run tom run!

According to a blurb I heard on C-SPAN Radio recently, Tom Tancredo, that awesome reform-friendly Colorado representative and potential savior of the Republican party, is ramping up his could-be presidential campaign. There's not much that could drive me back to the Republican fold but that would likely do it. (At least for the presidential race, that is.) Of all those Repubs in Congress he's one of the few that not only understands the huge threat illegal immigration poses to our future but is genuinely trying to do something about it. He's singlehandedly pushed a lot of immigration issues to the forefront and goes out of his way to encourage local leaders to keep up the fight. He's even said that if he ran for President he'd be in it for the main purpose of forcing people to confront immigration. He just might be the best thing to knock on the House doors since Ron Paul showed up.

What? He can't win with immigration as his front-and-center issue? Let us observe what happened in the recent British general election. For months leading up to the election the Labour Party was looking very strong against the Conservatives, and Blair led his main opponent, Michael Howard, by double-digit points in the polls. In the weeks just before the election, Howard played the immigration card and started pounding Blair on his anemic border control. Blair tried to ignore it and dodge the issue but it kept biting him from behind. And suddenly the race was on. Turns out that despite the horribly biased media over yonder in England the voters actually care a lot about such things. After all, they are smart enough to link a laughable open-borders policy with increased terrorism concerns and racial problems. And it started showing in the polls.

Blair still kept a decent lead and ended up winning, but not by the margin he could have and Labour had to sweat a bit toward the end. Even "mainstream" pundits talked of how Blair should have won much more handily than he did and how the immigration elephant almost sacked him. The point here is that the race went from a foregone conclusion to an actual contest on the basis of a single issue. (And as a second point, one can read many articles dating back some years of how London is a "terrorist's paradise" of sorts with its easy access to vital information and practically nonexistent restrictions on who comes and goes. And that was recently proven to be at least partially true.)

I think the seeds are ripe for something similar here in the states. Polls show that voters, even hispanic voters, strongly favor stricter laws and tougher enforcement to combat the immigration problem. People may be starting to open their eyes and see what's going on at the border and the results of years of failure. As that continues to happen immigration will become a big issue. And heightened concerns about national security could also bring immigration to the forefront. A Tancredo candidacy will not only shed more light where it's needed, but will see Tancredo well positioned to benefit from an increased focus on the cornerstone of his platform. He could become this country's Michael Howard of sorts, seemingly out of the race but so strong on such an important issue that he becomes a real threat to the establishment. And if/when that happens I think he'll have a good shot at winning. I won't (yet) say it's likely or that he'd be a sure favorite but he'll certainly turn some heads.

So those of us who care about national security and immigration--no, I mean really care, not just pay lip service every so often--should keep our eyes and ears open for signs of a Tancredo run. He'd be an easy hero to root for and lend a hand to, and the payoff of a Tancredo administration would be too great to calculate. It's early yet, only 2005 for crying out loud, but the pieces are already being put in place. Here's hoping he jumps in with both feet. Tancredo '08, baby!

For the unenlightened, some quick googled info on Tancredo:
Team America PAC
Support from WorldNetDaily's Farah
Interview with Right Wing News's John Hawkins. This one is especially good. If you read nothing else the rest of the week read this.