September 11, 2007

Fred Flip-Flops on Lincoln-Douglas Debate

If you're reading this you've probably heard the news that Fred Thompson has refused to debate Governor Huckabee after twice communicating his preference for a Lincoln-Douglas style debate. He tries to get out of it by saying that he was referring to the general election and not the primaries. It's time to set the record straight.

The fact is that Thompson did commit to one-on-one debates with his Republican opponents in the primary. Below is an exact transcript of his interview on Hannity & Colmes on September 6th:

Sean Hannity: When you look at the other current crop of candidates, Republicans, where is the distinction between your positions and what you view as theirs?

Fred Thompson: Well, uh, to tell you the truth, uh, I haven't spent a whole lot of time, uh, going into the details of their positions. I will be doing... I... I mean publicly. I obviously know where they stand and what they've done and what they've written. And there will be a time when we will need to have a good, uh, debate, if they're interested in debates, and we'll do it one-on-one and we'll do it in a big group, and I really want to do it, and we'll get into that.

View Video Here (Minute Mark 1:01)
Now Thompson is saying:
I think in the general election, when you've got two candidates that [I might be interested in] something like that, [or] something Newt Gingrich has proposed. I think [Newt's] idea is an hour and half, several different times during the course of the campaign. I think that approach, the more I think about it is a good one… In terms of some individual in a crowded primary situation, that's a different situation. We'll have an opportunity to exchange our views many times before this is over.

Read Entire Article Here
Everyone needs to post about this flip-flop. Voters need to communicate their disappointment to the press, to each other, and to Fred.

Mr. Thompson, it seems that there's plenty of time to exchange views, plenty of time to get in the race, plenty of time to get specific on the issues — we're just waiting for you to stop saying you'll do something and actually do it.

5 comments:

Justin said...

Good catch, my friend.

Lisa said...

Kudos to Brett & Alex! You guys have a caught a big fish here and I hope that we can get the media to fry it.

Thompson has only been an official candidate for a short time and he is already flip-flopping.

Anonymous said...

Funny thing is that he did say he thought primary was a bad time for this style, but he later invites candidates to challenge him...

Odd, but not entirely a flip-flop...

Jess Connell said...

Glad you guys wrote about this... I've written about it too. It's a shame that the media hasn't yet seen FT for who he is. But his time is coming. He's only been in the race a week and already he doesn't know where he stands.

Jess @ Making Home

Anna Naomi said...

Thanks for all you both have written keeping us up-to-date on Huckabee's happenings. It's great to have a reliable source to read!