Tancredo for President -- Official Blog

Tancredo's Post-Debate Thoughts

Congressman Tancredo shares his thoughts on the First-In-The-South debate on FOX News. Enjoy.

Tancredo the "break-out candidate of the night"

From National Journal's blog Hotline On Call:

Tom Tancredo had a good night, too, ending the night with a great Jack Bauer line. Maybe -- the break-out candidate of the night.

The Train Home

Congressman Tancredo's flying to Washington, D.C. later this morning. He did such a great job. I'm anxious to look through the media coverage of his performance.

I'm taking the train back. My train leaves around 1:30 AM.

Headin' Back

I've left the Koger Center and I'm headed back to the hotel. I've got a lot of photos and footage which I'll put on the blog as soon as possible.

Post-Debate Spin Room

Here are some pictures from the spin room. The spin room is the place where candidates go after the debate to talk with the media. And A LOT of media wanted to talk with Congressman Tancredo. Around 11:10 PM tonight, Tancredo was on Hannity and Colmes.

Also, I've got some footage that I'm going to be putting up later.

A Quick Recap

You heard it from Tancredo himself. We're the "last, best hope."

Tancredo totally owned this debate.

*** post-debate transcript insertion ***

MR. HUME: Congressman Tancredo, let me give you the last word in this round. Go ahead, sir.

REP. TANCREDO: Well, let me just say that it's almost unbelievable to listen to this in a way. We're talking about -- we're talking about it in such a theoretical fashion. You say that -- that nuclear devices have gone off in the United States, more are planned, and we're wondering about whether waterboarding would be a -- a bad thing to do? I'm looking for "Jack Bauer" at that time, let me tell you. (Laughter, applause.)

And -- and there is -- there is nothing -- if you are talking about -- I mean, we are the last best hope of Western civilization. And so all of the theories that go behind our activities subsequent to these nuclear attacks going off in the United States, they go out the window because when -- when we go under, Western civilization goes under. So you better take that into account, and you better do every single thing you can as president of the United States to make sure, number one, it doesn't happen -- that's right -- but number two, you better respond in a way that makes them fearful of you because otherwise you guarantee something like this will happen.

Global Warming and National Security

He dominated this question. And, yet again, our response sizzles viewers' minds while the commercials play.

*** post-debate transcript insertion ***

MR. GOLER: Thanks.

Congressman Tancredo, the ambassador from the European Union says the United States and Europe bear a special responsibility for global warming because the greenhouse gases causing the problem have been put there since the Industrial Revolution of the 1800s. We put most of the stuff up there. Do you agree? And what should we do to deal with the problem, sir?

REP. TANCREDO: Okay. First of all, the whole issue of global warming, for every single scientist that tells you it's happening and that it's our fault -- and they'll stack up to here in this reports -- I can stack up another group of reports that say just the opposite.

I don't believe that -- well, I'll tell you this, I don't know whether or not we are responsible, we the human race, are responsible for global warming.

It certainly could be happening, it certainly could be a natural phenomenon. If it's the latter, of course there isn't much we can do about that. If it's the former, there is something that we can do about it, and I'm all for it, and that is of course to reduce our dependence on petroleum products. If we do that, we automatically reduce the carbon emissions that people claim are causing global warming. And I'm all for doing that, because -- I'll tell you why. It's a national security issue. It just isn't an issue of fight over the science of global warming; it's a national security issue for us to move away from the use of petroleum products when they're coming from countries that want to kill us.

The Gloves are OFF!

This debate tops the last one. The back and forth between candidates is amazing.

The Focus on Immigration

If you pulled up the New York Times or any other major U.S. daily from over five years ago, you would find most of these other candidates now acting "tough" on immigration once acted "soft" and supported amnesty.

The Question We've Waited For

All of a sudden it's the "in" thing for candidates to switch up their immigration view.

Every candidate is now trying to flip flop on immigration and sound "Tancredo" on it.

*** post-debate transcript insertion ***

MR. WALLACE: Thanks, Brit.

Gentlemen, I have a series of questions on immigration, and let me begin with you, Congressman Tancredo.

You have made the fight against illegal immigration the centerpiece of your campaign. I hope you will be as specific as Governor Gilmore was earlier. Do you think that Senator McCain and Mayor Giuliani and Governor Romney are soft on immigration, and if so, why?

REP. TANCREDO: I do. And of course you can look at the bills that they've sponsored, in this case Senator McCain in particular. He sponsored a bill that -- a little bit ago -- would have given amnesty to everybody who's here illegally. It would have required Mexico to -- required us to actually consult with Mexico as to whether or not we would build the fence along our southern border.

The issue of immigration is, of course, enormously important to me. And I see so many conversions around this room tonight on a lot of things, and this is -- I'm beginning to hint that -- or I mean I get the hint here there's conversions happening on this issue also; conversions on guns, conversions on abortion, conversions on immigration. You know, it's beginning to truly sound like a Baptist tent rival meeting here. And I am glad to see conversions. I'm glad they happen. But I must tell you, I trust those conversions when they happen on the road to Damascus and not on the road to Des Moines. (Laughter.)

And this is really the problem that we are -- this is the problem that we're facing here because this issue of immigration is one of the most serious public policy issues we face. And if we pursue this path toward amnesty -- (bell rings) -- it's a disaster for the country.