He specifically asked Veronica because there is a trend in the pro-Rudy crowd to attack other candidates by pointing out flaws they have that are identical to flaws in their own candidate.
It's one thing to oppose a candidate for their positions that you disagree with. But what is the principle by which you find fault with other candidates for holding positions you support in your own candidate?
Rudy supporters spend a lot of time finding an issue here or there that other candidates have in common with Rudy, and then attack them for those positions.
They seem to think that if every candidate has one flaw, everybody will throw up their hands and vote for the man who has EVERY flaw.
But that's because they can't find anything good about Rudy that doesn't hold equally true for every one of the candidates who have a chance of winning.
For example, none of our candidates are weak on the war on terror, except I guess McCain with his anti-torture stuff. Some are much stronger on the war on terror than Giuliani, having actually done things in their public life to combat it, or having served in the military.
Our major candidates all support tax cuts, and all claim to be fiscal conservatives. Romney has a record in Mass., Thompson has a record in the Senate, McCain was weak on tax cuts but I do believe he's taken a lot of good votes on keeping government spending down.
Our major candidates all support the War in Iraq. They all support law-and-order.
Rudy doesn't have a single redeeming quality that isn't shared with at least one of the other major candidates.
His sole selling point, the one thing he has that nobody else has, is that he is the FRONT RUNNER.
Once Thompson knocks him out of that, he'll have nothing.
Oddly, by this argument if McCain was in front in all the polls, the Rudy people would all be McCain people, trashing us for not supporting the only person who could beat Hillary.
The nice thing is that, for most Rudy supporters, all we have to do is to get our favored candidate into the lead, and they all become OUR friends again, since their support has no principle, no character, no philosophy, except for backing the front-runner so Hillary doesn't win.
In what way does Fred Thompson's record stand to up Rudy's in terms of real problem solving, as Rudy did in NY?? How about fighting crime, as Rudy did both as a lawyer in the Reagan administration, and as Mayor? In what manner had Fred Thompson proved his mettle, as Rudy did on 9-11, or McCain for that matter, as a POW, in terms of dealing with the stress of an unanticipated attack or other testing ground such as that? Just askin...