Posted on 05/24/2007 10:53:53 PM PDT by Josh Painter
STAMFORD, Conn. — In his second major outing as a presidential candidate in waiting, Fred Thompson spoke last night to the Connecticut Republican Party for its annual Prescott Bush awards dinner...
"We are now living in a nation that is beset by people who are suicidal maniacs," Mr. Thompson said, laying into the recent proposed compromise, engineered by Senator McCain, that would provide legal status to millions of currently illegal immigrants while ostensibly strengthening border enforcement. "We're sitting here now with essentially open borders."
"They don't get it that putting it on a piece of paper anymore, even passing it into law, does not convince the American people that they will do what they say they're going to do," Mr. Thompson thundered.
And... he had much harsher words for the Democrats on the war in Iraq. "We look at our friends on the Democratic side who have clearly decided not what is best for their country, but what is best for the Democratic Party, and how they might get additional votes in future elections," he said.
"Our choice is where we will fight," Mr. Thompson said, echoing President Bush's familiar line about fighting the terrorists there, so as not to have to fight them here. All the Democrats want to debate, he said, is "the date of our surrender."
Agree or disagree, these were the words of a man ready for a fight. If folks weren't ready to believe it after Orange County, they should be after Stamford.
Talking to a likely Thompson staffer ahead of the speech, I said I hoped he'd get in the race and shake things up. The staffer said, coyly, "I think you'll get your wish." I didn't push for a date and time. But this guy's ready to go for it.
(Excerpt) Read more at latestpolitics.com ...
To all Romney-ites / Hunter-ites: Calm down, your men will have important roles to play in the Thompson Administration.
““All I know about the guy is that he doesn’t know whether he’s running. Indecisive could get too many people killed in the position he’s running for.”
Isn’t it a money thing for him at this early stage? He has to line up support and organization. We know he is running, but he does not need to announce just yet.
VP and SECDEF, perhaps?
A half dozen people have explained to you on this very thread why they believe Thompson hasn’t announced. The fact that you don’t understand those reasons is less a reflection on Thompson than on you. There is plenty of time to win the nomination, and if there isn’t time then he won’t win. But clearly he is getting his message out. People close to him say he will announce in early July. It has been explained why this is the case. Whether you choose to accept this is your business, but I think acting like there is some sinister motive to his not announcing yet borders on trolling.
Indeed, Hunter will be Fred's DefSec, and Precious Willard can have his choice of being Ambassador to either the North Pole or Tierra del Fuego. And McCain will be our first Ambassador to the Martian Colonies.
I had one of my coworkers use that phrase on me recently, my response was, "what happens if you work smarter AND harder?".
I like what Fred is saying, I'm just sitting on the fence watching for now.
Sending McCain to Mars would be incredibly dangerous. Haven’t you seen Total Recall?
nutmeg is still here, just checked her posts...
If you continue to behave in this manner, it surely won’t be the last time you’re called one. It’s quite an apt description.
Would you prefer Uranus ? ;-D
Connecticut is the “Nutmeg State”.
Timing is key. We're still 7 months out from the first primary.
It was midnight, Fred’s time, before he got to speak after an extremely long program. Everyone was wiped out. It wasn’t a campaign speech. I think he did great.
No way. Fred would lose too much support.
He would lose ME.
And Giuliani is an egotist. He won’t take VP.
He's honoring the contractual commitments he made long prior to this crazy "I'll announce 3-6 months too early" wave that hit this election cycle. Some of us respect the fact that a man keeps his promises. Don't you?
I thought it was a great speech. After listening to all the speeches at C-PAC, it was better than any of them.
Forgive my ignorance, but, I’m having a hard time understanding your tagline. Who married his cousin? Don’t tell me Jerry Lee Lewis has thrown his hat into the ring.
One of those things is border security. The immigration problem has to do with immigration, but it in large part has to do with national security. We live in a world now we've inherited. A world that is watching the attempted marriage between radical Islamic fundamentalism and nuclear technology. We live in a world where 40 countries have fissile material sufficient to make a nuclear weapon and the bad guys are trying their best to get their hands on it. And we live in a country with porous borders and porous ports. It doesn't take a genius to put all that together and see the problem we've got in this country. And I think that people are going to demand that that be addressed first. I don't think the 12 million illegal aliens that are here, that are of concern, are as much of a concern to most people as the next 12 million and the next 12 million after that ad infinitum. We were told before that there was a solution to this if we'd just pass a bill. We did that in 1986 and now we're coming back with the same old stuff and I don't think people are going to respond to it until that border situation is addressed. Then, I think, people of good will can sit down and work out the rest of it together.
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