Following up on Josh’s post from Friday night, Fred Thompson is not only failing to connect with GOP voters from the stump, he’s also inadvertently alienating an important Republican constituency. At a campaign stop this week in South Carolina, for example, Thompson equated immigrants from Cuba with potential terrorists.
Noting that the United States had apprehended 1,000 people from Cuba in 2005, Thompson said, “I don’t imagine they’re coming here to bring greetings from Castro. We’re living in the era of the suitcase bomb.” Fidel Castro is Cuba’s leader.
A video clip of Thompson’s remark immediately circulated on YouTube and has drawn considerable attention in Florida, a key early primary state home to many Republican-leaning Cuban Americans.
As a Miami native, perhaps I’m slightly more attuned to the concerns of Cuban-Americans, but one need not be a Dolphins fan to know that Thompson’s comments were surprisingly dumb. Immigrants from Cuba are fleeing Castro’s dictatorship, not plotting to kill Americans. What’s more, Cuban-Americans generally vote Republican and have always been considered a key GOP constituency by presidential candidates hoping to win Florida’s 27 electoral votes.
You’d think Thompson would know all of this.
Just like you’d think Thompson would have a better sense of foreign policy towards Iran.
Nifty Campaign Idea of the Month award: June’s winner is former senator and not-yet-candidate Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.), who advocated a blockade against Iran before taking military action to stop its nuclear plans.
“A blockade would be a possibility if we get the international cooperation,” Thompson said in a foreign policy speech in London, Bloomberg News reported. It was unclear whether this blockade — which some, especially the Iranians, might consider an act of war — would cover Iran’s lengthy land borders with Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkey and Azerbaijan.
The phrase “not ready for primetime” keeps coming to mind.
