Via Ace and Dr Melissa,
Fred and Jeri
Breaking news; FRED WITHDRAWS!
Statement from Sen. Fred Thompson
McLean, VA – Senator Fred Thompson today issued the following statement about his campaign for President:
“Today I have withdrawn my candidacy for President of the United States. I hope that my country and my party have benefited from our having made this effort. Jeri and I will always be grateful for the encouragement and friendship of so many wonderful people.”
Jay has more. Memeorandum has a lot of links.
The "breathing" Constitution, the Russians bust the Brits, and other items
Here’s what the the Huckster said, in his own words:
Fred, I’m happy to say, disagrees
I do not believe the Constitution is a living, breathing document. I am committed to appointing strict constructionist judges to the bench if I am elected President, strict constructionists who believe the Constitution has a fixed meaning that can be applied to cases that come before the courts today. They do NOT believe the Constitution is a “living, breathing document,” whose meaning, constantly changing with the sifting sands of our culture, can be determined and applied by unelected judges.
The British Council offices in Saint Petersburg and Yekaterinburg, Russia, have been closed because the Russians claim that they’re operating illegally and have accused the council of violating Russian tax rules, but here’s the real reason
The UK wants Russia to hand over businessman Andrei Lugovoi, whom UK investigators suspect of murdering Mr Litvinenko – he died after being given a fatal dose of radioactive polonium 210.
Russia refused to extradite Mr Lugovoi, now a member of the Russian parliament, so Britain expelled four Russian diplomats – Moscow then expelled four British diplomats.
Russian officials have told the BBC the action against the British Council was a retaliatory measure.
As the NYT puts it, What is clear is that the Kremlin has no tolerance for any organization outside of its control.
While the Madrid 3/11/4 bombers are sentenced, in Barcelona the police arrests 14 Islamist suspects.
But if you listen to the media, you’d think there is no Islamic fundamentalism.
75% of Baghdad Secure– Up From 8% One Year Ago. Additonally,
** 75% of Baghdad secure- up from 8% last year
** UN announces political and economic progress
** 5 US Brigades will return home by July (Equal to Surge Number)
** 5 More US Brigades may come home by end of 2008
** Iraqi security plan to take control of all 18 provinces by end of 2008
A couple of weeks ago The Anchoress posted on The Assassination Obsessives; today I received a post on Racial Sensitivity and Your President
Via Maria, Dr. Sowell writes about Primary Dilemmas:
What is wrong with this year’s candidates?
The short answer is that most of the Republicans are questionable and all three leading Democrats are dangerous.
…
While Barack Obama and John Edwards have been irresponsible demagogues, the Clintons have a record of lawless and ruthless corruption that goes back not only to their White House days in the 1990s but even back to their time in the governors’ mansion in Arkansas.
Go read it all.
Via Maria,
Men and women, explained.
More blogging later.
Blogal marwing time!
As you can see, it’s snowing here in the Princetons.
Where is my global warming?
There’s something very wrong with anyone who comes up with this crap
I think the radical view is to say that we’re going to change the definition of marriage so that it can mean two men, two women, a man and three women, a man and a child, a man and animal.
And no, you won’t get my vote if you think you can roundup all the illegals, either.
James Joyner says
And demonstrate, once and for all, that Fred Thompson doesn’t take a dump, son, without a plan.
When asked whether he has guilty pleasures, Fred replied,
“Well…None of my pleasures are guilty ones. I enjoy a good cigar every once in a while, but I don’t feel guilty about it.”
I like that.
McCain’s economic stimulus plan is pretty good to those of us interested in R&D and investments,
Cut The Corporate Tax Rate From 35 To 25 Percent.
Allow First-Year Deduction, Or “Expensing”, Of Equipment And Technology Investments.
Establish Permanent Tax Credit Equal To 10 Percent Of Wages Spent On R&D.
