MyDesktopBroke
Jan 13, 2010, 12:05 PM
Politico (http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20100113/pl_politico/31431) had a piece about Sen. Thune (R-SD) which paints him as a strong presidential contender for the GOP. Good looking, a good speaker, fiscally conservative - things that will most likely appeal to the entire Republican base. Has anyone been following this guy?
Right off the bat I found two things that would most likely be used against him should he clinch the nom in 2012.
One, the article points out
though he doesn’t promote it, and it wasn’t listed on his 2004 campaign website, Thune is a graduate of a California Bible college. And on cultural issues such as gay marriage and abortion, he’s pure to the party base.
A plus for the rightwing base, but a definite turn off for leftwingers and probably more than a few independents.
Two, he was one of the 30 GOP (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/07/meet-the-senators-who-vot_n_312976.html) senators that voted against Al Franken's "anti rape" legislation. (Yes, I know it's from huffpo, but the info they use is taken from senate records - just ignore the opinion part of the article). This is something I flat out don't understand. Why would anyone vote against such a bill, especially if they wanted to pursue a career in the public eye? All of the female GOP senators supported it, as well as six other republicans.
Thune had this (http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/12/senate-gopers-its-al-frankens-fault-were-being-attacked-for-votes-against-anti-rape-amendment.php) to say about it.
"I don't know what his motivation was for taking us on, but I would hope that we won't see a lot of Daily Kos-inspired amendments in the future coming from him. I think hopefully he'll settle down and do kind of the serious work of legislating that's important to Minnesota."
I'm not sure, but he seems to have said that stomping out sexual harassment is somehow only important to the liberal left - not something that you want to say when you're running as a conservative.
Right off the bat I found two things that would most likely be used against him should he clinch the nom in 2012.
One, the article points out
though he doesn’t promote it, and it wasn’t listed on his 2004 campaign website, Thune is a graduate of a California Bible college. And on cultural issues such as gay marriage and abortion, he’s pure to the party base.
A plus for the rightwing base, but a definite turn off for leftwingers and probably more than a few independents.
Two, he was one of the 30 GOP (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/07/meet-the-senators-who-vot_n_312976.html) senators that voted against Al Franken's "anti rape" legislation. (Yes, I know it's from huffpo, but the info they use is taken from senate records - just ignore the opinion part of the article). This is something I flat out don't understand. Why would anyone vote against such a bill, especially if they wanted to pursue a career in the public eye? All of the female GOP senators supported it, as well as six other republicans.
Thune had this (http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/12/senate-gopers-its-al-frankens-fault-were-being-attacked-for-votes-against-anti-rape-amendment.php) to say about it.
"I don't know what his motivation was for taking us on, but I would hope that we won't see a lot of Daily Kos-inspired amendments in the future coming from him. I think hopefully he'll settle down and do kind of the serious work of legislating that's important to Minnesota."
I'm not sure, but he seems to have said that stomping out sexual harassment is somehow only important to the liberal left - not something that you want to say when you're running as a conservative.
