Well, it’s not ideal for him, but then Fred can also point to his eight years in the senate where he had a 100% pro-life voting record.
Here’s the thing on “flip-flopping.” Thompson and Romney may have been pro-choice at some point (and they should admit this – which neither has so far), but that was 16 years ago for Thompson and 5 years ago for Romney. I see nothing wrong with someone changing their positions over that period of time – I certainly have, and on a number of issues.
The “flip-flopping” meme got started when Kerry voted for a funding bill and then voted against it almost right away. Then it was discovered he had two letters prepared simultaneously during the first Gulf War – one saying he was for it and one saying he was against it – and he would send them out to constituents accordingly. The guy takes both positions at the same time in order to effectively pander for as many votes as possible. That’s something very different from changing your position on a controversial issue over the period of a decade or more.

So is anyone who changes their mind on anything a “flip-flopper”?
Before I accepted Christ, I thought pre-maritial sex was okay as long as it was consensual, Abortion was okay because it is a woman’s body and when she is pregnant she is all that mattered, and most every thing that was mentioned as a sin in “that Bible” was okay if no one saw it or you didn’t get caught.
Well, it has been 13 years since I have “flip-flopped” and I guess it doesn’t matter what I am forgiven of and turned back from.

The thing about this is that the segment of our population that is the de jure Republican base is spoiled enough to find something like this troubling. And, frankly, would have called a similar evolution in a Democrat a flip-flop.
It’s a little ironic to me, though, that John McCain, the only Republican with a lifetime perfect pro-life voting record is getting his hat and coat handed him by the single-issue voters who agree with him. The lesson to politicians is that most voters prefer being sucked up to to principle.

I am a 100% pro-life, Christian Conservative Republican and I have NO PROBLEM with this. Sorry David, once again you prove that you know nothing about us. I am sure you find another way to mock your brothers and sisters in Christ. Because if Jesus were here, I am sure he too would be mocking His children like you do.

Well, just remember that when you vote for national Republicans, you vote for this set of insiders:
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2766040.ece
I guess there are a lot of gullible Christians.

David,
You have said that too often Christians are viewed as a political movement and the focus is not on Christ, where it belongs. I totally agree with you. But it seems your web site and and some of those that comment, seem to be doing exactly what you disdain. Please, stop speaking ill of fellow Christians. I hear enough of it from those who hate God, I don’t like reading it from those that “claim” to be Christains. It’s so upsetting to see how you and others attempt to demean Conservative Christians. You question their intelligence. Please stop it!

David – You haven’t provided any evidence that this information on what Thompson did in 1991 is having a demoralizing influence on conservative Republicans. My heart is with Huckabee, but as for Republicans I think can win I’m with Thompson. He has a great pro-life record in Congress just like McCain does.
As for McCain, Doug’s point makes no sense. He says that “single-issue voters” are handing McCain his hat and coat in favor of Republicans who don’t have the pro-life record he does. Well, maybe they aren’t the “single-issue voters” he thinks they are. If they were, don’t you think they’d support McCain? Maybe he should refer to them as what they are, conservatives who appreciate McCain’s pro-life voting record but don’t like his support for campaign finance reform, immigration reform, and other issues.

OK, Eric. That’s fair. But I’ll add that McCain’s support for immigration reform shouldn’t bother a traditional conservative it should energize a traditional conservative. It does this one. The close-down-the-border and send-them-all-home option would require a massive increase in the size and scope of government if it were ever going to succeed which it won’t. And, while I won’t call it anti-Christian it sure ain’t Christian. So I won’t call the anti-immigration reform folks single-issue voters but I wouldn’t call them conservatives either.
This may not be fair either, but I think if Senator McCain had sucked up more consistently to people who think the purpose of government is to pet them he’d be winning the Republican nomination in a walk.

Johann Hari; you read an article like that and you realize that truly the Sodomites and the people of Noah’s day really did exist.
He has shown us them in him.
His perceptive blindness is matched only by his libbed out ego. At least he’ll not have to endure his children forced to learn Arabic to “make it” in the future Europistan.

It is difficult to be a successful politician, and even harder to be a Christian one. However, even before becoming a politician, we are called to be Christians. Everything else follows from that commitment. I personally am ashamed of some of the hypocricy and double talk among “Christian” politicians.
I am reminded by James, “My brothers and sisters, don’t take an oath when you make a promise. Don’t call on heaven or earth or anything else to back up what you say. Let your “Yes” be yes. And let your “No” be no. If you don’t, you will be judged,”

“Please, stop speaking ill of fellow Christians.”
Mr. Kuo reported FACTS. This is NOT “disdain”. Stop your own slander, TP.

Paul of Potomac,
“Let your “Yes” be yes. And let your “No” be no.”
I have a problem with that. You set this up in the guise of hypocrisy and double talk. This elimiinates any possibility for growth, for learning, for understanding.
I saw a sign on a rural Church this past weekend saying, “A wise heart is open to change; the foolish never.”
Or, as Maya Angelou said, “We do the best with what we know – and WHEN WE KNOW MORE, we’ll do better.”
Or, as Shakespeare put it, “Ignorance is the curse of God; knowledge the wings wherewith we fly to heaven.”
“If you don’t, you will be judged”
Um, I think we’re ALL going to be judged, even if our “No” becomes a “Yes” upon further learning, growth and understanding. Therein lies the value of grace.

fanatisk