comMITTed to Romney!

Hat tip to Rush Limbaugh for this one! There are some great lines in here about the nature of McCain’s changes.

CAMPOS: McCain’s the real flip-flopper

By Paul Campos, Rocky Mountain News 

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

One of the curiosities of American politics is the media’s ongoing infatuation with John McCain. A bit of this is based on things such as McCain’s opposition to torture (unfortunately we can no longer treat opposing torture like opposing child molestation, i.e., something one assumes is standard equipment in a presidential candidate rather than a luxury upgrade). Yet most of the journalistic love affair with McCain is based on other factors.

Consider this typical endorsement from The Orlando Sentinel: While McCain “has stuck to his principles at the risk of sinking his campaign,” Mitt Romney “has abandoned positions that would have alienated his party’s conservative base.” (Indeed I checked a computer database and discovered that, in the national media, Romney is at least six times more likely to be described as a flip-flopper than McCain).

This does not merely ignore but actually inverts the truth. The fact is that no presidential candidate in either party has flip-flopped as egregiously as McCain on such a wide range of issues. Here’s just a small sample of Sen. Straight Talk’s recent series of remarkable conversions to politically convenient stances:

* On abortion rights, McCain has done a 180-degree turn, from favoring only the most minor restrictions and opposing the overturning of Roe v. Wade, to supporting an almost total ban, while advocating that the Supreme Court reverse Roe immediately.

* McCain has transformed himself from a deficit hawk who mocked supply-side economics, into someone who sounds like he’s drunk deeply from the wackiest vats of supply-side Kool-Aid, to the point where he now claims raising taxes decreases revenues (a claim so wildly in conflict with the facts - for example federal tax revenues almost doubled in real terms after the Clinton tax increases - that it’s either a shameless lie or a product of astounding ignorance).

* In regard to ethanol subsidies, McCain has gone from treating them as the worst sort of pork, to becoming a strong supporter of a program despised by economists, but beloved of Iowa farmers and the good people at Archer Daniels Midland.

* Six years ago McCain sternly condemned Jerry Falwell as “an agent of intolerance.” Eighteen months ago he gave the commencement address at Falwell’s university, while openly embracing one of the most noxious figures of the religious right.

These are just a few examples from a far longer list. On topics ranging from immigration, to campaign finance reform, to gay marriage, to accepting support from various sleazy characters he previously shunned, McCain has either completely reversed his views, or seriously equivocated regarding what they are this week.

Yet the media continue to lavish him with worshipful paeans to his supposedly uncompromising commitment to principled leadership no matter what the political cost etc., etc.

Part of this is accounted for by lazy autopilot journalism, which stops people from bothering to check whether the story line they’ve repeated for years still has any relationship to reality.

But part of it is something worse. When it comes to McCain, many of the sophisticates at the top of the media pyramid are like a masochistic spouse who treats open infidelity as a twisted sort of faithfulness. They love McCain because when he lies to their face he doesn’t even pretend to be doing otherwise. According to the pretzel logic of a certain kind of journalism, that counts as candor.

All this would be merely amusing if McCain were not a genuinely tragic figure. The young man who showed such exemplary courage in the face of his North Vietnamese tormenters has become an old man whose courage abandoned him when subjected to the more subtle tortures of worldly ambition.

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I first heard about this story on CNN last night. To read the entire article online, click here:

Thompson says he’s interested in serving, not running for president — WILLIAM THEOBALD • GANNETT NEWS SERVICE • December 29, 2007

Fred Thompson said today he does not much like the modern form of presidential campaigning and that he “will not be devastated” if he doesn’t win the election.

“I’m not particularly interested in running for president,” Thompson said, but rather he feels called to serve his country.

We have been saying this about Mr. Thompson since months before he announced. It has been obvious that he does not really want to be President. We have said many times in this space that Mr. Thompson has wanted all along to be drafted as President. The same was true of George Washington. But there is a huge difference between George Washington and Fred Thompson. George Washington worked very, very diligently for his nation. Though Mr. Thompson has served his country as a conservative, working diligently is not how any person would ever describe him.

“I don’t know if you have a desire to be president,” Burlington attorney Todd Chelf told Thompson during a question-and-answer session raising an issue that has dogged his campaign.

“I am not consumed by personal ambition,” Thompson responded. “I’m offering myself up.”

Given the volatile state of the world, the actor and former Tennessee senator said he was not “sure it is a good thing if a president has too much fire in his belly.”

Senator Thompson does not have what it takes to be President. He is correct that it is not about personal ambition. A true leader — indeed, a true statesman seeks the presidency because he knows he can make a big difference in service to his country and fellow citizens.

Governor Romney knows he has the skills to make a very big difference in America. He has the upbringing of family legacy to know the importance of service. He has the work ethic, second to none.

