Prez Primary History: Attn Ben Cole and Wade Burleson

[Stephen Fox]

National Focus should drift fromHBee to Richard Land as the show comes to South Carolina, because to my knowledge Land has never spoken to the ethical questions raised by this episode of his conference caller Karl Rove shaping our shared History of the last 8 years.

Wade and Ben:
I know you sometimes take a look at this venue and engage here. I am hoping our mutual friends David Flick and Tom Webb may alert you to this post. I may drop a note at the kerosucharris blog as well.
I have blogged considerably at http://www.foxofbama.blogspot.com about the implications of HBee's run for President and how it will flavor aspects of the SBC. As the given leading reformers in that outfit, with the strongest reservations about Richard Land, would love to see you engage what I hope will be a worthwhile conversation here on the matter.
For background reading hope at a minimum you will take a close look at the concluding chapters of Garry Wills Head and Heart, a book endorsed by your new friend Mark Noll, and David Gushee's framing of his hopes for the Atlanta Covenant meeting in the January issue of Baptists Today.
SFox

And for Wade and Ben in particular, take a look at Thornton's thread in the Baptist practice forum at this site.

Huckabee and Gothard, eh?
by William Thornton on Thu Dec 27, 2007 10:28 am

From Time mag Fe3b 14 200

Which is why Bush's top aides and his South Carolina allies were huddled in the Greenville Grand Hyatt by Wednesday afternoon, trying to figure out how to cut McCain fast and deep. Forget what they'd said about winning respect as well as votes; the loss up North was so bad that no one thought Bush could win South Carolina on the strength of his positive message alone. As a participant put it later, this was the moment the Bush campaign "decided to take the gloves off."

Hughes argued that they needed to hijack McCain's message for themselves. "Governor Bush is a reformer," she said. "I don't think we've articulated that very well." The South Carolina team--which includes Lieutenant Governor Bob Peeler, former Governor David Beasley and top G.O.P. operative Warren Tompkins--was less concerned about redefining Bush as a reformer than about turning McCain into a liberal or, as one of them put it, "worse than a Democrat." "McCain's not an outsider," said one. "He's an insider. When I hear this populist stuff, it makes me wanna throw up."

At some point the discussion turned to who could be counted on to fire which volleys. Several outside groups, including the National Right to Life Committee, Americans for Tax Reform and the tobacco lobby were mentioned. "Right to Life will do radio, ATR will do TV ads," said one of Bush's South Carolina advisers. "ATR will come down with whatever we need." No one in the meeting suggested that the campaign was or should be coordinating with these outside groups. Coordination is illegal, but it is also in the eye of the beholder, and the discussion revolved around the idea that these third-party ad campaigns would benefit Bush's effort.

"We have to drive his negatives up," said one of the participants. Said another: "On the flag, on taxes and on campaign finance, we don't know where the real McCain is. 'Who's the real McCain?' We have to prosecute that. We gotta hit him hard." They tested some new tag lines, designed to make clear that the G.O.P. was still a club worth belonging to. "He's not one of us" was one proposal, and "He doesn't share our conservative values" and "He's outside the mainstream." Someone even proposed "Out of touch" as a possibility, which makes one wonder which campaign it was that just lost a primary by 19 points and never saw it coming