No candidate is perfect. Some less perfect than others.
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I like to take my time and “get to know the candidate” before I decide to support them in their quest to be President of the United States. While I work hard to learn as much as I can about a candidate, sometimes information is revealed that opponents hope will change my mind.
Take today for example. I received an email with a subject line that read, “Thompson Supports Terrorists”. The body of the email was a harsh attack on Presidential Candidate Fred Thompson and the fact that he once spent 3.3 hours advising a collegue about the jurisdictional issues in the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing case. The email accused Fred Thompson of working for the Libyans and in effect tried to convince me that Fred Thompson is not as honest as I think he is.
When I first read the email I was shocked but I clicked the link in the email which took me to an article in the New York Times titled, “Thompson Linked To Work For Libyans“. Although the sender of the email will be quite disappointed, I have to admit that after reading the article, my opinion of Fred Thompson is no less than it was before I read it. Fred Thompson did not represent terrorists, Fred Thompson did not advise terrorists, Fred Thompson does not support terrorism.
The article clearly states that Thompson gave advice on jurisdictional issues regarding the case to his collegue John Culver. Fred Thompson was not acting on behalf of the terrorists, nor was he acting in their best interest. He simply answered legal quetions from a collegue, which by the way is what lawyers, such as Fred Thompson, do.
Now granted, I am not happy that John Culver, who also worked at the same law firm as Fred Thompson, was advising the attorney for two of the suspects, but I can hardly lay blame on Fred Thompson for simply answering his colleagues questions, nor can I label him as a “supporter of terrorists” for doing so. To do so, I would have to label every candidate as a supporter of terrorists because each of them have done something that links back to some terrorist act somewhere, I am sure. Just think about the six degress of separation and it’s not too hard to imagine.
I appreciate the fact that my friend was looking out for me by warning me of Fred’s previous activity, but let’s stop focusing on the past and start focusing on our future. It’s time we start asking all of the candidates, Fred included, what they plan to do if they are elected. What are their thoughts on privacy, abortion, income taxes, and gun laws? How do they plan to deal with countries like Iran, Syria, and North Korea? Do they support an open border or do they plan to secure our border?
Start asking the questions, lots of them. If we don’t ask them, who will? You know the mainstream media is only going to ask them questions relating to their pasts, and do we really want to spend the next year concentrating our attention on Hillary’s college papers, Fred’s television roles, Edwards’ hair maintence tips, or Obama’s sleeping habits?
Get with the program people, and start making them work for your vote.
