arkansas for 10 years, also accepted the personal endorsements of about five dozen Iowa pastors, part of a network he is building.Mr. Huckabee and Mr. Tancredo are on differing trajectories. Mr. Huckabee has translated a surprise second-place showing in the Iowa straw poll in August into a lead in the polls here, while Mr. Tancredo does not appear to have improved on his fourth-place showing in August. Mr. Tancredo said it was a "no-brainer" to reject Univision's invitation, but his decision has been widely debated on the Internet, and some of his supporters said he is missing a chance to take his message where it needs to be heard. Mr. Tancredo said he expects his voice is being heard this way. "My not being there is probably the strongest statement I can make on this issue," he said. He also rejected the criticism that he is refusing to address a particular audience, saying this is purely an issue of language. He was the only Republican candidate to accept an invitation to speak to the annual convention of National Association for the Advancement of Colored People this year. Asked if he would watch the debate from home, he said that wasn't the plan: "Nah, I don't know Spanish."
New Tancredo Ad Links Illegal Immigrants, Gang Violence
GOP presidential candidate Rep. Tom Tancredounveiled a new television ad that said open borders are leading to rapes and other violence against American citizens. The ad focuses on Central American gangs such as MS-13 and shows bloody pictures of victims of gang violence. Than a voice says that the gangs are now on American soil “pushing drugs, raping kids, destroying lives” and blames the violence on “gutless politicians who refuse to defend our borders.” It ends with the words: Secure the Borders. Deport those who don’t belong. Make sure they never come back. Tom Tancredo. President. Tancredo caused a stir last month with another ad that linked immigration to terrorism. That ad showed a hooded man blowing up a shopping mall. It condemned “spineless politicians” who “refuse” to protect the borders. Many groups decried the ad as anti-immigrant and an attempt at fear-mongering, but Tancredo stood by the spot.
Minutes after taking the Pledge of Allegiance, new American citizens are urged to register as voters by Democratic activists who see them as natural party supporters who could hold the key to the 2008 election. But with increasing illegal immigration threatening the economy and security of the United States, many legal immigrants anxious to uphold the laws of their adopted country are moving towards the more hard-line immigration stance of Republicans. Even in California’s Democratic-controlled San Diego, sizeable numbers of America’s newly-minted potential voters said that illegal immigrants should be penalised rather than given an easy route to citizenship as most Democrats advocate. “For a long time, immigration was OK,” said Sara Wright, 49, a seamstress from Mexico who arrived in the US legally in 1986. “But now, no more. A lot of really bad people come from Mexico and commit crimes. “People are coming in and having two, three, four babies and going on welfare. Some are making money here and spending it back in Mexico. "That’s not right. They should go back to Mexico and get a permit.” Mrs Wright, whose American-born husband Ed served in the US Navy, was one of 1,591 people from 89 countries who became citizens at a ceremony in San Diego’s Golden Hall on Tuesday.Nearly two thirds of them were from Mexico, whose border is just 17 miles from the city. During the 40-minute ceremony, performed by a judge, the new citizens waved American flags, sang “America the Beautiful” and raised their rights hands as they repeated the oath to “abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty” of another nation. Some men wore ties emblazoned with the stars and stripes while many women dressed in red, white and blue. After the oath, some wept, others hugged one another and many turned to the public gallery and flashed broad smiles. With the number of illegal aliens in the US estimated at anything between eight and 20 million people out of a population of around 303 million, how to deal with the problem is becoming an explosive political issue in the 2008 campaign. President George W. Bush’s plan to provide a “path to citizenship” was rejected by Congress and branded an “amnesty” by many senior Republicans. Hillary Clinton’s status as front runner for the White House was damaged recently when she declined to criticise a plan in New York state to give driver’s licences to illegal immigrants. Previously, new citizens could be relied upon to vote Democratic by a ratio of up to 10 to one. But in San Diego this week there were indications that this could be changing. “I’ve had several people here, Hispanic people, say ‘No, I’m a Republican’,” said Bill De Risa, a Democratic worker eagerly registering voters outside Golden Hall. His colleague Mary Kennedy said that one woman had told her she wanted to be a Republican because of immigration policy. “She felt the Democrats were too soft. She wanted higher fences. It’s a very polarising issue.” Sarah Thomas, 42, a restaurateur originally from Salway Ash, Dorset and one of about two dozen Britons who took US citizenship, said illegal immigrants should be sent home. “They need to leave and come back legally. “Just because somebody has been here for 10 years illegally, not paying taxes, does that give them equal rights? No.” John Pauls, 46, a Canadian-born doctor, said that illegal immigrants were a major burden on the taxpayers who had to foot their health bills and that insecure borders could allow terrorists to come into the US. “Those that do come into this country illegally are telling us that they are morally and ethically not trustworthy. They should not be here. It’s insulting to those of us who are here legally.” Many other new citizens, however, took a more conciliatory stance. Parsa Haghani, 24, born in Iran, said: “We should help to make them legal so they can have all the benefits of this great land. “They’re here because they want to be part of this country, they want security, freedom and a future. We are a nation of immigrants and we should extend the opportunities we enjoy to others.”
