Washington Post sets the MSM tone again with this. Right-to-die??? Uh huhhhh.
............................
Fred Thompson may yet win the Republican presidential nomination next year. But if he doesn't, his story is likely to be that of a perfect opportunity squandered.
~Snip~
All of which might have been fine if his performance upon entering had been flawless. After a summer when his still-unofficial campaign was plagued by defections and turnover, his announcement tour was widely panned as flat and vague. And he quickly annoyed the religious conservatives who had placed their hope in him by not supporting a federal amendment to ban same-sex marriage. He made several early gaffes -- suggesting that it wasn't important to go after Osama bin Laden and saying that he didn't know enough to comment about the Terri Schiavo right-to-die case.
8mm
................................
Republican State House Speaker Marco Rubio, R-West Miami, is opposing key policies of Gov. Charlie Crist (R) on Indian gaming rights and climate change. He’s also trying to one-up the popular governor on property-tax reform by throwing in with a citizens’ petition movement to bypass the modest relief passed by the Legislature and signed by Crist. ~Snip~ Huckabee is unlikely to win Florida’s Republican presidential primary Jan. 29, although it’s possible. It would be more than that if one out of every 18 Floridians didn’t have ties to New York State, Rudy Giuliani’s home. But Rubio joining hands with Huckabee keeps Rubio as the alternative to the anemic Republican status quo, and, again, without playing the eccentric rebel like Ron Paul. Ironically, association with Huckabee needles Rubio into territory thought to be Crist's exclusive terrain -- the populist margins of the GOP. It's little known yet, but Huckabee's GOP opponents will soon alert everyone that Huckabee as governor of Arkansas sometimes resembled Crist as governor of Florida. Both men are willing to use government to fashion policy, instead of always apologizing for it. The point isn’t that Rubio is some shoo-in to catapult to Florida governor or other high positions one day. Only that he’s playing his cards as shrewdly as one can in Florida, where legislative term limits choke off budding political careers just when they’re growing some stalk. He’s nurturing name ID all over, and slowly coaxing Florida’s right wing back from out of the shadows following the Teri Schiavo fiasco and the rout of Tom Gallagher in last year’s governor’s race.
Cinematic Republican Cuban state House Speaker Challenging His Own Governor in Florida
8mm