Posted on 08/17/2007 9:47:53 AM PDT by SmithL
IN JUST two weeks, Fred Thompson will finally announce his formal entry into the 2008 presidential race and instantly become the biggest Republican threat to Rudy Giuliani.
The long-anticipated move by the former "Law and Order" star begins today with his arrival at the Iowa State Fair, where he will face his first real test before actual voters. Giuliani still holds a 10-point advantage over him in national polls, according to RealClearPolitics, but Thompson has seen his own support steadily grow while Giuliani's slowly erodes, from a high of nearly 40 percent earlier this year to below 30 percent now.
The biggest question for Republicans frustrated with the field is whether Thompson has waited so long to enter the race that he's blown any chance of capturing the nomination.
In the months since he began openly flirting with the idea, Thompson's fund-raising has disappointed supporters, he's burned through staff, and a negative story line about his wife, Jeri, meddling with the staff has begun to dog the campaign.
Yet he remains in the strongest position to pick off Giuliani, and hopes to become the real straight talker with big, gutsy ideas whose conservative credentials are beyond reproach.
Thompson's biggest gift over the last few months has been the collapse of Arizona Sen. John McCain's campaign. Once the presumed favorite, McCain is skidding barely above single digits in national polls.
Traditional political observers, of course, go berserk if you consider national polls.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
First off, no, Fred did not help Roberts get confirmed. He was out of office by 2003. Roberts wasn’t confirmed until 2005.
And as for his committee...
To quote Wikipedia, his committee oversaw “the functioning of the government itself, including the National Archives, budget and accounting measures other than appropriations, the Census, the federal civil service, the affairs of the District of Columbia, and the United States Postal Service.”
If you ask me, that’s probably one of the more mundane committees one could chair. So much that instead of adding a new Homeland Security committee, they just tagged it onto that one.
That’s not flame bait. That’s just a straightforward opinion. One I’m in the process of backing up right now.
what’s a good country to move to,
once comrade hillary
assumes the presidency?
Ridiculous post. You have added nothing to the discussion.
Yeah, sure.
Okay. I think I may be the first to say this on FR, but...
I like Mike. Huckabee.
Gawd, you can't even keep up with events. Fred basically functioned as a lobbyist on behalf of the White House to shepherd Robert's nomination through the Senate.
And other posters have done a good job showcasing Fred's accomplishments. But, like I said earlier, Fred's greatest appeal to me is that he did not see the fedgov as the answer to everything. Such a position tends to NOT give you the typical DC resume of "accomplishments" (i.e., more and bigger government programs). But that is exactly what we need nowadays - less government, not more.
WOW, man that’s just Awesome!
Just one thing, No one is forcing Fred at all, he’s been requested...
Oh there are some out in the far right who are not happy, but they never have been have they...
can you say “sherpa”?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/08/AR2005090801691.html
jmyrlefuller wrote: “So tell me. What makes Fred Thompson so great?”
Good question. Let’s take a look...
A review of Fred Thompson’s voting record shows that he consistently voted for gun owners (the NRA called him a “staunch supporter of the Second Amendment”), against abortion, for business, against higher taxes, for a balanced budget, for a strong defense, for ANWR drilling, for capping foreign aid, for free trade, for private property rights, for personal retirement accounts, for the Iraq War Resolution and for welfare reform.
Among his interest group ratings, FDT earned a perfect zero from National Abortion Reproductive Rights Action, a perfect 100% from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, only 11% from the ACLU, 85% from the American Conservative Union, 86% from the Center for Security Policy, a perfect zero from the American Federation of Teachers, 6% from the National Education Association, 90% from the League of Private Property Voters, 97% from the National Tax Limitation committee, 88% from the National Taxpayers Union and a perfect zero from the liberal ADA. In a 1995 analysis, Project Vote Smart listed Thompson as having supported Contract With America items 100% of the time.
According to Lawrenceburg Online, among FDT’s Senate accomplishments were his election as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs in 1997, making him among the most junior senators in history to serve as Chairman of a major Senate Committee. He served as Chairman until June of 2001.