Presidential candidate Mitt Romney will directly address the skepticism surrounding his Mormon faith in a speech Thursday in Texas, a move many political consultants and pundits have argued Romney should take to appeal to voters hesitant to vote for a member of the LDS Church. Romney's campaign said Sunday night the former Massachusetts governor would give a speech called "Faith in America," at the George Bush Presidential Library in College Station, Texas, and would highlight his views on religious liberty, a tradition of tolerance and how Romney's Mormon faith would impact his potential presidency."Governor Romney understands that faith is an important issue to many Americans, and he personally feels this moment is the right moment for him to share his views with the nation," campaign spokesman Kevin Madden said. Various polls have shown voters are less likely to vote for an adherent of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a faith some evangelical Protestant view as a cult.
Ron Paul won an informal straw poll of Virginia Republicans Saturday at the state party's annual weekend retreat. The Texas congressman got 182 of the 479 ballots cast, or 38 percent. Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson finished second with 112 votes, with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee third with 51. Dozens of noisy Paul followers packed the late afternoon speeches by proxies for the candidates in a suburban Washington, D.C., hotel and the voting afterward."They weren't here yesterday," said state GOP chairman John Hager. About 700 Republican activists registered for the Friday and Saturday event. "We had no indication until around 3 o'clock that this would happen." Mitt Romney got 43 votes, Sen. John McCain got 23, California congressman Duncan Hunter got 19 and Colorado congressman Tom Tancredo finished with four votes.
Republicans are reported "significantly more likely than Democrats or independents to rate their mental health as excellent," according to data from the last four November Gallup Health and Healthcare polls. Fifty-eight percent of Republicans report having excellent mental health, contrasted to 43% of independents and 38% of Democrats. This relationship between party identification and reports of excellent mental health persists even within categories of income, age, gender, church attendance, and education. The poll was based on an aggregate survey of more than 4,000 interviews conducted since 2004. Democrats are slightly less likely to report excellent mental health than are independents, the big distinctions in these data are the differences between Republicans and everyone else. A recent Gallup report reviewed these mental health data more generally, and found that men, those with higher incomes, those with higher education levels, and whites are more likely than others to report excellent mental health.Party identification appears to have an independent effect on mental health even when each of these is controlled for. In almost all cases, Republicans are more likely to report excellent mental health across the various categories. Republicans are significantly more likely to report excellent mental health than are independents or Democrats among those making less than $50,000 a year, and among those making at least $50,000 a year. Republicans are also more likely than independents and Democrats to report excellent mental health within all four categories of educational attainment. Gallup also conducted a separate multivariate analysis that looked at the impact of a list of variables -- including party identification -- on self-reported mental health. This analysis showed that even when the impact of these other variables is controlled for statistically, there is an independent and highly significant impact of being a Republican on mental health.Because Republicans have on average higher incomes than independents or Democrats, part of the explanation for the relationship between being a Republican and having better mental health is a result of this underlying factor. But the key finding of the analyses presented here is that being a Republican appears to have an independent relationship on positive mental health above and beyond what can be explained by these types of demographic and lifestyle variables. Results are based on an aggregated sample of telephone interviews with 4,014 national adults, aged 18 and older, conducted in November 2004, November 2005, November 2006, and November 2007. For results based on the total aggregated sample of national adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is ±2 percentage points. The margin of error for smaller subsamples reported in this analysis will be larger.
