Posted on 12/24/2007 12:08:24 AM PST by County Agent Hank Kimball
Edited on 12/24/2007 12:43:32 AM PST by Jim Robinson. [history]
Even his harshest critics would likely concede that Fred Thompson had a good campaign swing through Iowa this week.
But as he headed home to Virginia on Saturday for a three-day Christmas break before returning to Iowa for the second half of his Iowa bus tour, the question that this last-minute effort began with still stands.
(Excerpt) Read more at desmoinesregister.com ...
“Huckabee is pro-amnesty”
he has said many times that he wants all illegals to leave and apply for work visas in their home countries. His stated position is that they then go to the end of the visa line.
As far as his foreign policy experience is concerned, I agree. Then again, except for McCain, none of them have any.
If Fred doesn’t pull this out, I could be in trouble. I won’t vote for McCain because I think he is nuts & cannot be trusted to honor his words during a campaign. I won’t vote for Huckabee because I disagree with so many of his positions and don’t want another compassionate conservative in the WH...I think of Huckabee as GWB without the foreign policy strength. I won’t vote for Rudy. Hunter is in worse shape than Fred, and Paul is obscene.
That would leave Romney, but I’m worried he’s going to pull a Dole, and veer hard left if he gets the nomination. In a general election, I might vote for him - but it would be with great misgiving.
Yes, that's the ticket! It would ordain the holier-than-thou True Believers™ to take names and demonstrate who is in charge. The U.S. Constitution's First Amendment is so yesterday anyway.
Merry Christmas...
“If you compare the two’s proposed platforms they are very similar.” Laughable.
Another identity voter.
I haven’t seen that at FR. I’ve seen Huckabee attacked for his fiscal liberalism and discussion of whether it’s a good idea to have a Preacher President. That’s a valid question. Can you imagine what the discussion would be if it was a former priest, instead of a former Southern Baptist preacher? I really don’t remember that much being made about Bush’s Christianity prior to the ‘04 election. What I do remember is voting against Kerry mainly because he is a one-world globalist in the Soros Open Society mold with beliefs and values that don’t jibe with his religion. What I do remember is some pundit saying that exit polls showed that those voting for Bush and against Kerry were “values voters.” The left picked up on that immediately and began a campaign to infiltrate the evangelicals and shift as many as possible from the right to the center and to just left of center if they could push them that far. Their stategy paid off.
Huckabee is not trustworthy to this particular conservative. If I can’t trust him to hold the line against the trend toward socialism, then I don’t want him as POTUS. We see what has happened to other socialist nations with overtly PC policies toward ethnic separatists. Some of those countries are in semi-panic mode now and attempting to turn themselves around. I don’t think we want to go forward in the direction they are now realizing has been a mistake. And that’s where Huckabee would take us.
What we are seeing now is not just atheists railing about the possibility of a theocracy, we are seeing Christian sect set upon Christian sect. Do we want 5 years of this? Frankly, I don’t want another 5 minutes of it. I feel like I’m reliving the late 1700s/early 1800s. Huckabee’s candidacy brought that back. He is being touted as a uniter, when, in fact, his run is divisive and unhealthy for America.
I love politics, I just don't think any of the candidates on either side are POTUS material. A POTUS Candidate should have proven EXECUTIVE experience. That eliminates everyone but Romney, Guliani, and Huckabee. Arkansas has a tiny economy, not big enough to qualify it's Gov. for the top executive position in the world. New York City has a bigger economy than many states and lots of countries. Giuliani has the executive experience for the job, but no foreign policy or military experience. His positions, however are the same as Hillary's and his personal life is a mess. Mitt has the best executive experience, but the same criticisms apply to him as to Rudy EXCEPT he leads an exemplary personal life.
I don't like the choices. There are thousands of people with better experience than any of these guys who won't run because they don't want to be savaged in the process. It's a shame. I will support the nominee, however, because any Republican is better than ANY Dem.
I largely agree with you. I’m pro-life and I like Fred. I just don’t understand his emphatic opposition to the HLA and the FMA. After all, those aren’t matters for the executive branch, anyway. And they’re only going to pass if or when the culture has changed to the point that the vast majority of the public is demanding that they be passed. So why bother to declare your opposition to them when you’re running for an office where your position on them would be symbolic in the first place?
