This is really odd, ABC radio has set up a blog for Fred Thompson. His first post is an essay about how Virginia Tech was a gun free zone and how that attributed to the high human toll. So he’s advocating the removal of gun free zone’s in schools, not just college campuses. I realize that the country has become more lax about gun-control and the regulation of weapons but his essay is a little ridiculous.

Whenever I’ve seen one of those “Gun-free Zone” signs, especially outside of a school filled with our youngest and most vulnerable citizens, I’ve always wondered exactly who these signs are directed at. Obviously, they don’t mean much to the sort of man who murdered 32 people just a few days ago.

Fred Thompson | No Comments »

Who could have imagine that another McCain run for the presidency would have turned into the intro of a sitcom?

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Political differences aside, we’d been bludgeoned by National Greatness Republicanism by McCain supporters since 2000 and now we’re into Seinfeld Republicanism. Wouldn’t a reality show have been better?

Meanwhile Move-On hits McCain over his “bomb bomb Iran” bit. McCain defensively responded that it was a joke. It’s not about the joke, it’s about McCain. He’s had close ties to the Neo-Conservatives who have been pushing for a confrontation with Iran. He was the Weekly Standard’s proffered candidate in 2000. It’s one thing to joke against type, it’s another thing to joke about your aggressive foreign policy posture and then attempt to hide from the backlash as though your “aggressive” posture has been a joke.

Move-On’s ad is below:

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John McCain | No Comments »

In this video, John McCain continues to demonstrate the subtle leadership he feels best qualifies him to lead the nation:
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It actually reminds me of something McCain said once back in his original straight talk days:

“What would you do if something happened to Greenspan?” a reporter drilled John McCain during the primaries. “Well,” said the Senator, “I’d put sunglasses on him and prop him up like that guy in Weekend at Bernie’s.”

Only instead of being funny, this is a horrendously inflammatory comment towards a country and area of the world that already has a rather active dislike for us.

John McCain | 5 Comments »

I recently had a conversation with a proprietor of a political web consulting company that designs campaign websites for candidates. He had been contacted by a staffer for Fred Thompson about building a campaign website for the former senator from Tennessee. It is highly unusual for someone who isn’t considering running for president to be requesting bids on building out their website; ergo, Thompson is laying infrastructural groundwork for a presidential run.

One last thing: the company Thompson was asking to build his website is Democratic, with only Democrats and liberal organizations on their client list.

That’s either a statement about Thompson’s lack of commitment to supporting Republican businesses or the sorry state of the Republican online campaigning infrastructure. I’d lean towards the latter, but then again I wouldn’t be personally hurt if it was the former.

Technorati Tags: 2008 Presidential election, Fred Thompson

Fred Thompson | 1 Comment »

Not officially yet, but then again he feels he can bide his time. Even redstate knows how a candidate acts. It’s safe to assume that he’ll rocket to the front of the GOP pack the second he announces and perhaps earlier if he bides his time.

I’m not sure he can actually bide his time. He’s receiving enough coverage in the media and amongst activists while his poll numbers improve that he’s a defacto candidate for president. Some of the biggest blows to Romney and Huckabee came during their honeymoon period when everyone knew they were running but before they’d officially announced. For Romney it was video’s and statements that were decidedly pro-choice and pro-gay rights. For Huckabee it was the anti-tax crowd’s vehement opposition that drained some oxygen from his candidacy. There’s already been some opposition research that’s hit Thompson for talking like a pro-choice candidate. Is there more research waiting to drop about Thompson as he “ponders” a run? Or are Republicans so sick of their field of candidates that despite what they’ll hear they’ll wait for Thompson?

Lastly on a related note, Soren Dayton, the very smart DC-based Republican blogger extends a conversation about the digital divide between the left and right that’s been happening on the right side of the blogosphere. Essentially the Republicans are way behind Democrats in organizing online. One way the rights isn’t behind is doing hit and run oppo-research drops of old videos. Think about what we’ve seen over the last few months. Video’s of Romney and Giuliani, sometimes over a decade old, put up by a user who doesn’t post any other videos and which are then picked up by blogs (media, liberal and right-wing blogs). Will we see old video’s of Thompson saying things which are unattractive to hard-core republican operatives? I’d bet on it. Not sure they can have any impact in a general election.

Fred Thompson | 3 Comments »

3…2…1…

Supreme Court Upholds Federal Abortion Ban

From Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg: “For the first time since Roe, the Court blesses a prohibition with no exception protecting a woman’s health.”

Giuliani’s Response:

“The Supreme Court reached the correct conclusion in upholding the congressional ban on partial birth abortion. I agree with it.”

Giuliani earlier in the week per anti-choice website:

Former New York Mayor and Republican presidential candidate Rudolf “Rudy” Giuliani told supporters in Iowa that Republicans needs to “get beyond” pro-life issues and choose a candidate who can win the presidency in 2008.
…”Our party has to get beyond issues like that,” said Giuliani in response to a questioner’s fear that abortion is dividing the party.

“Our party is going to grow and we are going to win in 2008 if we are a party characterized by what we’re for, not if we’re a party that’s known for what we’re against,” Giuliani said in reference to abortion.

From the compilation of Giuliani video’s which made the rounds during CPAC:

Narrator: Giuliani was then asked whether he supports a ban on what critics call “partial birth abortion” something Bush strongly supports.

