At last week’s debate for Republican presidential candidates, the moderator asked one of those annoying show-of-hands questions, but nevertheless raised a crucial point: “I’d like to see a show of hands. How many of you believe global climate change is a serious threat caused by human activity?”
Fred Thompson said, “I’m not doing hand shows today.” Asked for a yes-or-no answer, Thompson refused to respond, saying he wanted a minute to respond to the question in more detail. The moderator balked, and Thompson responded, “You want a show of hands. I’m not giving it to you.”
It certainly livened up an otherwise dull event, but I wonder if the Thompson campaign is milking this one for more than it’s worth.
Fred D. Thompson’s “hands down” moment in the Des Moines Register Republican debate last week is still resonating throughout his campaign, and keeps popping up on his bus tour this week. […]
[H]is campaign renamed the tour “The Clear Conservative Choice: Hands Down! Bus Tour in Iowa.” And for at least his first three stops on the 15-day swing through Iowa, Mr. Thompson made sure to remind his audiences of what his campaign called his “defining moment.”
“I won that debate hands down,” Mr. Thompson said, to scattered applause on Monday night. He made similar remarks in Manchester on Tuesday morning. And by the time he got to Decorah, his second stop on Tuesday, he had worked it into his routine.
“I won that debate hands down,” Mr. Thompson repeated, to laughter during a stop at Ruby’s restaurant.
Really? Not answering a question has become the “defining moment” of the senator’s campaign?
It was a cute little debate exchange, but isn’t this over doing it a bit?
First, I suspect this is probably a little too clever. The debate was in the middle of the day on a weekday, and was universally panned as dull. I have a hunch most people who hear the “hands down” pitch never actually saw the “defining moment.”
Second, as Jason Zengerle noted, “Do note the irony that Thompson’s defining moment involves his refusal to do something. Fred Thompson: so lazy he won’t even raise his hand!”
And third, there’s the small matter of Thompson’s actual beliefs on the subject at hand.
Thompson is clearly not very concerned about global warming. Yesterday on Glenn Beck’s radio show, Thompson said that while the “Earth is warming,” we “don’t know whether or not it’s a part of a cycle. We’ve had cooling stages before. We don’t know to what extent it’s due to manmade causes.”
Similarly, in a CBS News interview last night, he claimed that the “state of entitlements” and “extremists” who “want to do drastic things to our economy” are greater threats than global warming: “There are a lot of unanswered questions. We don’t know to the extent this is a cyclical thing. This may or may not effect very much. The extremists are the ones who want to do drastic things to our economy before we have more answers as to how much good we can do and whether people in the other parts of the world are going to contribute. It’s the fact that our entitlements are bankrupting the next generation. We’re spending the money of those yet to be born and we can’t continue that way.”
I know there’s a temptation to use pre-planned, often-scripted debate exchanges as key moments that become “turning points” in retrospect. John McCain used his “tied up” remark in Orlando repeatedly.
But somehow, I doubt this “hands down” quip is going to be the start of a massive Thompson comeback.