Fred, Jeri & Hayden in Anderson, SC
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Posted on 01/18/2008 12:54:06 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
God-o-Meter caught up with Fred Thompson and his wife Jeri at various South Carolina events this week and has cobbled together this Q&A from a few separate exchanges. God-o-Meter has lots more to say about the Thompsons' answers--and will--but it has to head off to interview Ron Paul at Bob Jones University.
God-o-Meter: Do you think religion is playing too big a role in the presidential race?
Fred Thompson: I don’t have any feelings a long those lines. I think people have a right to express themselves, including people of faith, no question about it, and they’re participating and I’m glad to see it.
GOM: Last year, Focus on the Family’s James Dobson said it was his impression that you weren’t a Christian. Are the faith lives of the candidates playing too big a role in the race, as opposed to the faith of voters?
FT: The only thing I hear about it are because of questions of people such as yourself [reporters] are asking, and otherwise it’s never an issue. People have a right to their opinions and a right to express their opinions, and it’s not for me to judge them on that basis and I don’t appreciate it when I’m judged. As far as I’m concerned, everything’s on track.
GOM: You said in the most recent debate that Huckabee was a “Christian leader” but also a “liberal leader.” Do you think he’s gotten too much Christian support on the basis that he’s a Christian leader?
FT: That’s not for me to judge. I just related the facts. The facts are that he is a Christian leader and the facts are the he has more liberal economic and foreign policies than I think is good for our country and out of the mainstream of the Republican Party.
GOM: In an interview with Beliefnet, Mike Huckabee said that your approach to leaving the question of abortion to the states would be as immoral as leaving the issue of slavery to the states during the Civil War…
FT: You have to go back and check—Governor Huckabee said that it ought to be left up to the states pretty consistently up until he started running for president. You ought to check on that. You ought to do a little research on that and when he says things like that ask him when he changed his mind.
GOM: You’ve staked a lot of your campaign on South Carolina? How well do you have to do here in order to stay in the race?
FT: Pretty doggone well, pretty doggone well. Different [candidates] have won different important states and in every case they probably had to win those states and they did so… we’ll see on election night how well very well is, because rankings and percentage play into it as well as rankings, but there’s no question I have to do very well here.
GOM: Does that mean first or second place?
FT: That’s all I’m saying about that.
GOM: Some conservative Christian leaders I've talked to say that they're more impressed with you than with your husband.
Jeri Thompson: We are really a team, from anything from national security and China and America’s role in the world to family values—using the bully pulpit to the extent that a president can. Fred often talks about the fact that he doesn’t really want to be president but to do those things that only a president can do.
One of those things is use that bully pulpit to talk about the value of being a father and being a father. Fred’s been blessed—I’m his second family, I’m his second wife. He was married at 17. This is not his first rodeo, so looking back and knowing what your values are become a little clearer when you get older. One thing he’s said often is that what goes through a man’s mind from the time our four-year-olds are at the top of the stairs to the bottom is what made him ultimately decide to run for president. If we don’t address these issues… in terms of what we leave our next generation and what we leave our children--that really motivated us. And our faith.
GOM: Conservative Christian leaders have criticized your husband for not talking enough about his faith.
JT: Since when is humility a bad thing? This is the fist cycle when humility in a leader... how would Abe Lincoln have fared, how would Eisenhower have fared? But if we didn’t have faith, we wouldn’t be here. We have nothing to lose here but our integrity.
I already like her better than most of the other CANDIDATES.
God-o-Meter: Do you think religion is playing too big a role in the presidential race?
Fred Thompson: I don’t have any feelings a long those lines. I think people have a right to express themselves, including people of faith, no question about it, and they’re participating and I’m glad to see it.
Nuff said!
Sure does.
GOM: In an interview with Beliefnet, Mike Huckabee said that your approach to leaving the question of abortion to the states would be as immoral as leaving the issue of slavery to the states during the Civil War…
FT: You have to go back and check—Governor Huckabee said that it ought to be left up to the states pretty consistently up until he started running for president. You ought to check on that. You ought to do a little research on that and when he says things like that ask him when he changed his mind.
