UpdatedBoth Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson made fools of themselves this week in their campaigns for president. In other words, just another week.
Fred Thompson showed, to use theatre terms, that he's not off-book yet, and he doesn't do improv well.
"It's one thing to give a stump speech and project your theme, and he accomplished that with a conservative populist message," said Greg Mueller, a former aide to conservative Republican presidential hopeful Pat Buchanan in 1992. "Now, his next challenge is to really hone his answers to questions — and that's a challenge all candidates have faced."
In the unscripted moments, Thompson has faltered in the last week with several unforced errors.
Among them, he has:
• Referred to Osama bin Laden as "more symbolism than anything else" and was dismissive about whether it mattered if he were caught. Thompson made the remarks following the release of a new video from the terrorist leader and five days before the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Democrats pounced, and Thompson then took a harder line, saying bin Laden "ought to be caught and killed."
• Declined to "pass judgment" on the appropriateness of Congress' intervention to save the life of brain-damaged Terri Schiavo two years ago. "That's going back in history. I don't remember the details of it," he said of the case that bitterly divided the nation, still energizes conservatives and helped sink the presidential aspirations of his former Tennessee colleague Bill Frist.
• Given an answer on his personal religious practices while campaigning in South Carolina, where Christian evangelicals dominate the GOP electorate. "I attend church when I'm in Tennessee. I'm in McLean (Va.), right now," he said, adding, "I don't attend regularly when I'm up there."
Mr. Thompson doesn't seem to get the point that religious symbolism is key to the base of the GOP, and Osama bin Laden, Teri Schiavo, and Jesus are the Holy Trinity of the GOP. Thompson flubbed all three. Even if President Bush dismisses bin Laden as "irrelevant," he's not running for president, and the righties still get a lot of mileage out of demonizing anyone who bears even an alliterative resemblance to OBL or Islam: remember what they did when it was discovered that Barack Obama's middle name is Hussein? Saying he doesn't remember the details of the Schiavo case and therefore doesn't have anything to say about it is, for the Religious Reich, like telling the Jewish community that he doesn't remember the details of the Holocaust, and matter-of-factly announcing that he's not a regular church-goer also raises some suspicions -- even if their late messiah, Ronald Reagan, was also indifferent to zealous church attendance. If Mr. Thompson thinks he can shuffle through the nomination so that he can be the point man on the 2008 GOP death march, it might be a good idea for him to bone up on the things that really matter to his base.
Rudy Giuliani went after Hillary Clinton full-tilt with his first campaign ad, denouncing her for not denouncing MoveOn.org for their full-page ad in
The New York Times attacking General Petraeus.
"Clinton stood silently by when MoveOn.org ran this venomous ad in the New York Times," the ad states. “The same general she called an expert not long ago. Now she is questioning his honesty.”
It would be one thing if Sen. Clinton had voiced support for the ad, but she didn't. In fact, she didn't say anything about the ad, but apparently that's not good enough for Mr. Giuliani: not denouncing MoveOn.org is tantamount to supporting it. This, by the way, is a typical GOP double standard; I have yet to hear Mr. Giuliani say anything about
Rep. John Boehner's "small price to pay" comment about the war in Iraq. Does that mean he agrees with him? I also haven't heard Rudy Giuliani denounce
Fred Phelps and his band of whacky gay-bashers; does that mean he endorses them?
Mr. Giuliani also chastises Sen. Clinton for changing her views on the war in Iraq, noting that she voted for the war and is now opposed to it. Well, that puts her in good company with such flip-floppers as Republicans John Warner, Chuck Hagel, and a majority of the American electorate. And as my friend Bob pointed out, anyone who looks at how we got into the war, the lies and exaggerations that led up to it, and who doesn't have the sense to reconsider their point of view but blindly follow the Dear Leader is in no position to be running for president. Even
Newt Gingrich knows that.
Update: Brian makes a point in his comment about Hillary responding...or not. Just in from
Election Central at TPM:
The war between the two New York frontrunners is heating up today. Rudy -- who took out a full page ad in The New York Times today blasting Hillary and MoveOn for questioning Scholar-Warrior Petraeus -- has just posted a new Web ad with lots of pictures of Petraeus hitting her yet again on this front.
In response, the Hillary campaign is charging that Rudy is attacking her to halt his slide in recent polls. Hillary spokesperson Phil Singer sends over the following:Rudy Giuliani is dropping in the polls and is unable to defend his own support for George Bush's failed war. Instead of distorting Senator Clinton’s record in the campaign's first attack ad, the Mayor should tell voters why he thinks sticking with the Bush Iraq strategy makes sense. The country wants change and while Hillary Clinton is focused on ending the war, Mayor Giuliani is playing politics.
We'd like to see these responses contain references to the fact that Rudy's 9/11 performance is now being questioned by his own hero firefighters, but that's just us.
Same here.
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Stop That Noise!