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 ...
He knows damn well what he’s doing. He’s running, but he’s doing so in a non-conventional (and CHEAP) way. He’ll declare soon.
Woo hoo!!!!!!
CPB was taking things out of context, MSM style, I see...
That is the coolest logo I think I've ever seen!
And yes, I'm a FredHead.
Thanks!
A vote for FRED will keep the Democrats from dropping you dead
Thompson / Hunter [reality pick] or Bauer (Jack) / Bolton (John) [fantasy pick] in ‘08 -— they get it
That doesn't mean he's indecisive. Your logic is precipitously (in the "headlong without forethought" sense) anti-Fred.
What we think about whether he'll run is immaterial wrt his degree of decisiveness.
The problem with your logic is that you assert that if we don't know he's running, then he is indecisive. That's obviously bogus.
If I have misunderstood, please accept apologies and correct me.
At least a few Orange County people probably know about his immigration record regarding cheap, third-world labor. And they know what miseries their own past lobbying for the same has caused in their part of California. There aren’t as many big _L_ Libertarians (open borders Platform) there now as in the past.
That certainly sounds like Fred gets it. I'm starting to like this guy.
Our worthless legislators need to understand that we just don't believe them anymore. The only thing that will satisfy me (and I think most conservatives) is small steps that can be easily verified before taking the next step. Comprehensive is a code word for a bureaucratic nightmare with no accountability and no verifiable results.
Fred actually said: The government could start by securing our nation's borders. A sovereign nation that can't do that is not a sovereign nation. This is secondarily an immigration issue. It's primarily a national security issue. We were told twenty years ago if we produced a comprehensive solution, we'd solve the illegal immigration problem. Twelve million illegals later, we're being told that same thing again. I don't believe most Americans are as concerned about the 12 million that are here as they are about the next 12 million and the next 12 million after that. I think they're thinking: "Prove you can secure the border and then people of good will can sit down and work out the rest of it, while protecting those folks who play by the rules."
You are absolutely correct Jellybean, above is what Fred actually said about immigration. Doesn't look anything like what captainpaintball quoted.
I know waiting can be frustrating.
Try to be patient, though.
Really?
That’s GOOD news.
Thank you!
Reading and hearing the ENTIRE sentence in context I got the impression that Fred was saying that there is a lot more to immigration then just immigration. There is national security at stake. It’s strange to find FReepers here that disagree with and disparage that remark regardless of who you support.
Well, the Dems and the Rinos went 'saffron' a long time ago... /grin
IOW, they're scared outta their ever-livin' minds, LOL!
Not declaring openly is a different animal entirely from not knowing whether you're running. Did you ever consider that there are strategic and tactical reasons why he may not wish to officially declare yet?
The man has filmed shows and a movie that cannot - CANNOT - be aired if he's a presidential candidate, without the same networks giving equal free time to all of the other candidates. That he's giving consideration to those who hired him, and who staked money on the ability to air those programs, says a lot positive about him. Further, he's also getting a lot of free publicity by subbing for Paul Harvey and for speaking on/writing for ABC. He'd be stupid to give that up. Also, he's letting the other Republican candidates hang themselves in their contradictions. Finally, I've heard that he wants to declare after 6/30, so as to start the 3rd quarter fresh (from the standpoint of campaign fundraising) - it'd look bad if he filed a 2Q report showing 1/3 or 1/2 of the fundraising shown by the others.
Again, these are tactical and strategic reasons for not declaring, not any kind of indeceisiveness about his ultimate candidacy.
It’s like saying when a college basketball sophomore doesn’t declare he’s entering the NBA draft in the middle of his NCAA season, he’s being indecisive. He has strategic reasons for not declaring. He has legal reasons for not declaring.
He doesn't need to announce. The longer he goes without announcing the smaller the amount of money he needs to raise.
Right now he gets publicity for free. If he announces, he joins the scrum and will need to start spending money.
His current strategy is pretty smart. He could hold off announcing until September if he wanted to. By then He could be up to 30%+ with people crying for him to announce and still not have spent a dollar of campaign funds.
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