You are currently browsing the monthly archive for May, 2007.
Why do you ask? Well the answer is really simple…because of the equal time rule, NBC would likely NOT broadcast any Law and Order episodes featuring Fred Thompson, and then what would we all do?? The equal time rule is a federal law that guarantees equal air time for all candidates (with the exception of news programs and some documentaries) on broadcast stations. Fortunatlely, however, equal time does not apply to cable networks, which means Law and Order re-runs on TNT and USA will not be affected.
But Law and Order will not be the only thing to go. If Fred Thompson does officially declare – he was then was not going to officially declare on July 4 – then we can forget about seeing (non-cable) broadcasts of “In the Line of Fire”, “Die Hard 2″, “Days of Thunder”, and “The Hunt for Red October”, and many others, in addition to episodes of Law and Order: SVU, Law and Order: CI, and Law and Order: Trial by Jury.
The Washington Times says Michael Bloomberg could be ready to throw his ridiculously expensive bespoke hat into the ring (or at least have a servant throw it in for him).And the filthy rich mayor of New York is prepared to hurdle all that difficult, time-consuming grassroots organizing stuff by spending some of his own money on the campaign. How much? Oh, about a billion dollars worth, say his friends.
“Bloomberg is H. Ross Perot on steroids,” said former Federal Election Commission Chairman Michael Toner. “He could turn the political landscape of this election upside down, spend as much money as he wanted and proceed directly to the general election. He would have resources to hire an army of petition-gatherers in those states where thousands of petitions are required to qualify a third-party presidential candidate to be on the ballot.”
Senior Republican officials — including those supporting declared Republican presidential nomination contenders — and several top Democrats told The Times they take the possibility of a Bloomberg candidacy as a serious threat in November 2008.
Obviously, this isn’t very good news for the Republican and Democratic Presidential hopefuls.
Newt Gingrich announced today on Good Morning America, “I think right now that it is a great possibility,” Gingrich said. “I don’t want to get into all this stuff. I want to focus on what we have to do to make America successful.” He concluded that he would make a final decision on the race in September after his workshop on solutions.
Ever since the pivotal Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, the GOP has been at the forefront to try to reverse this ruling. And in a country where the past few elections were based on moral values, having moral values that match that of the red is key. Since announcing his bid for candidacy Rudy Giuliani has “flip-flopped” on this issue multiple times and hasn’t stood firmly behind the pro-choice contingent.
Now he brought the Rudy back to his campaign and made a firm decision stating, “I’m very, very passionate about the issue of abortion. I oppose it. That’s a principle I’ve held forever, and I’ll hold it forever. That’s not going to change. But I also believe that in a society like ours, where people have very, very different consciences about this, it’s best to respect each others’ differences and allow for choice.”
Mitt Romney has caused some concerns for his recent switch on the issue going from a pro-choice stance to pro-life.
It will be interesting to see how much this one issue takes effect on the overall GOP nomination.
Senator John McCain may not know that contraceptives prevent the spread of H
IV, but at least he does believe in evolution. At the Republican presidential debates last night, when moderator Chris Matthews asked if anyone did not believe in evolution, Senator Sam Brownback, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, and Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo all raised their hands. Amazing.
Liberman, Democrat turned to Independent, recently was quoted as saying that if the main two parties don’t step up to the plate and address the issuing plaguing Americans, it could be an open opportunity for a Third Party candidate.
When asked what party was the fastest growing party, he replied, “no party.” He add, “the disease is partisanship. The lack of civility is one of the symptoms of that disease.”
I’m glad that Lieberman is trying to shed some light on the real possibility of a third party coming up, I’m hoping that some candidates start to stand up in one of the many possibly third party categories and show that we don’t have to be limited to Democrat or Republican. But who would be the first to really generate the buzz?
