I'd love to get a transcript. I hope that Team Thompson was listening to Elmer GantryMike Huckabee's Michigan concession speech in South Carolina, because the mendacity in it will be fodder for several campaign commercials this week. The man who wants a federal smoking ban wants government to leave us alone?

Please.

[Update]

Finger to the wind?

Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee has reversed his position on a federal ban aimed at workplace smoking and now believes the issue should be addressed by state and local governments.

The about-face is apparent in a Huckabee campaign statement, sent to The Hill Tuesday evening in response to questions about the smoking ban proposal. It clashes with the stance Huckabee has taken during his race for the White House and with his record as governor of Arkansas, when he signed into law a measure prohibiting smoking in most indoor public places.

Must be pre-emptive against the inevitable ads in SC. Maybe they should just be pictures of flip flops...

"...mendacity..."

AARRGHHHH!!! I'm quaking over here!!

As a wee lad of 8 or 9, while under the tutelage of Sister Mary Michael I came to fear this word. Being caught in acts of mendacity was met with swift punishment. Usually a swift rap on the knuckles AND a note sent home. She used the word twice a day, if not more, and it seemed to me it was the worst offense she could imagine. I'm sure that capital punishment was justified for crossing that line of behavior in her eyes. Just seeing or hearing the word now draws me back to those days of old.

Having said that, and now that I've quit shaking...

I'm not a genius, and I don't have total recall, but it seems to me that only two of the current crop of candidates have NOT done a flip flop on some major political stand they used to have.

Fred Thompson and Ron Paul.

I like them both, but I just don't see Paul as electable this time. Fred's VP? Then run when Fred is going out.

Thompson might be able to claw his way to third place in South Carolina with a lot of negative campaigning against Huckabee, McCain, Romney, Clinton, liberals, Democrats generally, and especially reporters. He may even win one constituency outright: Older men with spinal pain and large investment income.

Someone here called it a surge, and that is exactly right. Thompson's campaign will go the same way as the Iraq war. Start above 20, sink below 10, then surge back to 15. So the surge is a "success".

That was good Jim. You managed to pigeon hole Thompson and still say something snarky about something with which Thompson was barely involved.

If nothing, you're consistent. Wrong most of the time, but consistent.

By the way, there is very little chance that Thompson will bring down the Huckommunist even in South Carolina. Maybe McCain will achieve that, and maybe Thompson will catch up with Romney for third place.

Very funny report on a recent Republican debate by a 9 year old:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/1/6/25723/26527/751/431492

Thompson fares alright, McCain not so well. There is a key for the nicknames at the end, but you probably won't need it.

The Huckster is doing push polling against Fred Thompson. Must be making him nervous!

http://www.palmettoscoop.com/2008/01/16/push-poll-firm-has-questionable-legal-record/

http://fredfile.fred08.com/blog/2008/video-anti-fred-thompson-push-poll-call/

Thompson will probably come in a very strong third in SC. Where he takes it from there will be a function of how strong one can consider a consistent third place or lower finisher. Meanwhile, talk radio seems to have won against McCain. See where the base gets its enlightenment: 3 solid hours a day of eardrum massage.

Meanwhile, from where I look at this, one hopes Romney emerges as the eventual condidate. If he could have been the governor of MA, he cannot sensibly be the kind of conservative he makes himself out to be, nor the conservative some people fantasize him to be. And that's all to the good and fine by me.

Hillary vs. Romney..who knows, maybe Romney can pull it off. I expect him to become much less of a conservative after he is nominated; he could have another change of heart .