Duncan Hunter has the best anti-immigration credentials of the announced candidates.

"Let’s face it:" how conservative could Romney be? He got elected Gov. of Mass.

I’m praying that Tancredo can be convinced to run.

Romney will never get elected because he is Mormon. A Rasmussen poll recently showed that, out of likely voters, 43% said they would never elect a Mormon to the White House. The only other two types of belief (or disbelief) that would receive fewer voters are Muslims (at 61% saying no) and atheists (at 60% saying no). Over half of Evangelical Christians said they would never consider a Mormon.
Rasmussen

I blogged on this the other day on the scholar blog. Romney just isn’t a conservative, as his very Massachusetts history shows. He’s pulling the wool over our eyes to claim anything different.

The pool really is shallow. Why is that? McCain, Romney, Giuliani, and Gingrich the top tier? That concerns me. It will be an open seat. The Dem. nominee is likely to be Hillary. You would think we should be beating the contenders away with a stick. Is it really that difficult to run these days?

In my opinion, the only national Republican deserving of unequivocal conservative support is Ron Paul. However, as far as I know, he is not considering a run. So hoping for a Tancredo run is the best option for now.

When did America last elect a Congressman?

...to the presidency? was how that question ought have ended.

Kate, that’s a really great question. I can’t think of a single one elected in the 20th century to have held no higher public office than member of Congress (aside from Hoover and Eisenhower, who held no elected office whatsoever). Moreover, Tancredo is a one-trick pony. He’d never get the party’s nomination, let alone win a national election.

I agree, though, the current field of candidates is pretty darn pathetic.

"One trick pony?" On what issue is Tancredo not conservative? He was pro-War, and I would argue that that is not conservative but there were only five (I think) Republican Reps who voted against the War so that pool is really shallow. (Hey John Duncan (TN) sounds pretty good.) However, if Bush colludes with the Dems and passes amnesty against the clear wishes of the base, then a one trick pony might be what they want.

"Let’s face it: There’s a real dearth of Republican presidential candidates, and the ones now active have pretty obvious and significant flaws."

Why do we have to settle for the announced candidates? We should be recruiting better ones. Here is what I wrote on another thread.

"No one likes the possible candidates. Why don’t the conservative movement big wigs get together and find an alternative. Weyrich, Blackwell, Keene, Schlafly, etc. etc. etc. There is no way we can settle for the current crop."