Tancredo takes demagoguery to a whole new level

November 13, 2007

In 2004, it was fairly common for Bush and Cheney to tell voters that voting for John Kerry might put their lives at risk. The VP once famously said a Democratic president would mean we’d be “hit again,” just like on 9/11.

But leave it to Tom Tancredo to run an ad dramatizing an actual terrorist attack in a campaign commercial — complete with a loud explosion at the end — implicitly telling voters that unless they vote for him, immigrants might kill their family.

That this commercial might actually appear on Iowa television screens is perhaps the most twisted news of the presidential campaign thus far. “Tancredo: Before It’s Too Late” — perhaps the most jaw-dropping self-parody in modern times.

To be sure, I suspect this a desperate stunt, intended to help get Tancredo some attention. Right now, he’s a third-tier afterthought, perceived as a xenophobic nut. But with this ad on the air, people will know he’s a xenophobic nut, and everyone will be talking about how painfully insane a xenophobic nut he really is.

When you’re struggling with 2% support, there’s apparently no such thing as bad publicity.

For those of you who can’t watch clips online, here’s the script for the ad:

Con. Tancredo: Hi I’m Tom Tancredo and I approved this message because someone needs to say it.

Voiceover: There are consequences to open borders beyond the 20 million aliens who have come to take our jobs. Islamic terrorists now freely roam U.S. soil, Jihadists who froth with hate here to do as they have in London, Spain, Russia.

The price we pay for spineless politicians who refuse to defend our borders against those who come to kill.

{Explosion}

On Screen: Tancredo… before it’s too late.

Dennis Goldford, a professor of politics at Drake University in Des Moines, called the Tancredo spot “an incredibly fear-based kind of advertisement that some might say is trying to terrorize people into supporting his view.”

Ya think?

If there’s been a more blatant, demagogic ad in the campaign, I can’t think of it. Come to think of it, I can’t imagine how anyone would top this nonsense, anyway.

I can’t even take this seriously. Are you sure this isn’t something The Daily Show cooked up in their free time? Tom Tancredo needs to be committed.

  • I can’t imagine how anyone would top this nonsense

    Every time my busted outrage meter moves I say that. But don’t forget that the Republicans are the political equivalent of cornered animals. They’re looking at a Democratic tsunami, and they will do some crazy shit.

    They’ll top this one. You watch.

  • Terra, terra, terra; terra all the time. BE AFRAID!!! Be Very Afraid!! Big bad Tourerist is comin’ t’ git’ya! Usama binBoogyman and his gang of born-again gay muslim mexicans are comin’ to rape all the (white) women and steal all the jobs! Yeah! Gonna’ take over the world…

    I grew up in a country, a culture, that feared nothing but fear itself.

    Ain’t nothin’ east of The Rockies we need.

  • It shouldn’t be too long before people are suggesting that the explosion represents not what will happen if we don’t elect Tancredo, but what should happen to his campaign so that he doesn’t get elected, “before it’s too late.

  • Two quotes i’ve saved over time that seem to describe this man / idiot’s state of mind :

    You people don’t understand. If we stop the surge, gas will go to $12 a gallon, we will all be enslaved by Iranian hordes, your children will get AIDS, you will lose your job, and your penis will no longer function. They are coming to kill your children with nuclear missles strapped to their backs and with bees shooting out of their mouths. Wake up!

    ” Did you know that every day, Mexican gays sneak into this country and unplug our brain-dead ladies ? ” – Homer Simpson, relaying information he heard on FOX News

  • Jihadists who froth with hate here to do as they have in London, Spain, Russia.

    The only ones allowed to froth with hate in this country should be true blue white Americans! ‘nuf said.

  • ***It shouldn’t be too long before people are suggesting that the explosion represents not what will happen if we don’t elect Tancredo, but what should happen to his campaign so that he doesn’t get elected, “before it’s too late.***

    I’ll gladly say it, Anne—we ought to paint a big, fat bulls-eye on Tancredo’s campaign—and—in the words of Richard Nixon—“Bomb it into infinity.”

