Anyone who thinks Thomspson is a movement conservative is going to be disappointed.
I think most of us understand that he is a moderate conservative ... which puts him to the left of Hunter, Tancredo, and company ... but to the right of Rudy, McCain, and Romney. And probably somewhat to the right of Dubya.
The calculation that many conservatives are making is that a likable, electable nominee who is 80% conservative ... but has a penchant for communicating common sense conservatism to Joe Citizen ... is better than a 100% guy who who demonstrates little or no appeal to non-ideological voters and centrists.
TRANSLATION: Fred can beat Hillary and her flying monkeys with both hands tied behind his back.
I think you have it.
AND is also far better than a 20 percent guy like Rudy, who would split the GOP.
BINGO, you’ve nailed it with this:
“I think most of us understand that he is a moderate conservative ... which puts him to the left of Hunter, Tancredo, and company ... but to the right of Rudy, McCain, and Romney. And probably somewhat to the right of Dubya....
The calculation that many conservatives are making is that a likable, electable nominee who is 80% conservative ... but has a penchant for communicating common sense conservatism to Joe Citizen ... is better than a 100% guy who who demonstrates little or no appeal to non-ideological voters and centrists.”
EXACTLY. These virtues are not to be scorned!
Right now it seems like Thompson is good on defense. I don’t know what he would do differently in Iraq, and I’ll be interested in finding out. However, he isn’t an anti-war Cindy Sheehan type like Obama.
Thompson sounds very good on illegal immigration.
Thompson sounds much better than Bush on illegals. I didn’t realize when I voted for Bush that this would become such a huge issue, but it is a huge issue. I didn’t realize Bush was going to push his stance on the American people like he did.
Because of the problems with Bush and illegal immigration, that has become one of my major issues. I will not vote for any candidate that is for amnesty, even in the general election. I believe that rules out Guiliani, and I don’t know about Romney.
Defense and illegal immigration are my 2 deal breaker issues. I can bend on other issues, but I won’t on those 2 issues.
‘Anyone who thinks Thomspson is a movement conservative is going to be disappointed.’
Conservatives are a minority within the GOP. Wishing for one that meets the Bill Buckley ‘standard’ (if you can decipher his brand of english....) is a waste of time.
“I think most of us understand that he is a moderate conservative ... which puts him to the left of Hunter, Tancredo, and company ... but to the right of Rudy, McCain, and Romney. And probably somewhat to the right of Dubya.”
My view as well, so far, of Fred Thompson.
“The calculation that many conservatives are making is that a likable, electable nominee who is 80% conservative ... but has a penchant for communicating common sense conservatism to Joe Citizen ... is better than a 100% guy who who demonstrates little or no appeal to non-ideological voters and centrists.”
Exactly. The ‘hardcore’ conservatives are much like the Brits of the 19th century. “They’d rather lose a war than admit the mistake...”
Given events around the world, we can’t risk a Democrat as President.
Period.
Being a moderate conservative is not such a bad thing. Bush is isn’t he? And it could be argued Ronald Reagan was one. I like Bush, but I can’t stand his policy’s on either education or the border. The Federal Government should keep their nose out of certain things. But when it really counts, like in national security, I am all for it. The Democrats are too good at trying to make the Federal Government bigger, they don’t need any help. As a matter of a fact, instead of competeing with them on that issue, I feel it is the Republican Responsibility to expose the Democrats. Reagan did a great job of it, that’s why they HATED his guts, even till this day.