Giuliani: No I have not supported that and I don’t see my position on that changing.

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Soren Dayton has a better video at his site:

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Rudy Giuliani | 6 Comments »

Mike Turk, writing at techPresident, casts serious doubts on the credibility of the Romney campaign’s claim of $7.2 million raised online ($3.3 million in website donations, $3.8 million in online donation pledges). I won’t recap the whole post, but Turk provides pretty clear evidence through analyzing average donations, donation size, web traffic and simple comparisons between other campaigns online donation successes to make it clear that Romney’s large online donation numbers in no way signify a massive grassroots campaign in support of him.

If you assume the overwhelming majority of of the $3,365,625 in “pure and simple” online fundraising was small dollar donations (which you have to because it takes a lot of $25 contributions to balance $2,300 to get a $100 average), Romney would have to have the most successful Internet fundraising effort ever run by anyone (including Democrats), together with the worst direct mail and telemarketing campaign in the history of politics. (Telemarketing and direct mail donors are typically small dollar gifts) There is no way that number represents “pure and simple” website giving. The math just doesn’t support the claim.
…
This is a large dollar candidate, not an Internet candidate. No matter how you cook the books, Mitt, that dog doesn’t hunt, either.

Read the whole post — it’s a reminder that campaigns cannot try to deceive the public about where their support comes from and what it means. In the internet age, these claims are easy to prove false.

Technorati Tags: Mitt Romney

Internet Operations, Mitt Romney | 4 Comments »

What does it take to run for President as a Republican? An extremely high burn-rate as you search for your donor base. It appears that based on the burn rate, Giuliani is the only Republican with an actual funding base which isn’t expensive to maintain (that may be too much to read into the basic report.)

We’ll have more posts on what the internals mean and what the operating expenses funded but are these Burn Rate’s sustainable for Republicans? (source)

Fundraising | 2 Comments »

John McCain seems to be actively seeking to destroy his campaign because of a lack of ideas on Iraq. McCain so heavily advocated for escalating the war in Iraq this fall and winter that the surge was suitably labeled the McCain Doctrine. It is a position grossly out of step with what the majority of Americans think is the best course of action for our country to take.

Today we find out that not only does McCain think sending more and more troops to sustain the occupation of Iraq and try to stop a growing civil war, he has no alternative vision for ending the war in Iraq and would only start to think of it when confronted with “doomsday.”

Senator John McCain said that the buildup of American forces in Iraq
represented the only viable option to avoid failure in Iraq and that he
had yet to identify an effective fallback if the current strategy
failed.

“I have no Plan B,” Mr. McCain
said in an interview. “If I saw that doomsday scenario evolving, then I
would try to come up with one. But I cannot give you a good alternative
because if I had a good alternative, maybe we could consider it now.” [Emphasis added]

McCain is taking a profoundly, dangerously unserious position. McCain suggest a plan for Iraq. That plan was implemented. It has not slowed the number of deaths suffered by American troops. Americans do not think it is working. But now that his idea is failing and an alternative must be considered, McCain is throwing up his hands and saying he can’t figure out anything better.

His obstinacy is costing Americans their lives. His inability to think beyond prolonging this war is as shallow and unimpressive a stance as any held any person in the debate on Iraq.

Americans will not suffer for politicians who refuse to do the hard work needed to end the war and bring our troops home. McCain escalating his support of the war and making the choice very easy for voters, for they will know that a vote for John McCain will be a vote to continually send more and more troops into the meatgrinder in Iraq.  He cannot comprehend any other alternatives and now choices to abdicate his responsibility to continue to work with his colleagues as stewards of this war. I do not think Americans will look kindly on this man for holding these positions.

John McCain | 5 Comments »

Despite his reputation as being strong on national security and foreign policy, Rudy Giuliani is a man who simply had foreign policy happen to him because of failures in national security. Though his consulting firm has done a good deal of security consulting since his term as mayor expired, Giuliani has never held an office higher than mayor. As mayor he has no foreign policy apparatus and the only security management experience he has is through law enforcement; he has zero experience managing military and intelligence operations. As such, it’s critically important that he bone up on foreign policy and, as George W. Bush did in 1999, surround himself with allegedly smart elders who can advise him.

Giuliani is attempting to do that, though his choice of advisers is clearly suspect.Via Gregory Djerejian, Jason Horowitz reports:

Mr. Giuliani has criticized some aspects of the American performance in Iraq, but has basically supported the President’s plan without addressing its specific shortcomings. Asked about his day-to-day Iraq advisor, his campaign would only say that he speaks with many individuals, including retired Gen. Jack Keane and former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton.

John Bolton. Jack Keane, designer of the surge. Two men whose performance during their tenure running the Bush administration’s foreign policy should preclude them from advising any presidential candidates.

More than anything, Giuliani’s decision to turn to Bush administration war hawks for national security and foreign policy advise should tell America what sort of administration Giuliani wants to run. He wants to continue the foreign policy that brought us a quagmire without allied support and continue a war that is failing regardless of how many more troops we send into Iraq. However moderate Rudy may be on social issues, he is not a moderate when it comes to American foreign policy and the pursuit of peace. His choice of advisers makes that crystal clear.

Rudy Giuliani | 3 Comments »