    Now if I could only remember where I left the ignition keys for that B-2 parked out back….

  • Odd, I haven’t seen a SINGLE Islamic terrorist or jihadist anywhere in my area, not even wearing a backpack with a bomb in it. Richard Jewel was the closest we got to THAT in 1996 here in Georgia, and we all know how that turned out.

    I think I’ll send Tancredo an email suggesting that he hide under his bed to escape all the terrorists that nobody has seen, not even the MSM who would LOVE to get their hands on such a story.. Or maybe he’d like to go to Iraq and fight them over there so we won’t have to fight them here.

    If you can’t win the electorate by wooing them with your stand on issues, then scare them. Maybe they’ll vote for you?

  • There are consequences to open borders beyond the 20 million aliens who have come to take our jobs.

    Anyone else have the “THEY TOOK ‘ER JERBZ!!” South Park episode running through their heads?

    Sorry to make light of such a dangerous appeal to fear and racism (or … um … religiosism, since Muslims aren’t really a “race,” per se?), but that’s all I can do: laugh at such blatant stupidity.

    Of course, I have a brother-in-law up there in Iowa who I know agrees with crap like this. So maybe it ain’t so funny …

  • anney,

    They’re the ones frothing with hate.

    But don’t confuse them with the ones seething with hate. Those terrorists aren’t so bad.

    “Islamic terrorists now freely roam U.S. soil, Jihadists who froth with hate here to do as they have in London, Spain, Russia.”

    Well, then they’re either not very good or not very smart.
    In order to be a terrorist, don’t you have to, I don’t know, commit acts of terrorism?

    You would think with all these roaming packs of terrorists threatening the countryside, you’d have a lot of terrorist-like activity going on.

  • Anyone else have the “THEY TOOK ‘ER JERBZ!!” South Park episode running through their heads?

    [raises hand]

    Now, we just need to convince the WingNuts of the Apocalypse that the only way to prevent an attack is to meet at one of the more heavily traveled entry points in the SW and engage in a non-stop orgy. This will give Steve time to find the keys and …

  • I think the only thing people haven’t mentioned is that this stuff works. We can laugh at the nut, but he’s imitating none other than the Vice President.

    The question isn’t, “how crazy is this guy?” but, “how do you combat this type of fear mongering?” A much harder question to answer.

  • 2Manchu

    Yes, they are frothing with hate. It’s directed not only at “Islamists” but Americans, too, whom he holds in so much contempt that he’d think they would believe such an ad. Somebody needs to slap these fearmongers silly.

    eadie

    The question isn’t, “how crazy is this guy?” but, “how do you combat this type of fear mongering?” A much harder question to answer.

    Somebody oughta’ grab Tancredo and/or his supporters by the arm and march them out onto the streets and DEMAND that they point out the terrorists and arrest them then and there or face waterboarding in Egypt.

  • two from another site. . .

    The illegal Islamics want to come here and take our terrorist jobs, and Tancredo knows that. Sure, most Americans don’t want to be terrorists these days, which allows these illegals to come in and get those jobs. First they need to get tough laws against the sponsors of illegal terrorists so more American terrorists can get work.

    Posted by: Rodney Lamprey, jr. | November 13, 2007 01:46 PM

    Oh wait…look both ways…dont see anything….allrite…..go. Oh my god! Hurry! Hurry! I made it to the mail box, now get the mail…hurry, hurry..got it, now GO..GO..GO. Bob, weave, jump…..sphew….made it back inside with the mail….boy that was close, and man that was scary….I think they almost got me.

    Posted by: Im scared | November 13, 2007 01:51 PM

  • This is a great clip by Tancredo. I’m glad Tancredo is not an inner city liberal or he’d be scorning and mocking, and turning everything upside down like all of these other liberal commentators.

  • Every ReThug advisor is trying to find the immoral equivalent of the Johnson/Goldwater countdown ad… get to zero and your opponent’s campaign explodes…

    I’m writing the “Democracy… before it’s too late…” ad.

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