Posted on 12/18/2007 10:46:23 AM PST by NormsRevenge
MANCHESTER, Iowa - Republican Fred Thompson says if he can be a presidential horse for conservatives to ride in the campaign, "All I've got to say is saddle me up."
Thompson was touring Iowa by bus rather than on horseback Tuesday, saying he's got the potential to come on fast in the final days before the state's Jan. 3 caucuses.
Thompson, who has occasionally been labeled a less-than-energetic campaigner, spoke with enthusiasm to about 30 people at a town hall in Manchester while his blue campaign bus, emblazoned with a huge picture of his head and shoulders, waited outside.
"We're taking it now to where it needs to be," Thompson told his audience. "This is where it starts. This is where we are. this is where we're going to be. ... We're going to make sure we meet everybody we can possibly meet."
Thompson is spending the final two weeks of the campaign in Iowa traveling the state with his wife, Jeri.
He referred to the GOP debate last week in Iowa, where he drew praise for refusing to comply when asked for a show of hands on a question about global warming.
"I said, `Nope,'" and everybody pulled their hand down and looked around," Thompson said. "I just said to my buddies up there, `How are you going to stand up to the leaders of Iran and North Korea if you can't stand up to an overbearing moderator?'"
He made his saddle-me-up comment after saying a newspaper had said he had given conservatives "a horse to ride" in the campaign.
On Tuesday, Thompson listed some of his main issues — the role of the federal government, judges, taxes, Social Security — and took questions about trade, the value of the dollar and how he would end the Iraq war and bring troops home.
"I think we have to stabilize that place so that people can get up and go to worship without fear of being blown up," he said.
He reiterated the case he made during the Iowa debate: "When our worst enemy is sitting down at the negotiating table thinking about what they can get away with, or thinking about what they might could do to the United States of America, who do you want representing us on our side of the table looking back at them?"
Thompson is battling for a third-place showing in Iowa, where former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee recently surged ahead of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in state polls. No candidate has gone on to become the nominee without placing in the top three in Iowa.
Republican presidential hopeful and former Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn. speaks to supporters during an appearance kicking off 'The Clear Conservative Choice: Hands Down!' bus tour starting off with a stop at the Grand River Center in Dubuque, Iowa on Monday, Dec. 17,2007. (AP Photo/Mark Hirsch)
30 people?
He’s right on most of the issues but he’ll have to show a lot more fire in the belly to win the nomination and general. We don’t need another uninspiring and non energetic candidate like Bob Dole.
“Saddle me up.”? That sounds like Bill Clinton’s Oval Office conversation.
Is this where we start using “dark horse pulling up along front runner” phrases? It worked for Huckabee. It’s our turn now. ;)
T'were it a Democrat, it would have been "a crowd of hundreds, packed in..."
Another mindless automaton parrots the MSM.
Are you a parrot?
When you can’t handle the evidence...attack the witness?
Such a lame liberal tactic is beneath two good conservatives.
Regarding Fred...I wish it wasn’t so. I was excited when he toyed with announcing and then did. He’s is my second choice after Hunter based on the issues.
But at some point reality stands larger than the dream. His personality is uninspiring. I love the guy but he puts me to sleep. How’s that gonna play to folks who don’t know him and how good he’d be for the country?
A realist.
The only good thing that can be said about Thompson’s campaign right now is that it isn’t in the headlong dive for the bottom that it has been since he’s announced. He’s leveling out at the bottom, competing for last place with McCain (among frontrunners). The guy who is doing the tumbling in the polls right now is Giuliani.
Fredipedia: The Definitive Fred Thompson Reference
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You still blowing the dust off of that one?
The golden oldies...
“No candidate has gone on to become the nominee without placing in the top three in Iowa.”
How many candidates have placed 3rd and then gone on to win the race? I believe Bush II and Reagan both finished 3rd and won the White House.
The truth hurts.
See #12
“The only good thing that can be said about Thompson’s campaign right now is that it isn’t in the headlong dive for the bottom that it has been since he’s announced. He’s leveling out at the bottom, competing for last place with McCain (among frontrunners). The guy who is doing the tumbling in the polls right now is Giuliani.”
Interesting how you missed mentioning one Mitt Romney, who after having campaigned non-stop since creation and spent a fortune is muddling along stuck with nowhere to go.
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