~ Vic

Help Governor Romney get his message out — PLEASE CONTRIBUTE HERE, NOW

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So much of our emphasis has been on Mike Duckabee lately that we have forgotten about old Fred.  Well, not much has changed.

While campaining in Iowa yesterday, Fred refused to put on a chief firefighter’s hat when asked to do so during a stop at a local fire station.  He told the fire chief:

I’ve got a silly hat rule.

Anyway, you can read all about Fred’s horrible campaign stop in an article written by

Roger Simon at Politico—–>HERE

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WSJ editorial editor Strassel, obviously seems to be rooting Fred on as if he were her dutiful pupil. I may be mistaken, but she definitely appears to be in Fred’s camp. My prediction? What she writes in this piece feels like her last great hope; the likely last written piece she will do before her capstone Op/Ed piece on the great Fred Thompson.

My favorite quote from last week by a conservative commentator: “Fred’s running for President is akin to a bear trying to stand up on ice!” That just about sums it up for me! Fred is a really nice, gentle man; a conservative for sure — whose time has passed. He is done.

The fact that about 5 million people will read the print edition of this Strassel Op/Ed piece doesn’t help much!

Click here to read the entire article at the online source:

POTOMAC WATCH, Fred’s Folly — Too bad Thompson won’t sell his good ideas — BY KIMBERLEY A. STRASSEL, Friday, November 30, 2007

On Fox News this Sunday, Fred Thompson laid out the most creative tax proposal yet in the race for president. It should have been an important moment, the point at which GOP aspirants finally dug into a core issue and went a few rounds over marginal rates and corporate levies.

Instead, nothing. The Thompson plan inspired little fanfare, less press and didn’t even merit time during this week’s GOP debate. The black hole says everything about the mess that is the Thompson campaign . . .

The standard rap on the former Tennessee senator is that he’s lazy. This is meant to explain why–despite movie-star status, Southern conservative credentials, and Beltway experience–his campaign has been as fizzy as day-old cherry Coke. The reality is more complex–and more concerning for Mr. Thompson’s presidential prospects.

The Watergate attorney has made himself into this election’s Don Quixote, the impractical idealist tilting at “the system.” Even as he announced his run on the Jay Leno show in September, Mr. Thompson quipped he “wasn’t in the room when they made the rules” that resulted in today’s sped up, big-money, 24-hour-news-byte primary. He has refused to play nice–declaring late and declining to join rivals in the media hoopla and nonstop campaign. It has proven a case study in the folly of trying to single-handedly buck modern politics.

[between these excerpts, Strassel lists all the policies he has announced, that she thinks are worthy]

There’s plenty here to get conservative voters and bloggers and pundits engaged in some healthy, even lively, debate. That is, if they’d heard any of this. Most haven’t, and for that Mr. Thompson has mostly himself to blame.

While it isn’t clear who set the “rules” for this manic election, they’re set. Voters may only pay attention at the end, but having an infrastructure to make sure those voters hear you in the final months is the work of years. By sitting back, Mr. Thompson . . .

[between these excerpts she gives examples from the Bush campaign to show how it is done right]

None of this happened in the wake of Mr. Thompson’s Fox announcement. The campaign simply didn’t have the stuff to pull it off. Worse, its own leader refused to do what is expected. A look at Mr. Thompson’s schedule revealed not a single public appearance for three days after the release, right up to Wednesday’s highly uninformative CNN debate.

Speaking of dull debates, that’s Mr. Thompson’s other problem. . . .

Mr. Thompson’s inertia has meant his campaign is no longer in control of its destiny. His best shot now is that Mr. Huckabee and Mr. Romney go nuclear, leaving him with a ticket out of Iowa and some hope. He still ranks second behind Mr. Giuliani in national polls. But putting himself in a position to build off any lucky outcomes will involve trying to play the game he so detests. If he believes his ideas are as important for the country as he says they are, he will.

Strategy matters. Planning matters. Organization matters. Leadership matters.

~ Vic

Please Help Mitt Get His Message Out —-> MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

“All receive advice. Only the wise profit from it.”

— Publilius Syrus, Roman epigrammatist (fl. 42 B.C.)

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From The Telegraph

Photo Courtesy of CNN

Trying to encourage his studio to hurry up so an interview could start, Carl Cameron of Fox News said into his microphone: “The next president of the United States has a schedule to keep.” Standing beside him, a deadpan Mr Thompson interjected: “And so do I.”

As some Thompson aides looked bemused and others cringed, a taken-aback Mr Cameron, Fox’s chief political correspondent, exclaimed: “You can’t do that kind of stuff!”

Oy………

He was lampooned mercilessly after a YouTube clip showing him asking an audience Iowa underwhelmed by his stump speech: “First of all, could I have a round of applause?”

