Duncan Hunter Cries Wolf, Beclowns Self.
You're getting less likeable every day, Duncan.
By Leon H Wolf Posted in 2008 | Duncan Hunter | Not Knowing When It's Over | Whining for Media Attention — Comments (45) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
UPDATE: Geraghty points out that Hunter also played the chickenhawk card on the corporate conspiracy to black him out of the debates. I don't know if Hunter wanted to be SecDef, as a lot of people assume, but if he did he probably lost that chance today.
UPDATE: Geraghty has alerted me to this video of Duncan Hunter walking on to the live set of Morning Joe on MSNBC and angrily proclaiming that "I got a delegate in Wyoming!" several times. Hunter is coming unglued and someone needs to talk some sense into him quick, if there is such a person available.
Really, Erick's post is all Duncan Hunter's "announcement" today deserves, but since I generally like Duncan Hunter despite his protectionist tendencies and his fixation with the wall he built with his own bare hands, I felt like I should offer Mr. Hunter the following piece of advice: quit before you fall any further behind.
Read on.
You know, as I've traveled around the country and talked to people about this Presidential campaign, I tend to get the same reaction from everyone about Duncan Hunter: "I like Duncan, but he really can't win. Maybe he'll make a good SecDef." Lately, I've been hearing some other rumblings, after fellow second-tier candidates like Brownback and Tancredo dropped out: "Hunter's staying in a little too long. It's getting embarrassing." So when we all got an email earlier today about a "major announcement" forthcoming from the Hunter campaign, it was welcome news. Now, finally, Hunter could demonstrate that this isn't an ego campaign for him and hang it up in time to get some serious SecDef consideration. Because really, the only announcement anyone is interested in hearing anymore from Duncan Hunter's campaign is the one that says the campaign is over. So, the press and pundits tuned in to see what Duncan had to say in closing. Instead, we got treated to video of some clown griping about being left out of the New Hampshire debates despite winning a delegate in Wyoming. It was an ugly, petulant, whining performance from a man clearly desperate for media attention. Sad, because we've come to expect better from a guy who we all thought was a serious guy focused on the issues. Now, after this press conference, my estimation of Duncan Hunter and his "seriousness" has been lowered five or six notches.
Duncan, nobody can force you to quit the race, but neither can you force anybody to care that you're still in it. You had your chance to make your exit statement which the media was obliged to at least watch, and then we could have spent a day or so wondering who you would endorse. Instead, you decided to call all the media in order to make a fool out of yourself. Personally, I hope they don't even cover your inevitable exit speech after this stunt, so that this can be what folks remember you by. Especially if you feel compelled to stay in this race after about Wednesday for no other apparent reason than to beg for face time in debates in which you are no longer relevant. And I'm also hoping that whoever becomes President, if that person is a Republican, takes a long minute or two to think about whether they want someone who whines when the media doesn't pay attention as SecDef. Because I know I sure don't.
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Duncan Hunter Cries Wolf, Beclowns Self. 45 Comments (0 topical, 45 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
I have to say that this is not a nice post.
You and Erick are better than what you both have just put on the front page.
Duncan Hunter really didn't deserve this treatment, IMO.
I hope this primary season gets a little less intense or I might just have to crawl back under my rock.
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"It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities." ~Professor Dumbledore
Yesterday, Duncan Hunter did not deserve this treatment. Today, he does. Although Hunter has never had a chance, he has always conducted himself with dignity, but he is clearly coming unglued and making a real horse's rear of himself in the process. Part of the reason that I'm so upset is that I don't like it when I misjudge someone so thoroughly.
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The Red Sox Republican: Burkeanism, Baseball, and Sundries.
I knew I should have actually sent my letter.
No one of good character leaves behind a wasted life - John McCain
What really is embarrassing is that crop of republican candidates we keep referring to as the top tier. Based on those other republican candidates, I don't think you have to worry about a republican president appointing anybody as SecDef. Not in 2008 anyway.