Venezuela’s Jews Find Their Voice as Chavez Ramps Up Harassment
The run-up to the December referendum was not a good time for the Jewish community’s relationship with Chavez. The community had close ties with former defense minister Raúl Isaías Baduel, and it honored him after he left the government and became a fierce opponent of Chavez. The honor was used by some pro-Chavez circles to claim that an American-Zionist conspiracy was trying to oust the president from power.
Jewish communal leaders also believe that another element might be at work. Sultan noted that Tarek al Assaimi, a former far-left student leader whose father was the representative of Saddam Hussein’s Baath party in Venezuela, is the deputy Interior and Justice minister in charge of internal security and, as such, could have been involved in initiating the raid.
(h/t Siggy)
Old feuds never die, they just keep being regurgitated: Chile-Peru spat over sea border.
Again.
Coalition forces in Iraq continue their offensive actions to disrupt terrorist safe havens and bases of operation with the Iraqis playing a greater part.
Flying Pigs– UN Sees Economic & Political Progress in Iraq
Last but not least, my friend (who I have actually met, yes) Neoneocon had an epiphany when she found out the real stories about two [in]famous Vietnam photographs
And I found, to my surprise, that the agenda appeared to be substantially the same: to magnify our wrongdoings and those of our allies, to downplay those of the enemy, to simplify matters that were really complex, and to sensationalize.
Breath of the Beast put it,
[when] the media has sacrificed honesty and responsibility for activist aims. They have all ended in vastly increased suffering and tragedy.
Thank you, Fred.
Thompson criticizes appeal to Saudis
Appearing on CNN, Thompson was asked whether, as president, he would turn to Saudi Arabia for help as Bush did.
Thompson, a former Tennessee senator, said the problem was a “little bigger” than Saudi Arabia.
“It’s not in the United States’ long-term interest to go hat in hand begging people to do things that in the end we know they’re not going to do,” Thompson said.
“What we need to concentrate on is diversifying our own energy sources here in this country and opening up what oil reserves that we have here … using nuclear more, using clean coal technology more and all the other things that we can do,” Thompson said.
Fred: "A strong, consistent conservative", Giuliani’s new ad
This afternoon while I was waiting at one of the Saturday activities, I came across this article in the NYT: A Combative Thompson Sways Voters.
The Fred campaign from the start has defined Fred as “a strong, consistent conservative”, and that’s what the article asserts. The article says that Fred did very well on last Thurday’s debate, and also mentions how Fred mopped the floor with Huckabee; here’s the YouTube:
Yes, I know I posted that earlier but it’s worth watching again. Also,
Mr. Thompson scored one of the more crowd-pleasing remarks of the evening when he said about a recent encounter between a Navy ship and several Iranian speedboats: “I think one more step and they would have been introduced to those virgins they’re looking forward to seeing.”
Paul Vitello, the NYT reporter, says,
With a well-worn face atop an angular, 6-foot-4 frame, he looks like the smartest man in town holding forth at the county courthouse.
A lot of people are paying attention to Fred: twice yesterday the campaign had to shut down an event because the crowds to see Fred Thompson got so big that they exceeded capacity for the venue.
Somebody’s been very afraid of Fred. Now we are starting to see why.
Meanwhile the Giuliani campaign have a great new ad,
The 2008 campaign is getting interesting!
"You’re likable enough, Hillary."
Dr Krauthammer is Bringing Obama Back to Earth
It’s not just that NBC admitted that “it’s hard to stay objective covering this guy.” Or that Newsweek had a cover article so adoring that one wonders what is left for coverage of the Second Coming. Or that Obama’s media acolytes wax poetic that his soaring rhetoric and personal biography will abolish the ideological divide of the 1960s — as if the division between left and right, between free markets and the welfare state, between unilateralism and internationalism, between social libertarianism and moral traditionalism are residues of Sergeant Pepper and the March on Washington. The baby boomers in their endless solipsism now think they invented left and right — the post-Enlightenment contest of ideologies that dates back to the seating arrangements of the Estates-General in 1789.
