Candidate Review - The Environment - Tom Tancredo

As far as I know, Tom Tancredo hasn't quit the race yet, so I'll let you know that he doesn't, on his issues page, address energy or the environment. However there is a connection between environmental damage and Immigration, as you might expect.

First, all immigration explodes U.S. population by 100, 200, 300 million and more, which forces this nation toward a billion people by the end of this century. It will prove our greatest calamity as we outstrip our ability to water, feed and house ourselves. Unbelievable environmental dilemmas await future generations. We face a horrific energy crisis that will prove brutal to all of us.

Yeah it isn't our polluting ways - it's the immigrants.

Oy.

Anyway he is probably dropping out soon.

Candidate Review - Illegal Immigration - Tom Tancredo

This is Tancredo's signature issue, and hence, we can skip by it pretty quick.

Illegal aliens threaten our economy and undermine our culture. While our brave soldiers risk their lives to protect us overseas, our political elites lack the courage to defend us at home. I am 100% opposed to amnesty. As President, I will secure our borders so illegal aliens do not come, and I will eliminate benefits and job prospects so they do not stay.

He has a whole pdf if you want to read more detail - but truthfully - it's the end of the day and I'm done. I'll have to do Thompson tomorrow.

Candidate Review - Electoral Reform - Tom Tancredo

Let's start with a relatively good joke by Conan O'Brien, as quoted by Tom Trancredo in one of his speeches.

The other night Conan O’Brien announced that Hillary Clinton had raised $36 million dollars, Barak Obama raised $25 million, and Tom Tancredo had raised two children…

He is right. I have raised two children, both of whom I am mighty proud-and they are raising five grandsons. It doesn’t get better than that.

But what Conan is saying is that it is far more important to have raised money than children--- or anything else for that matter-- if you are running for President. I don’t believe that. I won't believe it-because if that is true - corporate America has won--and the good people of this great nation have lost.

That's not bad; but let's see if Tancredo has any solution to the problem of Presidents needing too much money to run for President.

Nope - none that I can find. He is opposed to illegal aliens voting, but that appears to be about it. And he's upset that the moneyed interests that support Republicans and Democrats aren't in favor of getting serious about illegal immigration (well serious as Tancredo defines it, which is very serious and possibly lethal).

Candidate Review - The Iraq War - Tom Tancredo

Tom Tancredo doesn't have a lot of energy to spend on Iraq, given how focused he is on immigration. But he makes an effort on his website to cover the basics.

America's noble sacrifice has purchased Iraqis a precious opportunity for democratic change; it is now up to them to ensure success. Setting the President's November benchmark for shifting control as an actual timetable for disengagement will let regional powers and Iraqi factions cooperate to forge a new balance of power.

So basically, tell the Iraqs we are leaving and force them to solve their own problems? That doesn't sound very Republican to me - most Republicans are following Bush's plan of telling the Iraqis we are staying and not expecting them to fix the political situation.

Tancredo must be too distracted by illegal aliens to focus on this issue.

Candidate Review - Health Care - Tom Tancredo

For Tom Tancredo the chance to comment on Health Care leads naturally to a discussion of Illegal Immigration. As do all other issues.

The two major problems are the high cost of care and the number of uninsured. Tort reform and immigration enforcement would save the system billions and drive down costs. In California alone, illegal immigrants cost the system $800 million annually and have forced 84 hospitals to close.

I find myself imagining Tancredo being asked "Representative Tancredo, what is your favorite parade?" "Well I'll tell you one parade I don't like. The Parade of Illegals across our border!" At any rate he has some other ideas as well, but you don't have to worry about socialized medicine with Tancredo.

As for the uninsured: as many as 25% of them are illegal aliens and should be deported or encouraged to leave. For citizens and legal residents who are employed by businesses which cannot afford coverage, I favor association health plans which band small businesses together to access lower cost insurance. For those out of work, state governments should be the primary source of relief, although I would not rule out federal incentives or limited subsidies to make sure families who have fallen on hard times are not without coverage.

Does that mean he thinks Association Health Plans are simply a good idea? Or does it mean that he favors using his office as President to encourage and support them in some fashion? Hard to say.

Candidate Review - Fair Trade - Tom Tancredo

Tancredo's position fits with his other positions; he wants to see trade treaties negotiated and approved by the Congress, not the President.

The President's fast track authority should not be renewed. The constitution gives Congress not the Executive the power to " regulate commerce with foreign nations." Those who would delegate that authority to the President argue that the complexities of negotiation in a global economy require it. But that argument has lost its force because the Presidents have abused the power. Instead of sticking to trade agreements, they make commitments on matters of domestic policy, like immigration and carbon dioxide emissions, in the guise of international accords.

It is somewhat nice to see a Presidential candidate asserting that his office should be less powerful. Certainly that hasn't been President Bush's policy.

Candidate Review - Foreign Policy - Tom Tancredo

Tom Tancredo cares about immigration. And not about foreign policy. I suspect he knows he's a no-hoper and so is just out there to jab the other candidates about immigration so as to push them closer to the right answer. Anyway the closest he gets to foreign policy is Homeland Security which covers, naturally enough, Illegal Immigration.

Homeland security plans which do not include enforcing our immigration laws and securing our borders are entirely inadequate. A CIS study of 94 terrorists prosecuted for their crimes in the U.S., found that nearly two thirds had committed immigration fraud. It is difficult then to justify the rigor, expense, and inconvenience of new safety measures at our airports and harbors, while leaving the door open for terrorists to slip across our southern border undetected.

He's kind of a blank slate on Foreign Policy, and, frankly, foreign policy is a pretty big chunk of the President's job. But then if you aren't really playing to win, you have a bit of leeway to ignore things that don't interest you.

Candidate Review - Abortion - Tom Tancredo

Well everybody knows what Tancredo's number one issue is, and it isn't abortion. That's his number two issue (or Stand, as his website puts it (and for those who don't know Illegal Immigration is number one)).

His website is kind of blase but with a lot of videos and what nots. And his issues pages includes both a short recital of his position and a PDF and a Video on it (neither of which I'm going to pursue (I have 8 of these things to do).

The innocent unborn enjoy a God given right to life. Roe is a scar on the moral and intellectual history of the country; but, contrary to popular belief, overturning it would merely permit and not require states to prohibit abortion. To protect life, we also need to educate the public about the second victim of abortion, the mother who is subject to potential life long medical and emotional scarring.

Well he gets point for acknowledging that getting rid of Roe probably won't stop Abortions in California or New York. But other than that, pretty by the numbers.