Perils of Immigration Issue May Cut Both Ways

Few issues hold more peril for the 2008 presidential nominees of both parties than illegal immigration. Its capacity to inflame passions is matched only by its capacity to defy solutions. Both parties are on notice, but there is new evidence that the Republicans could be long-term losers in the debate.

Anger over illegal immigration has shaped the Republican nominating contest, as the last Republican debate in Florida amply demonstrated. Tom Tancredo, who entered the presidential campaign solely because of his opposition to illegal immigration (and who nonetheless has managed to go nowhere) summed up an early exchange between Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney as the two trying to “out-Tancredo Tancredo.”"*

Stumble it! | |