Fred On "God's Standards"

Well, not actually directly in response to Sister Huckabee's statement, but his take on politics vis a vis religious belief:

A woman asked him if he would “as a Christian, as a conservative” continue President Bush’s programs to combat global AIDS.

“Christ didn’t tell us to go to the government and pass a bill to get some of these social problems dealt with. He told us to do it,” Thompson said.

“The government has its role, but we need to keep firmly in mind the role of the government, and the role of us as individuals and as Christians on the other.”

He received a round of applause for his answer, and went on to expand on the role of government in fighting AIDS and other diseases.

“I’m not going to go around the state and the country with regards to a serious problem and say that I’m going to prioritize that,” he said.

“With people dying of cancer, and heart disease, and children dying of leukemia still, I got to tell you – we’ve got a lot of problems here, and we all may have our one that’s affected us the most, but it’s a broad array. And a president who will tell you the truth is that we have to look across the board and do what we can and what we should based upon the severity of the problem and the chances that our research money will do some good in these areas.”

The other night when I was out in NYC with some morons I floated the idea that Fred was attempting to preserve his "Good Guy" image so that if his candidacy fell through, his lucrative Hollywood career wouldn't suffer.

Well, with Fred stating straight-up-no-chaser he's not going to "prioritize" fighting AIDS in Africa, I think I can scotch that theory. Blacks with AIDS? Black foreigners with AIDS? I can't think of a cohort closer to the hearts of the Hollywood elite, save the Hollywood elite themselves, and their personal managers, and people who can get them jobs, and their personal trainers-slash-Ecstacy-dealers, and their mistresses and call girls, and, Charlie Sheen, who they've all for reasons unfathomable conspired together to grant an inexplicably long-lived career.

That seems to me to show a fair amount of dedication to keeping the ambition of government in check, as well as its spending. It's definitely not going to win Thompson the title of Miss Congeniality during the general election. It's a nice idea, stopping the spread of AIDS in Africa. Even if it costs billions. Hard to say no to.

But Fred did. That takes a certain amount of commitment to principle.

posted by Ace at 05:44 PM

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