And Then There Were Four (Five?)

Fred Thompson has dropped out of the Republican nomination "contest" for President. Needless to say, the Perfesser is disheartened, but not entirely surprised. He is concerned that conservatives have nowhere left to go among the four (or five, if one counts Ron Paul) remaining candidates, and he lists their defects (from his perspective) as follows:

• McCain: McCain-Feingold, opposed the Bush tax cuts, supported raising Social Security taxes, Iraq
• Giuliani: Pro-death penalty, pro-abortion rights, Iraq, authoritarian streak
• Huckabee: lousy economic record as Governor of Arkansas, wowser, anti-Mormon bigot, hangs out with Christian Reconstructionists, odd comments on amending the Constitution, pro-death penalty
• Romney: Serial flip flopper, serial panderer, Mittcare = Hillarycare

Leaving aside that, with the exception of his list of "policy problems" with Huckabee, at least one of the "policy problems" for each candidate is a positive thing (then again, I'm a leftist...), all four — or five, if you count Ron Paul — remaining Republican candidates share a disqualifying feature that Thompson did not: An inability, or at least unwillingness, to learn from those whose views do not match one's own preconceptions — even when those preconceptions are based on later admitted misapprehension of the facts. What is really sad is that the Perfesser lists at least one example in each candidate's "objectionable policies" that illustrates that disqualifying feature.

I find it quite disturbing that the media has gone so soft on this issue, as to my mind it is one of the critical prerequisites for any elected office. But then, this is the same "liberal media elite" owned by Rupert Murdoch and his media-baron heirs.