Townhall.com blogger and nationally syndicated talk show host Hugh Hewitt has gotten into some hot water with his fellow conservative bloggers for a statement he made in response to Mitts religion speech. This opening statement is the one in question:
Mitt Romney’s “Faith in America” speech was simply magnificent, and anyone who denies it is not to be trusted as an analyst.
Fellow TownHall.com blogger Kevin McCullough responded with offense, headlining, Hugh Hewitt labels Fred Barnes, Mary Katharine Ham, Byron York, Bill Bennett, Jonah Goldberg, Ramesh Ponnuru, Kevin McCullough: UNTRUSTWORTHY!.
Hugh – that’s simply ridiculous! ALL of the pundits above said something in a major or minor way that was negative/critical of the speech. It wasn’t Mitt at his best. But it wasn’t a big negative either.
Whereas his speech at Values Voters was brilliant both in tone and depth. In fact Mitt got greater response at Values Voters than Huckabee – who was in fact THE evangelical at THE evangelical event!
And as I pointed out in my very MILD critique of what I believed to be the weak spot in the speech you hard core partisans had better stop the “you can’t be trusted if you disagree with me” or “you should vote only based on this criteria” or “you’re a big fat poopie-head” stuff.
For the record – I have NOT endorsed a candidate – and am STILL not sure I’ve even decided upon one.
I don’t take it well when I’m told that I’m a less trustworthy observer of events than someone else – merely because I didn’t see it through the same glasses as someone who is at best – a tad bit beholden to the candidate in question…
Tom Bevan (whoever that is) also responded in a Time.com post saying:
I guess I’ll have to stop listening to or reading Bill Bennett, John Podhoretz, and David Frum, since they can no longer be trusted.
As I wrote earlier, though I don’t know how much it will help him in the end, I thought Romney’s speech came off well – as did many other folks. But the idea that anyone who disagrees with this opinion or doesn’t prostrate themselves before the greatness of Mitt Romney’s oratory is absurd.
Indeed, the one person who cannot be trusted as an analyst these days is Hugh himself, who has taken his Romney boosting to surreal heights by posting press releases from the Romney campaign verbatim on his blog, constantly slagging every one of Romney’s opponents, suggesting criticism of Romney on the right is rooted in anti-Mormon bigotry, declaring victory in every debate, and just generally being so in the tank for the guy that it’s hard to take him seriously at all any more.
Some small fact checking: Hewitt has gone to lengths to “debunk” anti-Mormanism coming from the right (claiming it is a mostly leftist attack)