Yesterday, he released a stark television ad here that shows photos of bloody bodies, including those of children, lying in a street, victims of gang violence. The ad warns that the violent criminals behind those kinds of attacks are sneaking into the U.S., and calls for deportation of illegal aliens — something most other candidates have shied away from, calling for attrition through better enforcement instead. The ad blames "gutless politicians" for not acting to secure the borders and remove illegal aliens. Mr. Tancredo said he has a little money and a short period of time before the caucuses, so he figured he needed to make as much of an impact as he could. But he said he wasn't going for shock value in order to try to regain territory."That wasn't the purpose in this," he said. "It helps, but that wasn't on my mind." Also campaigning in Iowa yesterday was former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who accepted endorsements from Tim LaHaye, co-author of the apocalyptic evangelical "Left Behind" series, from his wife Beverly LaHaye, founder of Concerned Women for America, and from two former supporters of Sen. Sam Brownback, the Kansas Republican who ended his bid for the nomination. Mr. Huckabee, a former Southern Baptist pastor who was governor of Arkansas for 10 years, also accepted the personal endorsements of about five dozen Iowa pastors, part of a network he is building.
Mr. Huckabee and Mr. Tancredo are on differing trajectories. Mr. Huckabee has translated a surprise second-place showing in the Iowa straw poll in August into a lead in the polls here, while Mr. Tancredo does not appear to have improved on his fourth-place showing in August. Mr. Tancredo said it was a "no-brainer" to reject Univision's invitation, but his decision has been widely debated on the Internet, and some of his supporters said he is missing a chance to take his message where it needs to be heard. Mr. Tancredo said he expects his voice is being heard this way. "My not being there is probably the strongest statement I can make on this issue," he said. He also rejected the criticism that he is refusing to address a particular audience, saying this is purely an issue of language. He was the only Republican candidate to accept an invitation to speak to the annual convention of National Association for the Advancement of Colored People this year. Asked if he would watch the debate from home, he said that wasn't the plan: "Nah, I don't know Spanish."
Yesterday, he released a stark television ad here that shows photos of bloody bodies, including those of children, lying in a street, victims of gang violence. The ad warns that the violent criminals behind those kinds of attacks are sneaking into the U.S., and calls for deportation of illegal aliens — something most other candidates have shied away from, calling for attrition through better enforcement instead. The ad blames "gutless politicians" for not acting to secure the borders and remove illegal aliens. Mr. Tancredo said he has a little money and a short period of time before the caucuses, so he figured he needed to make as much of an impact as he could. But he said he wasn't going for shock value in order to try to regain territory."That wasn't the purpose in this," he said. "It helps, but that wasn't on my mind." Also campaigning in Iowa yesterday was former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who accepted endorsements from Tim LaHaye, co-author of the apocalyptic evangelical "Left Behind" series, from his wife Beverly LaHaye, founder of Concerned Women for America, and from two former supporters of Sen. Sam Brownback, the Kansas Republican who ended his bid for the nomination. Mr. Huckabee, a former Southern Baptist pastor who was governor of Arkansas for 10 years, also accepted the personal endorsements of about five dozen Iowa pastors, part of a network he is building.
Mr. Huckabee and Mr. Tancredo are on differing trajectories. Mr. Huckabee has translated a surprise second-place showing in the Iowa straw poll in August into a lead in the polls here, while Mr. Tancredo does not appear to have improved on his fourth-place showing in August. Mr. Tancredo said it was a "no-brainer" to reject Univision's invitation, but his decision has been widely debated on the Internet, and some of his supporters said he is missing a chance to take his message where it needs to be heard. Mr. Tancredo said he expects his voice is being heard this way. "My not being there is probably the strongest statement I can make on this issue," he said. He also rejected the criticism that he is refusing to address a particular audience, saying this is purely an issue of language. He was the only Republican candidate to accept an invitation to speak to the annual convention of National Association for the Advancement of Colored People this year. Asked if he would watch the debate from home, he said that wasn't the plan: "Nah, I don't know Spanish."