FT Knows better! Fact is Mike hasnt changed his belief at all but I give fred a c in blatant acting.
maybe freds Wife is a believer? They have kids so I hope it works out.
I still don’t understand how Fred’s not running away with this thing. Is my faith that it’s not too late for America so off? This is one of those rare times when the perfect man comes along when he is needed most. Are we as a country so freaking blind that we are going to thumb our noses at him?
If their voice is to be heard and listened to, then Christians need to avoid demagogues like Mike Huckabee, and make informed decisions about political matters. We cannot allow ourselves to be self-segregated into a political Christian ghetto by those claiming to speak for us. This means that sometimes, the best candidate for a Christian to choose is not the one who is most religious. Ronald Reagan was not very much of a church-going man, yet he was an infinitely better leader than the very religious but very inept and dishonest Jimmy Carter. Likewise, in this primary season, there are other candidates, Fred Thompson first and foremost, who are much better than Huckabee on the issues of importance to conservative Christians. We cannot be gulled into supporting an inferior candidate just because he deals a religion card to us.
“I still don’t understand how Fred’s not running away with this thing.”
JMO, but I think it’s because he has so far not connected with the people. Strange as it may seem to some Freepers his campaign has largely been pretty low profile. While I understand that his base supporters love him, IMO they are the 12% that already loved him before he officially entered the race. If Fred doesn’t win in SC after working really hard for the last two weeks to get his message out and connect with voters, then I think the conclusion has to be that either people don’t like his message, or he can’t sell it. Either way if he doesn’t win in SC I think he’s done. I suppose 2nd would suffice if he were within a point or two of the leader, but a virtual tie with one or more of the other candidates for anything less than first will be the final nail in his coffin IMO.
Why do some Christians want a candidate who acts more like a preacher than a national leader?
I have a lot of respect for Fred Thompson’s humility.
Mike Huckabee is the candidate for Christians who wear their faith on their sleeves.
Fred Thompson is the candidate for those who wear it in their hearts.
Vet, it’s no secret that I’m standing with Duncan Hunter until he tells his supporters to stand down, but I got to tell you that I like this interview, and what Fred and his wife had to say.
“I still don’t understand how Fred’s not running away with this thing.”
It is because the press has been doing an excellent job of warping the minds of the general public. Doncha know that Fred doesn’t have a chance? It’s too late and besides, he’s lazy. Good conservatives have swallowed the kool-aid. Cup, spoon, and coaster.
Sheepishly, we have been herded to a liberal point of view, where Thompson is too radical and Hillary is centrist.
God help us...
Fred, Jeri & Hayden in Anderson, SC
FRED VETS, SIGN UP TODAY AT:
If I were a candidate, I would think very carefully about what, if anything, to say about my faith.
When a person holds up their faith for the purpose of getting votes, it’s blasphemy.
I think Fred Thompson takes a lot of time to think about moral issues like this one.
I hope Mike Huckabee does.
Really? Huckabee hasn’t changed his mind?
http://www.arktimes.com/blogs/arkansasblog/2007/11/mike_huckabee_for_states_right.aspx
Mike Huckabee: It would please me because I think Roe v. Wade is based on a real stretch of Constitutional application — that somehow there is a greater privacy issue in the abortion concern — than there is a human life issue — and that the federal government should be making that decision as opposed to states making that decision.
So, I’ve never felt that it was a legitimate manner in which to address this and, first of all, it should be left to the states, the 10th Amendment, but secondly, to somehow believe that the taking of an innocent, unborn human life is about privacy and not about that unborn life is ludicrous.
—I believe right there he makes the statement that it should be LEFT TO THE STATES.
Isn’t the internet a great thing? I knew someone would find a quote. Politicians really can’t hide behind their positon-of-the-day anymore!!!
What you said is true, but you overlooked the most important factor, which is that Thompson failed to point out the many, many faults of his good friend McCain. He also gave him covering fire and allowed him to gain undeserved momentum, and now a lot of votes that should have gone to Thompson are going to go to McCain instead. It’s a real shame, but Thompson is to blame for it, nobody else.
Thompson obviously could have, and should have, won South Carolina, but he won’t.
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