Sunday, November 25, 2007

Hey, what's going on here?

Call it my skeptical nature but it appears the distancing from all things Bush has begun. Our junior Senator Bob Corker recently threw his audience for a loop with this:
"I was in the White House a number of times to talk about the issue, and I may rankle some in the room saying this, but I was very underwhelmed with what discussions took place at the White House,"
Corker seems like a sincere guy so it's hard to tell what his motive here was, but it's something he didn't have to say. There's always the possibility this was a device of sorts to test the waters. In 2000 Al Gore was advised not to run on Clinton's record and surely the same has been discussed within the GOP regarding Bush. Corker is a backer of ex-Senator Thompson's bid for president.

Speaking of the big guy, he was on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace this morning and the sparks were really flying. To Fred's credit there were some at Fox who were less than enthused with his coming-out party on Leno concurrent with their presidential debate, so maybe he's got a point.

Or maybe he's just trying to paint himself as an independent, fearful of being too closely tied to a perceived right wing network. There's always the remote possibility he was trying to stir up some headlines for a campaign that has fallen flat (partially a product of his own initial strategy). Truth be told, I think it was honest frustration. As he tried to remind Wallace, he's the only major candidate to put forth serious policy proposals, only to have most of them ignored.

Whatever the case this exchange does seem to illustrate one facet of Fred's personality that might hurt him down the line--he really doesn't take criticism very well. We'll have to wait and see if the other candidates try to poke a sharp stick at that potential soft underbelly.

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