as a fredhead, i have to say, pissant, our candidates bear the lion’s share of responsibility for their poor showing. you can claim that conservatives ignored Hunter and fredheads can rail against fox news for their negative slant on Fred’s candidacy from the get-go, but at rock bottom, a losing candidate only has himself to blame. they did not attract the support necessary to propel their candidacies. THAT is their job. sitting around being a hail-fellow-well-met conservative is fine, but it doesn’t get you elected. I feel i can say this because the same applies to Fred. it is simply wrong to blame the voters for not voting for them, when it was the CANDIDATE’s job to EARN THAT VOTE.
Yes, I know, to a large degree that is true. They must work hard for the vote. But right out of the gate, the media followed Rudy and McCain and Mitt around like puppy dogs. Polls started in 2006 - which are certainly ONLY name ID polls at that time. Giving the names Rudy McRomney at the top, splashed across the media.
FR and the entire conservative movement was saying “is this the best we can do”?
In steps Hunter, as perturbed about the choices as we are. And the immediate reaction from Nat. Review, Human Events, Rush Limbaugh, Weekly Standard, etc etc etc is to tell us he has little chance, then proceed to ignore him. If they are conservative publications, why not support the conservative candidate and at least get his name out there as a real option. The only remotely in depth articles about Hunter were in the blogosphere. And when CNN does a better (though still very poor) job of covering Hunter than Fox, the WSJ and National review COMBINED, you know something is amiss.
Instead, silence. Now Fred was drafted due in large part to the silence and the notion we needed a conservative in the race. Fred played it smart to get buzz by not rushing in, but as soon as he stepped foot in the race, the same ‘conservative’ media started burying him. Rush waited til it was obvious the McCain could win this thing before he started pumping up Fred. Too little too late.
Rush, Laura, Levin, etc should have been telling America that “folks, we have two conservatives in the race now” for many months. Instead, they gave this air of being above it all, and lo and behold we are faced with the FACT that we will get Rudy McRomney, just as we had set out to prevent.
My association with the GOP and its media cheerleaders is over.