FIRST PERSON

Tom Tancredo On Running For President

As Told To Will Englund

Monday, Sept. 1, 2008


First PersonSometimes presidential candidates don't have to win to accomplish part of their goals. But coming up short--in money, attention, and, of course, votes--still stings.
• Tom Tancredo
• Tommy Thompson
• Duncan Hunter

I was never operating under the illusion that I would be president of the United States. The goal was to get everybody that we could to begin to discuss immigration in terms that I think most Republicans would be happy about. So it was about mid-December [2007], I was in a motel in I-Don't-Know-Where, Iowa, and it was very cold. I was eating dinner, and I'm watching the television, it's about 11 o'clock, and I saw a commercial for Rudy Giuliani, and it said, "If you elect me, I will build a fence, and I will crack down on illegal immigration." And at that I picked up the phone and called Bay Buchanan, who was my campaign manager, and said, "Bay, we can pull the plug on this thing. The last domino has just fallen."

[John] McCain had been farthest away. I remember thinking and saying to my wife, when this was all over with, I said, "Well, at least McCain is not going to make it." And it's just kind of strange. Because remember, he was like $25 million in debt. He was nowhere in the polls. So it really did look like he was out of it.

It was the Huckabee factor. [Former Arkansas] Governor [Mike] Huckabee decided to stay in even though he could not have won. He absolutely made a difference, and he knew it, and that difference was he was able to keep Mitt Romney out of the play by draining off conservative votes. And I think he did it to a large extent because Mitt is a Mormon. It was really to ruin Romney's chances. So that created the pathway for Senator McCain.

I am certainly annoyed. I believe that Romney would have made a great candidate and a great president. John McCain is a better choice than Barack Obama, but I just hate the idea of voting for the lesser of two evils. But that's what it boils down to.

One day we were in New Hampshire, and we were walking to the debate, and there were a lot of Ron Paul supporters. And they get very animated, and they were very excited, and it's great--I really like Ron. And we're walking in to go to the debate, and this guy is standing there with a shark suit on. This guy on my staff says to him, "Are you with the Ron Paul people?" And this guy goes, without missing a beat, "Oh, hell no. They're all nuts. I'm just wearing a shark suit."

But the very first debate was the most bizarre thing I think I had ever attended up to that point in time. I mean here we were, MSNBC, and Chris Matthews was asking the questions. And I waited 45 minutes before I got a question. And we had prepared, oh, man, I had spent weeks going over everything that I could possibly think of. And the first question he asked me was, "What should a president do to increase organ donors?" And I was so absolutely taken off guard by that. First of all, waiting there all that time, then getting a question that I had never in a million years thought of, nor do I think is even remotely relevant. But the whole thing was like that. The questions were, "Would you invite Bill Clinton to the White House? Do you think you're going to get invited to Air Force One?" It was just the stupidest stuff. Nothing of substance. It was the most annoying, frustrating thing--and I did horribly, and wanted to go home right then. Oh, my God, I thought, what have I gotten myself into here?

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