Republican and Conservative political analysis and commentary

Fred Thompson's latest attack piece against Mike Huckabee is an important precursor to the negative ads that are likely to hit the airwaves within the next couple weeks. This week's Friday Look will examine the weaknesses each of the major candidates have that are likely to be exploited by rival campaigns. 

Negative ads often get a bad wrap and turns the average voter off. However; if voters truly hated them, they wouldn't be so responsive to them and political campaigns would stop running them. The truth of the matter is negative ads provide an important public service that, at the end of the day, disseminates nothing but the cold, hard truth.

Mitt Romney has two major weaknesses; he's a Mormon and he's a flip flopper. His opponents can't attack him on the former, but they will go after him with all they have on the latter. They can't attack him on his religion because, with the exception of Mike Huckabee, none of them are religious. Additionally, as Romney demonstrated in his "Faith in America" speech, religion has a specific place in America that doesn't include the arena of political debate. His flip-flops, however, are a serious liability.

Rudy Giuliani's weaknesses are also two fold; he has a less than pristine personal history, and he isn't a conservative. While his opponents can't really attack him on the former because half of them, like half of America, have had more than one marriage, there are subtler ways to do it such as cultivating the image of the perfect marriage/family as Mitt Romney has or drawing attention to his abuse of his position of power while he was having the affair. Additionally, his liberal stances on a slew of social issues including his advocacy of abortion doesn't win him many conservative friends.

John McCain's biggest weakness comes from his association and support of President Bush. While this is nothing that any Republican will attack him on, the fact that McCain has been unable to gain traction is a testament to how bad Bush's brand is right now. Other, exploitable, weaknesses stem from his maverick positions on conservative issues such as his belief in global warming, his opposition to the Bush tax cuts, and his support of destructive embryonic stem cell research. His membership in the Republican Main Street Partnership also earns him a well deserved RINO (Republican In Name Only) label, and his history of backstabbing people such as what he did to Lamar Alexander in the Senate Minority Whip race also draws the ire of the Republican and conservative faithful.

Fred Thompson's weakness is that he just doesn't want it enough; so much so that it was the basis of an SNL skit. While, admittedly, this isn't a weakness that can be exploited by his opponents, it is a weakness that has prevented from him gaining traction. Even before he entered the race, there was talk of his laziness and that he lacked "the fire in the belly" to run for President. The Presidency isn't just some position that you "would like" as he said on an interview on Jay Leno; it's a position that you have to want.  Perhaps not as much as Romney wants it, but you still have to show some desire for the office to the American people. However, other than that, his record is actually extremely solid. He has the most conservative credentials of any candidate in the race, and the press and his opponents alike are having a hard time finding legitimate negatives that can actually stick to him.

Mike Huckabee's weakness is that he is a "pro-life liberal," as Thompson likes to call him. While he is the most pro-life candidate in the race and has the strongest Christian/social conservative credentials, he has a less than stellar record when it comes to fiscal issues. He has drawn criticism from the Club for Growth. Fortunately, or unfortunately, for Huckabee, this is the only weakness he has and the only thing that his opponents can attack him on.