From the Team Tancredo website (And that doesn’t necessarily answer the question. You’ve gotta love how it’s never all about himself!):
(Feb 22, CONCORD, NH) -Conservative
author Phyllis Schlafly urged New Hampshire Republican activists to
test the conservative bona fides of the 2008 presidential candidates,
especially those of the three Republicans leading in polls.
“New Hampshire is the front line of the presidential race, and as I go about
and talk to the conservative movement, they’re in disarray,” said
Schlafly, who led opposition to the failed Equal Rights Amendment more
than 25 years ago. “They don’t know what to do, who to back. We’re told
by the media that we have a choice of one of three, (Sen. John) McCain
or (former New York mayor Rudy) Giuliani or (former Massachusetts
governor Mitt) Romney. Each one of them is capable of raising $100
million. I’m not happy of being told that at all. I don’t think that
any of the three are acceptable.”
She spoke yesterday at Newick’s Restaurant in Merrimack before about 50
people, including members of the Coalition of New Hampshire Taxpayers,
the National Right to Life Committee and staffers of Colorado Rep. Tom
Tancredo’s presidential campaign. She told them to ask hard questions
of each candidate so that each would commit himself. But she made clear
that she thought that McCain, Romney and Giuliani lacked credibility on
issues important to her – immigration, gay marriage and abortion.
She disagreed with McCain’s choice to co-sponsor legislation with Sen. Ted
Kennedy that would give illegal immigrants a path to citizenship.
Instead, she supported building a fence and fortifying the border
patrol on the country’s southern border.
Romney didn’t impress her when she saw him speak in Missouri.
“Mitt Romney’s very handsome, very attractive, a wonderful speaker with a
wonderful resume,” but he didn’t focus on conservative issues, she
said.
Instead, he focused on his turnaround of the 2002 Winter Olympics, she said.
As for Giuliani, Schlafly said his standing at the top of polls won’t
last. “The polls also say that people don’t know that he’s
pro-abortion, pro-gay marriage and anti-gun,” she said. “I think those
polls will change when people find out.”
McCain, Giuliani and Romney are the top three candidates in the latest poll of
likely Republican primary voters by the University of New Hampshire
Survey Center.
Schlafly, 82, visited New Hampshire to stump for issues she has long supported.
Yesterday, she urged state legislators to fight the repeal of the
parental-notification abortion law at a press conference in Concord.
Schlafly, reviled by feminists for opposing the constitutional
amendment calling for equal rights for both sexes, also spoke to a
women’s studies class at Southern New Hampshire University. Tuesday,
she met with Rep. Duncan Hunter, a Republican candidate from California
also visiting the state. Schlafly has backed iconoclastic candidates
before, including Barry Goldwater, Steve Forbes and Ronald Reagan.
Her books include The Supremacists: The Tyranny of Judges and How to Stop
It, Feminist Fantasies and A Choice, Not an Echo, which criticized the
Republican Eastern establishment and was distributed by Goldwater’s
1964 presidential campaign. She is the founder of the Eagle Forum, a
St. Louis-based conservative volunteer group, and has fought for a
pro-life plank to be included in the national GOP platform since 1984.
Those who attended Schlafly’s speech echoed her call to confront candidates
and to make sure voters listen to everyone running, not just the poll
leaders.
“If McCain proved nothing else (in 2000), he proved that everybody has a chance from
going to 0 percent in the polls to winning the primary,” said Charlie
Arlinghaus, president of the Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy
and a former state GOP chairman.
Several activists wore stickers for Tancredo, whom Schlafly lauded for opposing McCain’s immigration bill.
“There are groups who will not vote for those three, because like Phyllis
said, they don’t line up with them on the right-to-life, gun control
and immigration,” said Shelly Uscinski, who is managing Tancredo’s New
Hampshire campaign and was handing out stickers yesterday.
Near the end of her speech, Schlafly tried to buck up Republicans dispirited
by losses in the November congressional election. She likened the
atmosphere today to when the press and some conservatives didn’t
believe her 1979 declaration that the Equal Rights Amendment was
defeated.
“Conservatives didn’t believe we could win anything at that time,” she said, noting
that the amendment hasn’t been ratified. “We’re kind of back to this
defeatism again. We need to rebuild it.”
Ron Paul is the most popular candidate in NH right now. Tancredo is not even on the radar. Neither are the other three supposed top candidates.
Ron has a successful internet campaign going and raised $14K on Sat at a house party.
PS – I spoke at the luncheon.
Jane, It’s good to hear from someone in NH. It’s also good to know that none of the supposed “top 3″ are getting any traction. $14K raised at a house party is quite impressive for a candidate the media is ignoring.
You say that Tancredo isn’t on the radar there, but he’s certainly on the radar of many Americans, friends and foes alike. Nevertheless, if Paul could pull it off, I’d support him too.