Play Fair Fred...
Emily Geiger
1 Comment
I know a lot of people are wondering why social conservatives seem to be flocking to Huckabee and not Fred. There are always the “fire in the belly” arguments… and the laziness arguments… and the fact that he thought he was too good to put on a fireman’s hat and sit on Waverly’s new fire truck while here in Iowa (lucky for him his wife is a better campaigner than him and took on all hat wearing duties).
There’s been something else that’s bothered me about Fred, and I’m surprised it has not been raised more during the whole discussion on negative campaigning that occurred just before Iowa’s caucuses. Fred’s about as negative a campaigner as you can find. I guess when you don’t have much to offer, negativity is all that’s left.
No, he didn’t do negative TV ads here in Iowa (he couldn’t afford them). If he had had the money, judging from the rest of the campaign, I’m sure he would have. He was always quick with a negative soundbite against another candidate (usually frontrunner Huckabee rather than flip-flop Rombot). I don’t think I ever saw him on TV talking about his own credentials to be president. I only saw him bashing others. And he had some pretty nasty and misleading mail pieces as well. (By the way, when I got this one, by first question was, “When has Huck ever attacked Thompson?”)
What really takes the cake in my mind though is a particular item I found on Fred’s own website. A lot of candidates have informational pieces, fliers, door hangers, etc. that you can access and print right off of their websites. When I was researching my earlier piece on Fred’s federalism positions on abortion and gay marriage (and why that’s a cop-out), I came across something interesting.
First, it should be noted for all you social conservatives out there who are Fred fans that Fred doesn’t even have an “Issue” page on his website about abortion or gay marriage (his page on “Appointing Judges Faithful to Our Constitution” is the only thing that comes close). He did have a “side by side comparison” page that you can download and print that purports to compare various candidates’ viewpoints on social issues. The candidates included on this handout are Fred, Mitt, Rudy, and Huck.
Given Rudy’s and Mitt’s less-than-stellar histories on abortion and gay rights, it’s not surprising that Fred found some material to ding them on. What caught my eye was the first thing Fred said about Huck’s position on abortion. It reads:
Huckabee believed that abortion decision are best made by states.
This is right next to a statement about Giuliani, which reads:
Rudy Giuliani is vocally pro-choice
and a statement about Romney that reads:
Mitt Romney was proudly pro-choice until 2005.
Given this context, it’s obvious that Fred is insinuating that leaving abortion to the states is a bad idea, right? Hey wait, THAT’S FRED’S POSITION!!!! Of course, he fails to mention this on his website. What a freaking hypocrite. And never mind the fact that that’s not even an accurate portrayal of Huck’s position. You can attack Huck on a lot of things (and everyone has) but the life issue just isn’t one of them.
It is painfully obvious that social issues are not a high priority to Fred., hence, his “federalism” stance, which is just a fancy way of him saying he doesn’t want to get involved in abortion or gay marriage. Fred has just been an utter disappointment. That’s why I was so let down when Steve King and Bill Salier backed him. I know that was all about immigration and “protecting our nation.” But here’s my question: If we let the moral fabric of our nation continue to decay, what are we going to have left to protect?
Reader Comments (1)
You left out Fred's negative press releases. Go to his press releases page and search the text of the page for huckabee or romney. You'll see that many of his press releases aren't even about himself!
This one's particularly ridiculous: Fred Thompson Campaign Apologizes.