Oh-eight (R): Uninspired Republicans?
Posted: Tuesday, December 11, 2007 9:17 AM by Domenico Montanaro
Filed Under:
Republicans, Ads
The New York Times on the latest NYT/CBS poll: “Republican voters across the country appear uninspired by their field of presidential candidates, with a vast majority saying they have not made a final decision about whom to support… Not one of the Republican candidates is viewed favorably by even half the Republican electorate, the poll found… By contrast, Democrats are happier with their field and more settled in their decisions.”
With waterboarding back in the news, McClatchy’s Lightman writes that the only clear opponents of the practice “are former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who recently said that waterboarding is torture and that torture should ‘not be the policy of the United States of America,’ Texas Rep. Ron Paul and Arizona Sen. John McCain.”
GIULIANI: The candidate sat down for an interview with
San Francisco Chronicle editors/reporters. Some highlights:
-- On whether his past business and personal relationships have created doubts about his viability as a GOP candidate: "Anybody's career (that has) been as varied and as long and as intense as mine, there are going to be several mistakes that have been made ... but you've got to balance that against the results that I've got."
-- On concerns that his marriages, public divorce and infidelities present a question of values and loyalty to some GOP voters: "The question was, was I loyal to the people of New York City? Judging what's going on in people's personal life is usually very hard to do accurately from the outside. Because nobody knows all the different things that happened inside somebody's personal life. When you have public performance, you can judge it on that."
-- On whether he had any regrets about his conduct in those matters: "Of course, I have regrets. I have regrets about a lot of things… A lot of things I did wrong and (there were) a lot of mistakes that I made ... but I've tried to learn from them, and improve ... constantly. I've had my own things that I've had to deal with, grow from and express apologies for… We're human beings, and we make mistakes."
The Chicago Tribune fact-checks Giuliani's ad called "One Hour," which claims that in the one hour that Ronald Reagan was sworn into office, the hostages were released. The ad goes, "That should tell us a lot about these Islamic terrorists we're facing…The best way you deal with dictators, the best way you deal with tyrants and terrorists is you stand up to them, you don't back down."
“But that's pretty much the opposite of what America did. The United States freed the hostages by begrudgingly signing the Algiers Accords, which required the United States to pledge ‘that it is, and from now on, will be the policy of the United States not to intervene, directly or indirectly, politically or militarily, in Iran's internal affairs.’”
In San Fran yesterday, Giuliani lectured the city on its homeless problem.
And did Giuliani go further than he’s ever gone before in criticizing gay Americans? The New York Times notes his statement from Sunday on Meet the Press: “‘My moral views on this come from the, you know, from the Catholic Church, and I believe that homosexuality, heterosexuality, as a way that somebody leads their life is not, isn’t sinful,’ said Mr. Giuliani, who as New York mayor temporarily moved in with two gay roommates after he separated from his wife. ‘It’s the acts — it’s the various acts that people perform that are sinful, not the orientation that they have.’”
“Wayne Besen, the executive director of Truth Wins Out, a gay rights group, said that he hoped the campaign would clarify the statement, which he said ‘seemed to parrot the religious right’s cruel and empty “love the sinner, hate the sin” rhetoric.’”
HUCKABEE: The
Politico examines some of the help Huckabee may be receiving from outside groups. "Huckabee’s Iowa surge is driven largely by an eleventh-hour rally of Christian activists behind the Republican’s candidacy, and that’s certain to draw attention from tax sleuths and others. ‘We will be watching it very closely,’ says Rob Boston of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which is also monitoring Democrat Barack Obama’s latest round of church visits in the African-American community.”
The Los Angeles Times’ headline: "Huckabee does a flip-flop on Cuba." From the article: "As governor of Arkansas five years ago, Mike Huckabee joined a bipartisan chorus of politicians who concluded that the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba was bad for businesses. Now that he's a top-tier candidate for president, Huckabee has decided he favors the embargo -- so much so that he vowed Monday to outdo even President Bush in strangling the regime of Cuban President Fidel Castro and punishing those who do business there."
Says Huckabee: "Rather than seeing it as some huge change, I would call it, rather, the simple reality that I'm running for president of the United States, not for reelection as governor of Arkansas," he said. "I've got to look at this as an issue that touches the whole country."
The New York Sun combs through the ethics violations filed against Huckabee over the years in Arkansas. "While governor, Mr. Huckabee was also the subject of 16 ethics complaints that forced him to pay $1,000 in fines for failing to report outside income and payments from his campaign fund, and he was investigated for flying Arkansas state airplanes when on personal and political business."
The AP delves more deeply into the pardons and commutations that occurred on Huck's watch in Arkansas. "Huckabee says there's nothing in his record to indicate he's soft on crime. While the number of pardons exceeded those of his predecessors, so did the size of the state prison system and so did the number of people executed."
The Hill takes a look at Huckabee's New Hampshire operation and finds: "Huckabee has only a skeletal staff in New Hampshire and scant funds for television ads as Iowa drains the bulk of his resources."
MCCAIN: The Arizona senator focused on reducing dependence on foreign oil through hydrogen and nuclear power while campaigning in South Carolina yesterday. He said he would not advocate drilling in ANWR, however.
PAUL: Paul has rejected the draft invitation of the Libertarian Party to run as its nominee.
ROMNEY: Here’s his campaign’s
new TV in Iowa: “Two former governors, two good family men,” an announcer states. “Both pro-life, both support a constitutional amendment protecting traditional marriage. The difference? Mitt Romney stood up, and vetoed in-state tuition for illegal aliens … opposed driver's licenses for illegals. Mike Huckabee? Supported in-state tuition benefits for illegal immigrants. Huckabee even supported taxpayer-funded scholarships for illegal aliens. On immigration, the choice matters.”
Romney’s new ad hitting Huckabee is being released “as recent polls have shown Mr. Huckabee now leading among early caucusgoers in Iowa, displacing Mr. Romney, who has seen a drift of Christian conservatives and others toward Mr. Huckabee, a former Baptist minister. The immigration issue is a potent one in Iowa, which has had a steady influx of illegal immigrants in recent years.”
The Boston Globe adds, "The ad does not mention that Romney is a relatively recent convert to the antiabortion cause and had struck a more moderate stance on gay rights during his run for governor in 2002. Yesterday, Huckabee started his own TV ad on illegal immigration that, along with a plan he unveiled on Friday, seeks to toughen his stand. The ad - airing in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina - emphasizes building a fence on the Mexico border and shows him saying no to amnesty and to ‘sanctuary cities.’”
THOMPSON: Thompson has written off New Hampshire, it seems. The Union Leader’s lead: “Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson has no plans to return to first-primary state New Hampshire to campaign before the end of the year, a spokesman said yesterday.”
