Thursday, January 17, 2008
On this day:

Thompson's latest (and last?) South Carolina campaign ads

South Carolina Republicans go to the polls this Saturday, and Thompson's latest ads look pretty effective. See here and here.

Polls of South Carolina Republicans still show Mike Huckabee and John McCain well ahead of Thompson, but both Huckabee and McCain are vulnerable on a host of issues that Thompson has been making it a point to talk about on the campaign trail. He's been hitting John McCain on immigration and Mike Huckabee on damned near everything (except perhaps the Confederate flag). I still can't figure out why Fred and others haven't made more of Huckabee's atrocious record on pardons, though, especially the Wayne Dumond case.

Some people say they're turned off by so-called negative campaigning, but as long as it involves drawing accurate distinctions between candidates, I don't find it objectionable. Mike Huckabee's record is more like that of a Southern Democrat than a Southern Republican, and Republican voters need to know that. Likewise, the press hails John McCain as a "maverick" for one simple reason - he has consistently sided with liberal Democrats on issues ranging from taxes to immigration to health care to global warming. Again, Republican voters need to hear these things. And not just from Rush Limbaugh.