May 16, 2007 9:45 PM

Head of the class (UPDATED)

"Head-in-jar polling
higher than Tancredo"

-- Fake headline used Wednesday night on Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report"

* * * * *

Ridicule is a form of flattery.

And so Rep. Tom Tancredo, Colorado's entrant in the crowded race for the Republican presidential nomination, must feel quite flattered by the extra attention he's getting lately.

In Tuesday's nationally-televised debate, he scored a few laugh lines that got him featured in the next morning's television news roundups -- like when he said he'd turn to a fictional television character, terrorist-hunter Jack Bauer of the show "24," in the wake of nuclear terrorist attacks.

That show is on the Fox network. The debate was on the FoxNews Channel. Coincidence?

Just check out the discussion Tancredo's quip sparked on the "24 Forum."

As JB_Hacksaw opined:

"Yes, but it's a TV show. In real life, (actor) Kiefer Sutherland is strongly against the use of torture and so am I. For people to use a TV show to justify using torture in real life is incredibly dangerous and stupid. Obama '08."

During the real-life Repubican debate, Tancredo also talked about "benchmarks" for U.S. involvement in the war in Iraq. And afterwards, he set some new benchmarks for his own campaign.

For Tancredo, who still is relatively unknown in a large and still-growing Republican field, it's a race to the non-binding but closely-watched GOP straw poll in Ames, Iowa, on Aug. 11, 2007. In his Council Bluffs, Iowa, office, they have a mock thermometer on the wall where they're updating the numbers of Iowans who have committed to show up and vote for Tancredo.

In an interview Wednesday, Tancredo said he hopes to finish fifth or better in that straw poll -- or else. Any lower than that, he said:

"What would happen is it would certainly affect our ability to continue — not necessarily my desire, but my ability. It would affect perhaps fundraising, and with that goes your ability to continue."

So the bar has been set -- with just a little wiggle room in Tancredo's expanded remarks.

For the full story, LOOKIE HERE.

UPDATE: Tancredo's early showing in the polls -- generally below the margin of error -- already concerns at least one prominent conservative analyst, David Frum. As Frum wrote today in his diary at National Revew Online:

"Tom Tancredo. I want to like Tom Tancredo, I really do. But was it Mickey Kaus who said, "If you are a single-issue candidate, be a single-issue candidate"? I worry that Tancredo's derisory standing in the polls - and his nervous, unready performance on the stage - have already done damage to the immigration issue by reassuring the front-runners that they have nothing to worry about."

As for those polls that Comedy Central was talking about, the congressman won't want to see this.

It turns out that Tancredo's hero, Jack Bauer, has released a videotaped campaign speech, apparently reacting to those polls.

Just watch...

Posted by M.E. Sprengelmeyer at 9:45 PM | Comments (4)