California Conservative

That’s the title of JB Williams’ latest column for the National Ledger. If you believe Romneyphile Hugh Hewitt, the answer is no. If you’re asking pundits with credibility, though, like David Yepsen, the answer is a definite yes. Let’s start with Hewitt’s written lovefest for Romney:

The Huckabloom is off the rose. Fred didn’t rally. Senator McCain is still a great American, a lousy senator and a terrible Republican. (McCain-Kennedy; McCain-Feingold; The Gang of 14).

I hope Hugh Hewitt wakes up sometime soon. Hewitt’s sounding like Harry Reid when Reid told people that the surge had failed…last April:

“The president has a choice to make in the coming days: Cling to the discredited policies that have led our troops further into an intractable civil war, or work with a bipartisan majority of Congress to make us more secure,” said Majority Leader Reid.

Reid said that the surge had failed before the surge was implemented. In this instance, Hugh Hewitt has told us that Fred Thompson’s rally never happened before Sen. Thompson’s barnstorming bus tour through Iowa is even 3 days old. My question for Mr. Hewitt is simple: When did you get the gift of seeing into the future? Or is it that you’re doing whatever it takes to stop a Thompson rally?

Next, let’s look at David Yepsen’s opinion of the race:

But after a sluggish start, Thompson has sensed an opening in Iowa, and he’s moving decisively to exploit it. The opening arises from a combination of Romney’s changes of position on social issues and Huckabee’s stumbles on foreign-policy questions and immigration.

After his winning performance in the Des Moines Register’s debate, Thompson has embarked on a lengthy bus tour of the state. During these final days, his campaign says he’ll hold events in 50 communities and will visit 54 of the 99 counties.

On Monday, he picked up the surprise endorsement of Congressman Steve King. Of all the endorsements flying around these days, that one could move the most numbers. It sends a powerful signal from one of Iowa’s most conservative leaders to others on the right around the state: We’ve now got a horse we can ride.

Finally, let’s look at JB Williams’ article:

Tom Tancredo is expected to announce his withdrawal from the race today. Even though he has only .6% support nationally, who he decides to endorse can make a big difference. The same goes for Hunter and his 1.3%. In looking at who these two conservatives are most likely to endorse, Thompson is the most logical answer.

Both of these men are running on very strong border security. This alone makes it all but impossible for either of them to ever endorse Giuliani, Huckabee or Romney due to their past records on illegal immigration issues. McCain’s position on amnesty for illegals and civil rights for terrorists, make it equally unlikely that either of these men could endorse him.

This leaves the only true conservative in the race, Fred Thompson. If both men endorse Thompson, look for their supporters and some of those undecided voters to shift behind the Thompson campaign in short order.

If and when McCain pulls the plug on his campaign, he is also most likely to endorse his long time friend Fred Thompson.

This makes perfect sense. Why wouldn’t Duncan hunter and Tom Tancredo endorse Fred Thompson considering his hawkish policies about securing the border? They certainly wouldn’t endorse Huckabee because of his views on amnesty and they certainly wouildn’t endorse Romney because he isn’t a trustworthy conservative. I also agree with Mr. Williams in saying that McCain’s endorsement will go to Sen. Thompson because they’ve been good friends for so long.

In addition to that, I remember McCain being asked by Tim Russert if he would’ve picked John Ashcroft to be his AG. McCain said he wouldn’t have, that he would’ve asked Fred Thompson to be his AG choice.

Here’s Williams’ opinion on Romney’s chances:

Mitt Romney: Romney has raised and spent more money than any other Republican candidate and until very recently, he was stuck at or below 10% support nationally. Much of his new support is coming from people who once supported Giuliani. Yet some of his early supporters have already defected to Huckabee.

In short, Romney’s support is very volatile. In fact, main stream Republicans, even those who have polled for the top tier candidates for months, continue to shift around from perceived “front-runner” to the “front-runner” of the week. The top four are secure as only the top four. But who in the top four will ultimately emerge as the nominee remains totally fluid.

It’s my opinion that, once we get beyond the ‘looks presidential phase’, people will look for someone who is presidential. Rudy and Fred are the only people who are presidential in the race.

Being presidential means being seen as reliable, intelligent and having the right policy positions. Obviously, Mitt Romney is an intelligent person. To argue otherwise is foolish. Considering all the different beliefs he’s had, he certainly can’t be viewed as reliable. Until Gov. Romney meets that reliability threshold, it won’t matter what policy positions he’s taking because voters won’t trust him to hold those positions.

Let’s compare that with Fred Thompson. Fred’s been a federalist since he read Barry Goldwater’s “Conscience of a Conservative” in 1963. Fred then returned home to become the first Republican in his family. He also started the first Young Republicans club in his hometown.

Fred has a 100% pro life voting record. Gov. Romney says that he’s pro life but Sen. Thompson has a lifelong pro life voting record. If that’s the choice, why would pro life voters pick Gov. Romney?

Let’s also compare Gov. Romney’s foreign policy experience with Sen. Thompson’s foreign policy experience. Sen. Thompson served on the Senate Intelligence Committee and Foreign Relations Committee. He’s developed a plan to topple the Iranian mullahs without firing a shot. He wants to rebuild our intelligence capabilities, especially the HumInt capabilities. He’s travelled the world and talked with foreign leaders.

Mitt Romney has…potential. The truth is that we don’t know if he’d continue President Bush’s liberation policies. We don’t know if he’d be an Arabist or staunchly pro-Israeli.

I’d bet good money that Hugh Hewitt’s prediction that “Fred didn’t rally” has more to do with casting Gov. Romney in the role of inevitable winner than anything else. I’d bet that he’s hoping to persuade people into thinking that a Romney nomination is nothing more than a fait accompli.

While Democrats base their presidential nominations on who looks presidential, the GOP has traditionally picked their candidates based on their policies. When you apply those criteria, it isn’t difficult to believe that a Thompson surge is definitely possible.

UPDATE: I was wrong. Tom Tacredo endorsed Mitt Romney. Who would’ve thought that a hardline conservative could’ve endorsed liberal Mitt Romney?

Technorati Tags: Fred Thompson, Mitt Romney, Duncan Hunter, Tom Tancredo, David Yepsen, Hugh Hewitt, Harry Reid, Election 2008

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 20th, 2007 at 2:23 pm and is filed under Author: Gary Gross, Election 2008, Foreign Policy, Immigration, Iran, Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.