During tonight’s Republican debate, Congressman Tom Tancredo (R) Colorado, said definitively: We “… must STOP all LEGAL immigration…”
Tancredo said that only “family members and refugees” should be allowed into the USA for as long a time as it takes, to close off all legal immigration, until ‘we don’t have to press for English…’ [being the exclusive language]
Wolf Blitzer immediately asked other candidates whether they agreed with Tancredo. Those who responded were vehement in their disagreement.
Mayor Giuliani looked as though he thought that Tancredo was NOT speaking English himself, but rather some form of gibberish. But Senator McCain, reacted in facial expression and tone of voice as though Tancredo might have lost his mind and floated up in a pink fairy dress way beyond the pale.
In response to Blitzer asking if he agreed with what Tancredo had just said, McCain replied in slow measured words: “It’s. Beyond. My. Thinking…”
There’s a saying amongst handlers of various public figures, or those who want to be public figures: If you can’t distinguish yourself from others from your own successful experience in the matter, if you fail at eloquence, if you have no track record to point to… try to say something far to the right or left, over the top or under the bottom of what others are saying. If Joe Blow says ten, you say 100. If John Doe says blue, you say red. If Jane Smith bids 500, you bid the whole house.
It’s not a strategy to endear oneself to seasoned politicos who look to work with reliable side arms, not cannons that rotate at will.