Posted on 12/27/2007 7:34:22 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Just 15 days shy of Iowa’s first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses, Fred Thompson hammered home his “constant, consistent conservative” record and values to a crowd of about 150 in Davenport on Wednesday.
With time growing short and Thompson trailing far behind Republican front runners Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney, according to a Quad-City Times-Lee Enterprises newspaper poll published over the weekend, Thompson said it was no time to elect a novice to the nation’s most important job at such a crucial juncture in its history.
“It is not time for on-the-job training, it’s time for proven leadership,” Thompson said in a 45 minute speech that touched on hot button issues such as illegal immigration, the future of Social Security and the United State’s role in an increasingly dangerous world.
On immigration, Thompson said the country should secure its borders, send back those who are here illegally regardless of whether they have children here and penalize so-called “sanctuary cities” by withholding federal money from them.
“We should be a nation with high fences and wide gates and we should decide how long they are open,” Thompson told the mostly male partisan crowd. “It’s like our home. We get to decide who comes in our home.”
On the third day of a bus tour that will take him to 50 cities and towns in Iowa, Thompson said he would simplify the nation’s income tax code and flatten tax rates and reform Social Security to save it. Those were all issues he tackled during two terms in the U.S. Senate from 1994 through 2002 when he won a seat in Tennessee formerly held by Democrat Al Gore, he said.
On strengthening the military and battling terrorism, Thompson said, “You don’t go looking for a fight if you’re the United States of America, but if you find yourself in one, you win it.”
David Moeller, 41, of Davenport was an early backer of ex-Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson, who dropped out of the race for the Republican nod in August. He now leans toward Thompson and attended the event at the Radisson Quad-City Plaza “to see if he backs up what I think he stands for.” He had his 14-year-old son Michael in tow.
The verdict?
“I didn’t disagree with a single thing he said,” Moeller said. “I hope he can be a candidate and a president who brings back conservative values to the White House. I hope the road he was talking about going down does something to shine a light on the fact that the Republican Party is for the little guy, and not just for big business like some people think, because that’s what the party really is about.”
Please tell us how your candidate will trump Roe vs. Wade and outlaw abortion in all 50 states. We’re all ears...
“He is evil.”
I wouldn’t call him evil, just wrong. Unfortunately, most persons that oppose abortion will make exceptions for rape and incest. I think this is inconsistent with the idea that an unborn child is an innocent victum. A child produced by rape or incest is no less a victum and should not be denied life. However, this is a very hard sell, and I don’t even try to push it.
Murder should not be charged to a murdering collaborator and babies should be killed if the father is a rapist or related to the mother. The man will not get my vote unless he repents of his wickedness. He is evil."
psycho3lf Since Jun 21, 2007
“I disagree that he would oppose it because amending the Constitution...”
In an interview he gave during his surge, he said clearly that he thought it was a state’s right to determine if they wanted homosexual marriage or not...he said even if he Fred Thompson disagreed with them. He is a true federalist. People have rightfully said that Fred is not wishy washy. When it comes to “states rights”, he is not wishy washy. He would not be for ammending the constitution, even to end something he personnally objected to.
“I disagree that he would oppose it because amending the Constitution...”
In an interview he gave during his surge, he said clearly that he thought it was a state’s right to determine if they wanted homosexual marriage or not...he said even if he Fred Thompson disagreed with them. He is a true federalist. People have rightfully said that Fred is not wishy washy. When it comes to “states rights”, he is not wishy washy. He would not be for ammending the constitution, even to end something he personnally objected to.
I haven't decided upon a candidate, yet.
It is not just a matter of what is achievable in the next eight years. It is a matter of judging whether or not a candidate has the appropriate commitment and sense of priority.
You can't get a tax break if you have been aborted.
You can't have a thoroughly, politically sacred building block of our whole society in America, if the fallacious travesty of homosexual "marriage" exists in America.
Well, since Fred Thompson is, by far, the most conservative of the truly electable candidates, you’re between a rock and a hard place, IMO.
Looks like a doughnut-shaped conservative, if so.
Other than these single-issue rants here - Fred has been representing himself as himself and has NOT been backtracking nor apologetic about his previous positions. I think a lot of posters here on FR have forgotten that we should be looking for these qualities of leadership in a President rather than a whimpering liar willing to say anything to get you to buy a used car.
Foolish stances like yours ultimately cost lives. Your intentions mean nothing when your methods do not advance the ball.
Please do explain.
This statement is not true. Thompson does not oppose these amendments. He merely recognized that they aren't achieveable now. and should not be where our CURRENT effort is directed. As he puts it, with respect to the right to life isseu, "Let's get Roe-v-Wade repealed, then count our marbles and see where we are." It is only a question of emphasis and timing.
That his the BIGGEST of his conservative bona fides. REAL conservatives believe in federalism, just like the founders did.
I wouldn’t even waste time with unspun. He is a charicature of what the looney left paints Conservatives as.
Since he asked never to be pinged by me and 29 other people, I won’t even do him the courtesy.
The article is dated December 27, 2007, and the Iowa caucus date is January 3, 2008.
Hillary Clinton's campaign made this same date "mistake" a few days ago. Clinton urges Iowa voters to caucus on wrong day
Already addressed this.
There are federalist means of securing the nationwide right to life and guaranteeing nationwide, the definition of marriage.
He has made direct statements opposing the Human Life and Marriage Amendments. He has even proposed a weaker marriage amendment.
I don’t agree with Thompson on his proposed marrriage amendment. But it’s not going anywhere either, just like the other proposed amendments, and in any case is not a show stopper for me. All of them are just grandstanding.
I will choose from among the range of choices available to me, and from amongh that range, Fred Thompson is head and shoulders above anyone else.
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