I never quite understood some of the conventional invective against the candidates. Huckabee apparently still takes speaking fees? But the man is neither on any payroll nor independently wealthy — so how is he supposed to support his family while campaigning? Lecturing for money via a speakers’ bureau seems no more or less unethical than elected officials who are not present in session even though they are still drawing a paycheck.
Thompson is slurred as “lazy”; but, in fact, anyone in his mid-sixties, who has survived non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and is campaigning daily under media scrutiny could hardly be lazy; courageous might be a better characterization.
The attraction of McCain is not just his past, but surely his present as well. Almost forgotten is the notion how anyone 71, wounded and disabled after being tortured for 51/2 years, and a survivor of malignant melanoma, is likewise 24/7 out on the stump.
The media recently seemed concerned about Giuliani’s “headache,” but he too is a cancer survivor, and in his sixties.
I am duly impressed that the latter three can stay out there day after day after what they’ve gone through — with obstacles that the other younger, healthier candidates of both parties don’t contend with.