I don't disagree that he has a near impossible chance right now, but why shouldn't he be "desperate" for attention? He got blocked from a debate. I didn't see the announcement (I'll try when everyone leaves the office) but I really feel bad that he hasn't gotten any attention over Rudy or Huck who are far less conservative than he's been. He really should be in the top 3 between Fred and Mitt as far as conservatism goes.
when that happened. That whole show was completely screwed up. You had mostly had 3-4 people talking at the same time, kind of like a vintage episode of "Crossfire" or a (mostly) male version of "The View". It was kind of surreal when Hunter dropped in, making it even more of a zoo atmosphere.
BTW Joe Scarborough made me want to puke. I thought he was going to excuse himself to take a cold shower after talking about how wonderful Hillary is on a personal basis.
You're the household tuned into MNSBC at any given time, aren't you?
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The Red Sox Republican: Burkeanism, Baseball, and Sundries.
I had the TV on for background noise while in the kitchen. FNC must have been on commercial. I surfed to CNN and couldn't take the blithering bimbo there, and at least found someone talking on MSNBC. What a train wreck! Is it that bad every day?
Maybe now he'll retire so he can spend more time with his fence.
This changes my opinion of Duncan a bit...too bad.
* PRIESTCRAFT is thus defined: “The stratagem and frauds of priests; fraud or imposition in religious concerns. Management of selfish and ambitious priests to gain wealth and power, or to impose upon the credulity of others.”
I really expected Mr Hunter to get a more balanced review at RS. Congratulations, you have managed to squeeze chickenhawk, ego, protectionist, petulant and whining all in one article. Yet there is very little in the way of praise for his long standing ability to fight for conservative values.
That you seem to have forgotten his continous contribution is extraordinarily dissapointing. All to make what point? That he has stayed in the race too long? Well I suppose there will now be a string of these articles as we move towards a nomination?
In my almost two years here - I have probably read most of what you have written. Though I have at times disagreed, one could always count on your compassion, loyalty and balance. I can honestly say this has none of those qualties and smacks of patently unfair, pigpile opportunism.
"Nec Aspera Terrent"
bene ambula et redambula
Contributor to The Minority Report
"It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities." ~Professor Dumbledore
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The Red Sox Republican: Burkeanism, Baseball, and Sundries.
I ask because no one could watch the videos without coming to any other conclusion than that Duncan Hunter is making a clown out of himself. And that's disappointing to me. His record of being a good conservative in the House has led me to keep quiet through all these months that he has stayed in the campaign for far too long, then he pulled these two stunts today and it's become apparent to me that he's just a press-hoarder running an ego campaign and it's disappointing. Very disappointing.
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The Red Sox Republican: Burkeanism, Baseball, and Sundries.
He's making a mockery of everything I liked about him when I met him in New Hampshire. Sam Brownback was a great candidate and he spent the better part of an hour and half on a very sweaty podium answering questions from anyone and everyone (including me) and at the time I had no doubt that he was Presidential material, if not necessarily the people's choice. At the very least when Brownback realized that he wasn't going to win, he accepted it and took himself out of the race graciously. Hunter isn't hurting anyone but himself with this kind of grandstanding. Time to stop, Duncan.
I actually don't see anything too bad here. He was rallying what few supporters he has (which includes myself). I don't expect him to really gain anything by the time I vote with Florida (or after that for that matter), but everything I saw him do (in both clips) I also wish Fred would do: Get some air time, say you want to fight this out and that there's hope because this primary is FAR from over.
and would never think of commenting otherwise.
I am sorry to say the casus belli eludes me. There is no man infallible, and if this is Duncan's weakest moment he is better than I.
"Nec Aspera Terrent"
bene ambula et redambula
Contributor to The Minority Report
"It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities." ~Professor Dumbledore
Our nation has about 300,000,000 people in it. Less than 500,000 votes have been cast in two states thus far.
Polls are polls. They are not votes.
Duncan Hunter has just as much right to stay in this race as Mitt, Fred, Rudy, JMac, Huck, Obama, Hillary, Breck boy, Richardson and anyone else that has fulfilled the requirements of candidacy.
You have the right to ask him to leave. Others have done that without the insults and name calling.
Duncan Hunter is one of us. He is not perfect, but he is right on many issues. To call him a clown is very poor taste, IMO.
