Comings and Goings From The Campaign Trail

The Iowa caucuses are two weeks away and ...

* Tom Tancredo dropped out of the Republican race today.

The congressman from Colorado was a longshot from the beginning, much like Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback, who dropped out of the race a couple of months ago.

Tancredo credited himself with making illegal immigration a key element of the debate and said he was supporting Mitt Romney. With the latest polls showing Tancredo getting less than 1% of Republicans' support, one has to wonder how much his endorsement is worth.

But, as Romney falls farther behind Mike Huckabee among Iowa Republicans, I'm sure he welcomes any support he can get.

* An interesting side note ...

Historically speaking, it's not too surprising that Tancredo never caught on with the voting public. Although they've had other opportunities (such as Kerry, Gore, Dole, Mondale, Humphrey, etc.), Americans haven't elected a president whose surname ended in a vowel (unless you count the y at the end of Kennedy's name) since Calvin Coolidge in 1924. Before that? You'd have to either go back to 1900, when William McKinley was re-elected, or go back even farther to 1852, when Franklin Pierce was elected.

I guess that doesn't bode too well for Messrs. Giuliani, Huckabee and Obama. Or Romney -- if you count the y at the end of his name!

And no one with a surname exceeding two syllables has been elected president since Kennedy in 1960. But multi-syllable surnames have been a little more common in the Oval Office than surnames ending in vowels. Before Kennedy, Eisenhower was elected to two terms. Franklin Roosevelt was elected four times, and Theodore Roosevelt was elected once.

Before that, McKinley was elected twice, Benjamin Harrison was elected once, James Buchanan was elected once and William Henry Harrison had the shortest administration -- one month -- after falling ill on Inaugural Day and dying a month later.

And, of course, the very first president, George Washington, had more than two syllables in his surname. And so did another president whose face adorns Mount Rushmore -- Thomas Jefferson.

In fact, three of the four presidents on Mount Rushmore had surnames with more than two syllables. The exception? Abraham Lincoln.

* According to the Associated Press' David Espo, Ron Paul, who is virtually the last "longshot" remaining on the Republican side, is shaping up to be the Republicans' "spoiler."

Oh, that's right. Duncan Hunter is still in the race, isn't he?

* Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani returned to the campaign trail today after he was released from a St. Louis hospital following an overnight stay for "flu-like symptoms."

Giuliani, who was treated for prostate cancer in 2000, returned to New York after receiving a "clean bill of health" in St. Louis.

* Former Democratic congresswoman Cynthia McKinney of Georgia has decided to enter the presidential race as a Green Party candidate.

McKinney says the Green Party is "my new political home."

* A good friend of mine passes along a web address that will provide you with obscure information about methods used in the nominating processes in each state.

It's called The Green Papers.

Thanks, Doug.