Is he saying that if the votes were there to pass a Human Life Amendment, he would go down to the Senate and twist enough arms to kill it? Clearly he’s not saying that, but to the general public, who don’t think about politics 24/7 like we do, it comes off like he’s not that serious about his pro-life views.
If Hillary were president and such an amendment had a chance to pass, she’d use every trick in the book to undermine it. If Fred wouldn’t (and I don’t think he would) then he really isn’t that opposed to it. If his only reason for not supporting the amendment is that it has no chance of passing today, then say so, but don’t declare blanket opposition to it.
I really think there would have only been positives for his campaign by simply saying, “We don’t currently have the votes to pass those amendments, and they’re outside the jurisdiction of the office of the president, but I’d hope we someday have a culture of life where such amendments could be passed”.
I agree that Fred is pro-life and pro-family.
Here in Iowa things are wide open on the Rep side. No one is really passionate for any candidate.
Fred is being looked at as the one to vote for, after people have found reasons not to vote for the other guys.
The voters on the dark side like Obama. He will win IMHO.
The protestant socialist label is ACCURATE. Why ignore that fact? Hell, Ohio’s Dem Governor all but endorsed him.
They could...but not if they play like they did yesterday.
Yes, it is his past that keeps me from voting for Huckabee, not his new election platform. When I look at the “pasts” of Guiliani, Romney, McCain, Thompson, and Huckabee, it is Fred Thompson who comes out the same then as he is now. Always conservative, no flip-flops, no backtracking on what he has said previously. That is why Fred Thompson has received the endorsements he has, his real conservative record. GO FRED!
Merry Christmas and a blessed new year to you and to all on FR!
Merry Christmas and good luck with your candidate.
Fred has looked at the HLA and FMA and while he supports the intent, he realizes that they will never go anywhere. How long has the HLA been discussed with no definitive action? He very simply sees his way as a way to “git er dun.” Like Reagan, who believed in working toward a goal and taking what he could get, then working toward the rest, Fred can actually see positive steps toward the goal being made incrementally by taking it to the citizens of each state. He has the belief that the people will make the right decision because of advances in science and medicine that make it less likely for pro-choicers to see their desires as ethically viable.
Except that Huck’s platform is a fraud, becaue he never governed that way. So who’s the actor here?
As far as the attacks, Huckster doesn’t attack himself, he has third party stooges do it, like with Rush. Or he whines about being attacked and then turns around and attacks them in the same diatribe. Just like the Clintons.
As far as Senator and Governor, that means only Thompson has federal experience, Huckabee only state experience.
Fred and Huck’s STATED positions are almost identical. Criticisms of Huck are based on his past and not on his platform. Please go to his site and then criticize his positions.
I am not saying that Fred is acting conservative, just that he is acting like a Southern Christian and people are more comfortable with faux Christians than real ones. Fred is a Hollywood facsimile.
A few of my thoughts to Mike Huckabee and Fred Thomspon on this subject:
I have seen Fred Thompson respond to questions about his own Christianity with the response that it is a personal relationship with God. He responds matter of factly and refrains from sermonizing. Mike Huckabee seems to always use his 'Christianity' to further his personal goals. I find that condescending towards Christians that he feels they can be so easily manipulated.
I grew up watching hypocritically pious men and women act much like Mike Huckabee is in this campaign. I grew up to loathe these kinds of people. Every time Mike Huckabee or his team put something out in the campaign, my feelings for him and the kind of man that he appears to be go lower.
You need to study Fred Thompson a little more before saying only McCain has foreign policy experience...
Three years into Thompson’s second term, the MSM will still be talking about his “late effort”.
Fred was counsel to a couple of committees in the 80's. He was the chairman (a ceremonial position) on a National Security advisory board where the only board member NOT required to be an expert is the Chairman and that was for 2 years.
Fred is entry level in foreign relations
“Fred is entry level in foreign relations”
Actually, Fred is more like the homeschooled kid who ends up with a doctorate by the age of 20. He is simply innately smarter, wiser, and more astute.
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