I find the timing of it all quite ironic as well.
On a day that Erick is pleading with us to help finance a new program for the site, both of you post derogatory posts on the front page, no less, of one of our own that just frankly didn't deserve that kind of treatment.
We have 10 months until election day. This primary is going to be bruising and the general election will not be any better. It was my hope that Redstate would stay above the fray for the most part. Sadly, this post gives me pause and makes me wonder if I really belong here if this is the way we are going to treat those on our side.
I had a donation ready to go this morning. I think maybe I will just send it to Fred instead.
And in the words of Forrest Gump-
"That's all I have to say about that."
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"It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities." ~Professor Dumbledore
I significantly reduced my viewing and commenting on RS when they started taking a pro-illegals for business position. This posting is just more of the same.
Funny, in their GA the tougher laws against illegals is having a positive self-deporting effect. Those crappy contractors who used to use a lot of illegals are out of business, leaving real citizens doing the skilled trades jobs.
There is nothing wrong with the video. The guy is forcing the MSM to acknowledge him; a pro-illegals MSM that has tried to bury him and Fred. That RS would go along with the MSM crowd just shows poorly on RS. Yeah RS, stop sending your spam emails, you have failed.
This post was *totally* born out of a desire to see illegals for business.
Just look at how we're tanking. You know who's really taking off? Polipundit. Those guys have got it straight on immigration.
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The Red Sox Republican: Burkeanism, Baseball, and Sundries.
I am actually surprised polipundit is even that large. I stopped reading them last spring when one of their posters Oak Leaf freaked out on Iraq. I started again over the holidays when I heard poli was back posting.
Considering all the work put into RS and all of its posters, I am surprised it does not have a much larger base. I guess they ran out of illegals in Macon to complete the site work.
Brownback and Hunter were both in New Hampshire when I met you and at the time I liked Hunter, and I like him less now.
Brownback had a lot more poise than this when he decided to hang up his hat, and he was in my estimation a better candidate overall, so he had more to be upset about.
Get over it, Duncan Hunter. Better candidates than you have bowed out of this race.
I don't understand why he has to drop out? Why not finish the race until he statistically can't win (probably after super tuesday). If you say that his poll numbers are too small, why say drop out now? 2 months ago Huckabee wasn't much better and look where he is today. This race is still running. Don't get me wrong I'm not delusional thinking he will win, but I don't see the point in not trying.
If your idea of a graceful end to a campaign that you got into with all the best hopes and intentions is grinding to a gasping, wheezing stop on the side of the road once you have completely run out of gas and all your supporters' money, then by all means Duncan Hunter should take your advice.
But this the probability of Duncan Hunter gaining any more poll points or voters than he already has is somewhere approximately between 0 and -1, and I happen to think the man should reserve more dignity for himself than that ignominious fate. He should take the next off-ramp before he starts to seriously sputter and wheeze all over the place.
but wouldn't we have said roughly the same thing about Huckabee (like him or not) two months ago? Or is it these two months that made all the difference? Or is there something else different between Huckabee two months ago and Hunter now? I'm not being rhetorical, I really am asking those questions honestly.
Where do we draw the line between a ghost of a chance and no chance? Is it more of a "I know it when I see it" thing? Because two months ago I wouldn't have guessed Huckabee at all. Considering Fred's numbers are pretty low too, how low do they need to drop before we ask him to get out?
And if his numbers go down, at some point I'm sure he'll ask himself that question. That's the difference between Duncan Hunter's schtick in that video and what I think Fred Thompson (or any of the others) will do.
If the MSM reported Fred's numbers were below HWSNBN tomorrow, I think I'd still want him to stick it out to super tuesday. I guess maybe it's my distrust (paranoia?) of the drive-byes using poll numbers to shape opinion that makes me more interested in the unwatched primaries like Wyoming. I see Wyoming's results as more representative of the Republican party than Iowa's or New Hampshire's. And by my only little (possibly delusional) worldview, that would put Hunter at a distant 3rd place.
I definitely see your point though. Tancredo, Tommy Thompson, Gilmore and Brownback were better off dropping out. Brownback, as much as I like a strong pro-lifer, was just coming off to me as a good legislator and not potential executive.
