Perhaps one of the biggest news items coming out of this weekend’s Spanish-language GOP debate in Miami was not the sparring of the seven participating candidates, but rather, the noticeable absence of Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo. Last week, Tancredo, who has made a tough stance on immigration his calling card in the race, announced that he would not attend the debate, which aired on Univision, the largest Spanish-language TV network in the United States. Prior to the debate, the Tancredo camp put out a mocking Internet ad that criticized fellow candidates for their “pandering” and encouraged people to boycott it. The ad features a Spanish music video in the background, and the faces of former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee and Arizona Senator John McCain as The Three Amigos.
Some critics believe that Tancredo’s absence was merely an attempt to stave off attacks by the non-English-speaking population he has so often criticized, in a city he once referred to as a Third World country.
But Tancredo may have received more publicity by not attending: He appeared on CNN’sRick Sanchez show and Fox News’Glenn Beck and Studio B with Shepard Smith to address his decision to abstain from the Miami debate. And the New Hampshire Union Leader went so far as to say that Tancredo was the real winner of Sunday night’s debate for taking a firm English-only stance.
Though absent from the Univision event, Tancredo was able to emphasize his position in Wednesday’s GOP debate in Iowa, saying he would “make sure the country begins the process of securing the borders and ‘enforcing the law inside the United States against hiring people who are here illegally’” in his first year in office if elected, CNN reported.
Although many accounts of the debate suggested that the candidates softened their anti-immigration talk, a recent New Yorker article reports on the so-called “rise of Tancredoism,” that is, a hard-line anti-immigration policy that the Republican party has adopted over the past several years.
Also this week, Washington gossip blog Wonkette took a humorous jab at Tancredo’s immigration policy and encouraged the citizens of Colorado’s Sixth District to elect a Mexican to fill the seat that the congressman will leave vacant after next year.
The latest Washington Post-ABC News Poll shows Tancredo in last place among Republicans, with just 1 percent of the vote.
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