The Governmental Affairs Committee is charged with overseeing the management of the federal government. During his Chairmanship, Sen. Thompson’s committee actively pursued an agenda aimed at producing a smaller, more efficient, and more accountable government. Of his efforts, the Kingsport Times-News wrote, “Sen. Thompson is to be applauded for keeping a watchful eye over Washington fiscal matters. There should be more like him.”
Sen. Thompson held hearings on topics such as improving the federal regulatory process; reforming the IRS; exploring ways to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse; and a number of national security issues, including the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and missile technologies. Thompson also investigated and successfully enacted solutions to information management problems such as computer security.
Thompson was also a member of the powerful Senate Committee on Finance, which has jurisdiction over taxes, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, welfare reform, and international trade. From this position, he focused on reducing taxes, reforming the tax code to make it simpler and fairer, and restoring the Social Security and Medicare programs to long-term solvency.
While a strong supporter of free trade, Sen. Thompson advocated a balanced approach to trade and national security. He pushed for an export control policy that protects our country’s national security without unnecessarily burdening American industry with bureaucratic red tape. He also proposed legislation to curb the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction by China and other countries and to strengthen the United States’ response to such activities.
A third committee FDT served on was the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the National Security Working Group, which observes and monitors executive branch negotiations with foreign governments.
Even the liberal Washington Monthly, in a 1999 hit piece on Thompson, had to begrudgingly admit that as a Senator, Thompson worked hard to keep his campaign promises. Democratic strategist Bob Beckel admitted, in a discussion on Fox News’ Hannity & Colmes program, that Fred Thompson for president would be their “worst nightmare” because of his communications skills and ability to appeal to swing voters. But you’ll see many backers of Fred’s GOP opponents attacking him because he poses a major threat to their candidates if he gets in the race.
Thompson’s biggest negatives with conservatives were his early-90s stances on immigration (he wasn’t a hawk on it) and McCain? Feingold (he supported it). But those votes were a full decade ago, and since then FDT has taken a much tougher stance on securing our borders before all else, and he has admitted that McCain Feingold was campaign finance reform gone bad.
If Mitt Romney can have a change of heart and mind on gays, guns and abortion, FDT should at least be given some slack for admitting that both he and Ronald Reagan were wrong on immigration, and the reforms he hoped McCain Feingold would produce didn’t turn out to be “reforms” at all. Fred is a stand-up guy, and he will answer questions on any issues honestly and in a straitforward manner in a couple of weeks when he gets into the race.
Fred Thompson is media-savvy, has a commanding presence, enjoys good name recognition (thanks to his Law & Order and movie roles and his hard-hitting commentary for ABC Radio) and left the Senate with a solid conservative voting record. Though Fred is the first to admit that there was and will ever be only one Ronald Reagan, he’s one of Reagan’s smartest students and most consistent disciples. Like Reagan, Thompson is that rare sort of conservative who can sell conservative ideas to moderates and independents. And again like Reagan, he may be the only potential candidate who can unite the factions of the Republican Party right now.
Oh, and don’t forget, Ronald Reagan was an actor and radio commentator, too.
Awm now see, there you go, screwing up the sacred truth with facts...
And the second part of this good news is that Fred will be introduced by Roy Acuff. This is NOT Breaking news.
It truly is odd how some Hunter supporters treat that as some kind of liability. It is almost like they think Fred has a unfair advantage because he does have the charisma and the popular name-recognition that Hunter is not achieving.
in a silly spurious sort of way...
Here is a list of takers on the “Fred to announce by 8-31-07 bet”
$50 dollars each:
Retired Greyhound
Linconfem
Kbennkc
RockinRight
Fast Coyote
Artimis Webb
ImpBill
Wo4Man
Anyone else, before I close the bet?
Um, in bed? It's not 5 o'clock yet.
Um, that is before September...
School bus has not dropped off yet either...
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