Aug 13^th

Cal Thomas, in his column today, has put a tempting target on his back. Cal is a Fox news contributor and, consequently, a devoted Fox news supporter. If you must misinform the public in support of your Fox News friends, well that’s the way the conservative ball bounces. Providing misinformation in defense of the party (and Fox News) is no vice for Cal Thomas.

Thomas is leaping to the defense of Bret Baier the questioner who asked the candidates who would not support whichever candidate was nominated to run for the Presidency. This was obviously a “gotcha” question for Donald Trump. He had long been suspected of harboring third party thoughts if things didn’t go his way. He bit and raised his hand.

I thought that question was perfectly acceptable. Then Megyn Kelly went after him again with her question about his unflattering remarks about women. He countered with some personal remarks about Kelly that got him into real trouble, but not with his fans, who saw the panel’s whole line of questioning as very unfair.

It wasn’t unfair to ask Trump these questions but it was unfair not to throw equivalent “gotcha” questions to the other candidates. Senator Ted Cruz had recently called Senator Mitch McConnell a liar on the senate floor. Why didn’t anyone ask Cruz, if elected President, how he could expect to get along with members of the other party if he can’t be civil to his own party leader?

Then we had Governor Scott Walker who brags at great length about beating back recall attempts. Why did no one ask Governor Scott Walker, “Tell us Governor, why Wisconsin’s job growth has fallen to 40^th in the nation and why you have cut 250 million dollars from the University of Wisconsin’s budget while bolstering money for home schooling?”

Other similar questions to other candidates went unasked. It wasn’t that Trump got asked hard questions as that no one else was put on the spot. That was a very legitimate criticism of the Fox panel.

Cal Thomas then morphed into the “war on women,” a topic of great sensitivity for conservatives because they are very busy making decisions that affect women’s health and their pay checks. Thomas claims that, “The real war on women is an economy that has left a record 93 million  people out of the labor force; 56 million of these non-workers are women…” What are we to make of this interesting statistic? Thomas apparently believes that this means 56 million women are pounding the streets looking for work, not true. In fact, there are over 40 million people over 65 in this country and 23 million of them are women. We can assume that most of these are retirees. Then there are many women who don’t have to work at all and are staying home to care for their children. There are other women in college. Thomas apparently believes if any woman isn’t working this is evidence that the economy is conducting a “war on women.” Trying to debate this issue with someone who presents such nonsensical evidence in support of his views is futile.