Having entered the 2008 contest in September, more than six months after all his rivals, Mr Thompson, 65, has kept a light schedule, delivered rambling speeches and shown little fondness for the glad-handing and back-slapping that is the very stuff of US politics.

He was visiting New Hampshire yesterday for just the third time despite having said two months before that he would appear there “early and often”.

Oy…………..

Just before his Fox interview, Mr Thompson had given a long, meandering speech to a group of New Hampshire businessmen and state politicians.

When he entered the room there was barely a stir as people continued their conversations while he took his seat.

Once sitting down, Mr Thompson signalled to an aide for his glasses and then proceeded to write notes on a piece of paper, initially ignoring the hosts at his table for the “Politics and Eggs” forum in Bedford, New Hampshire – a must-do event for every candidate.

During a 20-minute, meandering speech, Mr Thompson – who has long been accused of being lazy - joked about rearranging his campaign schedule the previous evening so he could watch the New England Patriots play the Indianapolis Colts football game on television.

Oy……………..

“I also want you to know that I’ve got my priorities in order. When I saw yesterday that I was scheduled to catch a plane to leave at about four o’clock I did a little scrambling around and to make a long story short I saw to it that I got here at 11 o’clock.”

Many at the breakfast were dismayed by Mr Thompson’s performance.

“The American people like folks that have a positive, hopeful message,” said one prominent Republican.

“This felt very pessimistic. He doesn’t have the kind of fire and brimstone that excites people or gives them a reason to vote for him.”

Fergus Cullen, New Hampshire’s state Republican chairman, said Mr Thompson had made a big mistake in September when he opted to declare his candidacy on the “Jay Leno” talk show rather than attend a New Hampshire debate.

“He got off on the wrong foot here and he has been struggling to get onto the right foot ever since. He is still at the introducing himself stage of the campaign whereas most of the other candidates went through that six or 12 months ago.”

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I’m probably dating myself, but I remember when my Mom used to do daycare and the kids that she watched were constantly watching “Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego?”

Reading this story about Fred Thompson reminded me of the show, the difference between Fred Thompson and Carmen Sandiego is that Carmen Sandiego actually went somewhere. Fred Thompson doesn’t seem to go anywhere (at least not as much as a person purportedly running for President needs to go).

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — Mitt Romney was in Michigan, Colorado, Arizona and Nevada and then went back to Michigan. Rudy Giuliani visited Florida, Michigan, South Carolina, Alabama, Washington and New Hampshire. John McCain went from Michigan to Iowa to New Hampshire.

But where was Fred, as in Fred Thompson?

Besides participating in his first presidential debate in Michigan last Tuesday, Thompson was missing from the campaign trail. The former Tennessee senator and star of NBC’s “Law & Order” was scheduled to be in New Hampshire this weekend, but canceled.

New Hampshire voters noticed.

Here are a couple observations from those very voters:

“I like him, but he won’t make it,” said Claire Roy, a Manchester Republican who, like most voters, remains undecided. “He started too late to begin with. I don’t think he’s presidential material. That’s the way I look at it.”

Added Ann Essensa, an independent voter from Exeter who visited Giuliani on Sunday: “I don’t know enough about (Thompson) yet. I haven’t seen him yet.”

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I always love when a reporter makes a pun out of a story, and this one is no exception.

From Nolan Finley of The Detroit News

Bad sign for Fred?

One sign that former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson is lagging in campaign organization: No signs.

Yard signs are as plentiful on Mackinac Island this weekend as are lilacs in the spring. Signs shouting Mitt, McCain and Rudy are everywhere. Signs touting internet curiousity Ron Paul start showing up along I-75 miles before you get to Mackinaw City. Even the obscure Duncan Hunter has respectable signage.

But I’ve yet to see a Thompson yard sign. I did see a Thompson bumper sticker pasted on the broad back of a beefy young Republican, but couldn’t tell whether he put it there himself or was the victim of a prankster.

Thompson, in a brief roundable with Michigan reporters, said he isn’t worried about his late start.

“I don’t know why I have to worry about catching up when most of the polls have me already ahead,” he said.

Thompson notes that while the other candidates have maxed out their donations from key supporters, he still has plenty of fundraising room left.

Asked whether he prefers politics to television, Thompson said:

“Law and Order was fun, but I learned early on that anything they pay you for eventually turns out to be work, I didn’t see any point spending a whole lot more time reading other people’s scripts.”

This last quote just dumbfounds me, especially this part, “but I learned early on that anything they pay you for eventually turns out to be work”. Acting is a far cry from being President of the United States, and if he thinks that acting is work he’s has a rude awakening coming to him should he become President of the United States. Once again, just another “sign” of laziness from this candidate.

[NOTE: Please read Governor Romney's Remarks below from Mackinac Island]

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