We're not pulling his feeding tube and forcing him to die. We're telling him that his candidacy for President is going to increasingly make less sense and that he should *save it* and more importantly *save himself*.
The race has solidified a little more than it was when Huckabee had low numbers "a couple of months ago". It's very, very unlikely that there are enough undecideds now to make Hunter a bonafide contender.
Listen, if he wants to keep it up, nobody is stopping him. It's his race to run, for Pete's sake.
I just spat Mt Dew through my nose. You hit my sick-sense-of-humor nerve
Listen I liked Duncan Hunter when I met him and I thought he was a straight-shooting guy and probably was being underserved by the media in this race. Probably some of the same personality traits that made him enter the race as a longshot are the things that are compelling him to try to stick with it and stay in.
These races aren't fair. They're just not. Never have been, probably.
There's no shame really in his wanting to stay in, if he really believes he has a chance and so do the people who are invested in him. All Leon and I have are opinions here, but I just don't want to see the man make a fool of himself. He's better than that, and I really do mean that in all sincerity.
Why all the defeated teams in a baseball season don't just keep playing each other until the next season begins because they refuse to accept that they've lost.
Think of it!
Duncan Hunter and Tom Tancredo and Tommy Thompson and Sam Brownback could all get back together again and just keep debating as if nothing had ever happened! What a show that would be! It'd be like a reality-TV show for candidates who didn't make it, but are still trying...
Wilfurd Brimley says that if you don't want diabeetus, eat your oatmeal and vote McCain.
Let's focus on positive things. Like John McCain and how he could beat up Chuck Norris. Discuss.
"I'm just beginning...The pen's in my hand...Ending unplanned"
are you two in the same room?
L-V and I can't do that, because I have to do most of his typing (the opposable thumb thing)
"I'm just beginning...The pen's in my hand...Ending unplanned"
you have no idea how hard it is to sit here rooting for OSU
After seeing this, I feel sorry for Hunter...he's desperate.
But name recognition matters, and when you're 1 of 435, it's very difficult.
Who was the last President elected from the House anyway?
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I was brought up to believe that how I saw myself was more important than how others saw me. (Anwar al-Sadat, President of Egypt, 1970-1981)
In 1880. Curiously, his nomination was almost as surprising as a Hunter's would be.
Unfortunately, he was assassinated after six months in the office - another thing that Hunter should be considering (that's in poor taste and unnecessary, but I really enjoy Congressman Hunter, despite his protectionist positions, and I'm ready to argue with everything that can help to rush his drop out and stop this embarrassment).
Thanks for the historical nugget of knowledge there, Cordpt.
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I was brought up to believe that how I saw myself was more important than how others saw me. (Anwar al-Sadat, President of Egypt, 1970-1981)
This is just sad Leon. By you, not Congressman Hunter...
How you can view that video clip and give an update saying he "angrily proclaimed" he got a delegate several times is amazing. Did you watch the clip?
He's certainly not my guy in this race, but I'm at least willing to be objective when examining his actions.
Please help me understand how you determined he was in any way "angry"?
I am disappointed in your disparaging comments on Hunter. I find this STUNT amusing and ball-sy... If Rudy would have done so (since he is being somewhat ignored in NH) we'd all laugh a bit. Hunter has been specifically dismissed even BEFORE he began to run he SHOULD have been doing these things from the gate.
I saw Hunter speak last March, I was impressed. I am HARD to impress. After returning home, I discovered through minimal research that he was terrific in every way I NEED a president to be. After more thorough research, I was amazed that THIS is the guy I was waiting for. He sings my song. Every time I have seen him...he adds another verse to it.
YOU SHOULD be encouraging your readers TO VOTE for this guy. The only candidate I don't have to CRINGE about. There is no bad taste and I would not have to hold my nose to vote for THIS candidate. I hope he stays in it until he wins!
"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government."
-- Thomas Jefferson, Proposed Virginia Constitution
Hunter has been very disorganized this entire campaign. He announced without telling anyone on his staff and has been driving by the seat of his pants ever since. I really wonder if it's not more about the publicity now than a real goal.