Matt Moran | Confident and Conservative

Well didn’t Mike Huckabee just do himself well today?

Huckabee held a press conference this morning to announce the start of a new ad in Iowa that attacked chief rival Mitt Romney. But as the press assembled, Huckabee says he decided he wasn’t going to run a negative campaign.

I don’t buy it. It was a ploy, Mike Huckabee made this decision before he made the ad. He knows that Iowans don’t buy negative campaigning and the only reason he actually made the ad was to say he did it. In my opinion, the Huckabee campaign never had any intention of running the television spot.

Watch this video and then read the article from the Washington Post. The article says that Huckabee told his staff of his decision just minutes before the press conference. In his speech however, Huckabee says different. Fast forward to about the 2:40 marker, and Huckabee says “this morning I ordered our staff to pull the ad.”

My thinking is, if Mike had enough time to tell his staff to pull the ad, then did he not have time to tell his staff to take down all the negative posters attacking Romney? As an aside, Huckabee was reading from a script - if he had enough time to write a speech, then of course he could have informed his staff of his decision in a timely manner. In turn, his staff could have notified the press and taken down the posters. Unless, of course, as my theory goes, he really didn’t want anybody to know; but rather, wanted his grand scheme to look impromptu so he could earn free press for being “the good guy.”

Huckabee didn’t have any problem attacking Mitt Romney Sunday, and he surely hasn’t had any trouble attacking him before that. It’s a little too late to decide to run a negative campaign.

Instead though, Huckabee now gets hours of free press for being “the good guy.” CNN, Fox News, ABC, CBS, NBC, and every other MSM outlet will all praise Huckabee for deciding not to run a negative campaign. In turn, Iowans forget entirely that his campaign has been nothing but negative.

Don’t forget, the MSM wants Huckabee to win; in fact, the democrats are rooting for Huckabee because they know they can beat him.

Huckabee played politician today, and he did it with flawless expertise. This might earn him the Iowa caucus, and in turn might get him the nomination - which all but assures a Democratic victory in 2008.

As many of you already know, the media has latched on to a select soundbite of Fred Thompson recently, and are playing it up to be everything it isn’t.

The media is quoting Fred Thompson as saying “I’m not particularly interested in running for President.” What Fred Thompson said was:

“I’m offering myself up. I’m saying that I have the background, the capability, and the concern to do this and I’m doing it for the right reasons. But I’m not particularly interested in running for president…”[my emphasis]

Laziness and lack of desire has been a charge Fred Thompson has faced since day one. Rather than discussing his conservative record and conservative principles, writers, editors, and publishers have chose to focus on the character of Thompson.

Fred is the only Republican candidate that is strong enough and conservative enough to unite all corners of the party’s base without alienating anyone. Fred has substantive policy proposals, a conservative record unmatched by any of the other leading candidates, and the endorsement of the National Right to Life Committee; but the media still thinks we need to talk about him being “lazy.”

The man is not lazy. Over the past month, Fred Thompson has the busiest campaign schedule of all candidates, doing five events a day in sub-freezing temperatures and icy and snowy conditions. By the time the Iowa caucuses roll around Fred will have visited fifty towns in less than a month, all while riding on a bus - not a private leer jet; I would hardly call that lazy.

America has forgotten that its most memorable President, its first President, George Washington, did not want to be President. Thompson, just like Washington, recognized the grave state of his country and realized the importance of strong leadership. That is why Fred has decided to run for President.

A call to service doesn’t require one to have an initial desire to serve; rather only the desire to do what one is asked and more. Fred Thompson has a desire to serve the American people, and provide the American people with strong, conservative leadership in perilous times.

I stand by Fred Thompson because I know that he is the best candidate for America. This is only more evident by opponents, analysts, and pundits inability to attack his record, policies, and principles. Let’s compare the candidates on what really matters:

Mitt Romney was pro-choice for over thirty years, and as governor he allowed sanctuary cities to operate under his watch He also opposed reducing capital gains taxes in 1994.

Mike Huckabee supported in-state tuition for illegal immigrants, and allowed major tax increases while he was governor of Arkansas. Mike also turned a $6 billion dollar budget into a $16 billion dollar budge in Arkansas.

Rudy Giuiliani is still pro-choice, and while Mayor he operated New York City as a sanctuary city and when Rudy left New York, the budget deficit was bigger than when he arrived.

Fred Thompson? Well he is pro-life, and he supported three major tax cuts while he was in the Senate, and  he supports a balanced budget amendment, and he has a serious plan to deal with immigration, and he really is the true conservative.

I stand by Fred Thompson, even if he does like to sleep in on Sundays.