82.3% for McCain.. and Fred who was the supposedly “conservative” choice, had an 86% lifetime, with a much shorter amount of time spent in congress.
So if 82.3% is not that good, please explain to me why Thompson was embraced and touted by folks as “the conservatives conservative” when his lifetime was only a few points higher?
Can’t have it both ways folks.
During the time Thompson was getting his 86%, McCain’s average is lower than 82%
If we look at the last 7 years, McCain’s number is about 72%.
Fred did NOT show himself as a solid conservative when he was a Senator. He voted for McCain/Feingold, for example. But he was better than McCain. Fred did have a thing for opposing tort reform, which hurt him in the ratings. He even had a few bad gun votes.
But most everything THompson ever did wrong was swept away by his supporters, because in order to nitpick Romney’s record, they had to pretend their candidate was perfect. If they had to admit their own candidate had flipped on major issues like McCain/Feingold, the “flip/flop” argument would carry less weight.
So when in 1994 Thompson was “pro-life”, but only after viability, and didn’t really think it was an important thing to him, they had to instead insist that he was 100% pro-life from birth.