Well, at least the wait is over: Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson at last is a GOP presidential candidate. The questions abound, though: Will voters admire him as much as they do his gruff district attorney on "Law & Order"? Will he be able to claim the Ronald Reagan mantle for himself? Can he escape the "flip-flopper" and "lazy" labels? Will his speeches improve? Do Republicans want a candidate who wears Gucci loafers to a state fair?
Posted by Rhonda Holman
A Fox News focus group gave John McCain the highest marks for Wednesday’s GOP debate, but the fireworks between Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee provided the most compelling moment. After Paul argued that our military presence in the Middle East is hurting America and that we need to withdraw our troops, Huckabee said we have an obligation to fix what we broke in Iraq. Paul then responded that a few people advising President Bush "hijacked our foreign policy," and that the American people shouldn’t be punished for that. Huckabee countered that Paul shouldn’t divide the country and, "if we make a mistake, we make it as a single country." Here’s a transcript of what followed:
PAUL: No. When we make a mistake — (interrupted by applause) — when we make a mistake, it is the obligation of the people through their representatives to correct the mistake, not to continue the mistake! (Cheers, applause.)
HUCKABEE: And that’s what we do on the floor of the –
PAUL: No! We’ve dug a hole for ourselves and we dug a hole for our party! We’re losing elections and we’re going down next year if we don’t change it, and it has all to do with foreign policy, and we have to wake up to this fact.
HUCKABEE: Even if we lose elections, we should not lose our honor, and that is more important to the Republican Party.
PAUL: We’re losing — we’ve lost over — (cheers, applause) — we have lost — we have lost 5,000 Americans killed in — we’ve lost over 5,000 Americans over there in Afghanistan and Iraq, and plus the civilians killed. How many more do you want to lose? How long are we going to be there? How long — what do we have to pay to save face? That’s all we’re doing is saving face. It’s time we came home!
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
A new study showing a fortyfold surge in diagnoses of bipolar disorder in young people between 1994 and 2003 should give doctors and parents pause. The study authors say bipolar illness (previously called manic depression), was underdiagnosed in the past in youths, but the huge increase should raise other concerns: Are doctors getting too comfortable labeling kids bipolar and prescribing meds that could have negative side effects?
“Physicians should bring greater rigor to bear,” said Dr. Glenn Hirsch, one of the authors of the study. “Parents should be aware there has been this big increase in diagnoses. They should ask why and how such a diagnosis is made and what decisions went into it, and they should know more about the medications.”
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Americans have another 14 months to pick a preference for someone to lead the nation. How about someone to share a long drive across it? In an ABC News “Good Morning America” poll, 48 percent chose Hillary Clinton over Rudy Giuliani (39 percent) for the road trip, an outcome driven by women’s strong preference for Clinton’s company. The same poll found that when the question was about being their boss rather than their traveling companion, those surveyed went 45 percent for Clinton and 42 percent for Giuliani. Interestingly, in a GOP-only field of choices, only 9 percent picked Mitt Romney for either role. (And, based on his past family vacations, we know how the nation’s dogs would view a possible cross-country trip with him.) Kansas’ Sam Brownback wasn’t listed as an option.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
It’s not just conservatives who deride Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.; liberals are after him, too. Their beef is his underhanded opposition of an offshore wind farm near Nantucket, columnist Froma Harrop reported. Even though 84 percent of Massachusetts residents support the project, Kennedy and other wealthy landowners and yachtsmen have fought it — and fought dirty. “The towers would be at least five miles out and barely visible from shore on the clearest day, but the summer plutocrats resent any intrusion on their waterfront vistas — and, equally, any challenge to the notion that they control everything,” Harrop wrote. She concluded: “After 45 years in the Senate, Kennedy should be polishing his liberal legacy. But his manipulative attacks on this wind farm have so sickened supporters that his long career may be headed for a sorry end.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