The freest of all passes to Obama is the general neglect of the obvious central contradiction of his candidacy — the bipartisan uniter who would bring us together by transcending ideology is at every turn on every policy an unwavering, down-the-line, unreconstructed, uninteresting, liberal Democrat.
He doesn’t even offer a modest deviation from orthodoxy. When the Gang of 14, seven Republican and seven Democratic senators, agreed to restore order and a modicum of bipartisanship to the judicial selection process, Obama refused to join lest he anger the liberal base.
Special interests? Obama is a champion of the Davis-Bacon Act, an egregious gift to Big Labor that makes every federal public-works project more costly. He not only vows to defend it, but proposes extending it to artificially raise wages for any guest worker program.
On Iraq, of course he denigrates the surge. That’s required of Democratic candidates. But he further claims that the Sunnis turned against al-Qaeda and joined us — get this — because of the Democratic victory in the 2006 midterm elections.
Obama has yet to have it pointed out to him by a mainstream interviewer that the Anbar Salvation Council was founded by Sheik Abdul Sattar Abu Risha two months earlier. Obama has yet to be asked why any Sunni would choose to join up with the American invaders at precisely the time when Democrats would have them leaving — and be left like the pro-American Vietnamese or the pro-French Algerians to be hunted and killed when their patrons were gone. That’s suicide.
Even if you believe that a Clinton restoration would be a disaster, you should still be grateful for New Hampshire. National swoons, like national hysterias, obliterate thought. The New Hampshire surprise has at least temporarily broken the spell. Maybe now someone will lift the curtain and subject our newest man from hope to the scrutiny that every candidate deserves.
Years ago Hillary said, “You don’t have to fall in love, you just have to fall in line.” Unfortunately for her the media’s fallen in love… with Obama.
Last night I liveblogged with the Heading Right gang, and we thought that either Fred won, or that it was a McCain/Fred tie.
Here’s Fred mopping the floor with Huck:
Today JASmius of Hard Starboard posted A Mute Commentary pointing to Giuliani,
Nice to see that Fred did well. One could make the case that Fred has topped every debate he’s been in. Regrettably, debates do not win elections, and they’re not getting FDT out of single digits. How much less so this cycle, when substance looks more and more like it’s being abandoned in favor of emotion and symbolism (Huckles, Obama, and Hillary’s crocodile tears) and sheer mass amnesia (McCain).
I’m a little surprised that Romney is melting under the pressure. But he should be scared, his modest, early delegate lead not withstanding. There’s no way he’s going to “second place” himself to the nomination, no matter how wishfully the Romneylans think. His entire strategy was predicated on winning Iowa and New Hampshire. Now he has to win Michigan, or it’ll be perceived as strike three for his campaign. And the latest polling composite there has McCain pulling slightly ahead.
I agree with Patrick Basham (or, since I posted the idea before he did, it may be more accruate to say that he agrees with me) that the ultimate beneficiary of Huck’s and McCain’s double-team on Romney will be Giuliani, who is poised to swoop in, take Florida and clean up on February 5th. Not only is he better equipped organizationally, financially, and notoriatily to wage a national campaign than “Sailor” or the Rev’rund, but after the “near-death experience” through which conservatives are currently suffering at the spectre of the two least trustworthy, left-most Republicans in the field winning the first two “bellweather” nominating contests, even Rudy’s social liberalism will gain a whole new palatability if he can enable the GOP to avert both the complete evisceration of the Reagan coalition and total disaster in November. Giuliani-Thompson, anyone?
Yeah, I’m the guy who spent the past year saying that “America’s Mayor” was unnominatable. But I could never have imagined that the twenty-first century Elmer Gantry and Darth Queeg would emerge as frontrunners, either. We do live in “interesting” times. And that isn’t a good thing.
What is interesting in both articles is that the top spots are in contention. A year ago things were looking like the annointed would take it all.
Now, who knows.
Betsy also notices that “Republicans must be in the position of not only considering which candidate they like the most, but also vote defensively for the one best able to win the general election.”
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