Posted on 01/19/2008 7:30:18 AM PST by jellybean
At the Last Minute, Thompson Shines By Byron York
Greenville, South Carolina — At various times during Fred Thompson’s presidential campaign, there have been moments in which Republicans who admire Thompson and want him to succeed have said, “Yessssss! Yessssss! Why haven’t we seen more of that?” One such moment happened in December, after Thompson’s “no hand shows” performance at the Des Moines Register debate in Iowa. Another came nine days ago after Thompson’s forceful performance at the Fox News debate in Myrtle Beach. And there was another last night, in the final appearance of Thompson’s South Carolina primary campaign, in a packed room at Greenville’s Embassy Suites hotel. At that appearance, Thompson was so good, so energized, so non-laid-back-Fred, that many of his supporters wondered where the man had been during the campaign.
If anyone came to the speech to hear specific proposals for any specific problem, they were bound to be disappointed. The right kind of speech for election eve is almost always a broad declaration of principles, mixed with get-out-the-vote exhortations, and that’s what Thompson did Friday night. But he had a more specific message, too, directed to the debate going on inside the Republican party these days. And the message was: Don’t listen to those people who say the party has to change. Stick to the conservative principles that got us here.
“The Founding Fathers had it right from the very beginning,” Thompson said. “The wisdom of the ages, the fact that our basic rights come from God and not from government, the notion that a government big enough and powerful enough to give you anything is big enough and powerful enough to take anything away from you…respect for the rule of law…the institution of the market economy…[the belief] that if a person earned a dollar, that dollar belonged in the person’s pocket…” Those should be our guiding principles, he said.
“We’re having a little discussion in the party nowadays about what that means for the future,” Thompson told the crowd. “Some people think we need to get away from the Reagan coalition, because it doesn’t exist any more.” The audience erupted into boos. “Some people seem to think that we need to be a little bit more what they called progressive…Well, I reject that concept with every fiber of my being.”
After walking through a few issues — “a nation that cannot secure its own borders will not remain a sovereign nation”; “our principles mean that we don’t let a federal government that can’t even chew gum and tie its own shoelaces half the time take over our health-care system”; “the security of our people underlies everything else” — Thompson hit again on the main argument for his candidacy: Unlike some other candidates, he’s always been a conservative, and he always will be. “I’ve always been there,” he said, “I’m proud of my record, what you see is what you get, where I was yesterday, I am today, is where I’ll be tomorrow. I wear no man’s collar, and I’ve never been accused of changing my political opinion about something because of a political consideration.”
On a number of occasions, the crowd — somewhere between 300 and 400 people jammed into the ballroom — interrupted with chants of FRED! FRED! FRED! And at one point, I heard the woman standing next to me — we had talked earlier, and she was a Thompson fan from the very beginning — say, to no one in particular, “Where was this six months ago?” A few minutes later, when Thompson made an especially powerful point, she said it again.
Thompson spoke without notes, and with obvious feeling. He so clearly believed what he was saying that he made an emotional connection with the crowd, and they responded with enormous enthusiasm. To everyone in the audience, Friday night in Greenville was what the Thompson campaign was supposed to be about. What made it particularly compelling was that it followed one of those quirky appearances that have come to represent what the Thompson campaign became. Three hours before the Embassy Suites speech, Thompson’s bus pulled up in front of the Westin Poinsett hotel on Main Street in Greenville, where Thompson emerged to…wander around.
First Thompson walked into Joel’s Java, where a manager told me he had no idea Thompson would visit until a few minutes beforehand, when a couple of campaign aides popped in to say the senator would come in. In the coffeeshop, Thompson did a brief interview with a local TV reporter who asked him the inevitable are-you-out-of-the-race-if-you-don’t-win question. “I’m not going to talk about any unsuccessful scenarios,” Thompson answered. After that, he ambled around a bit, saying hello and posing for pictures, and was out the door in a few minutes.
Back on the sidewalk, Thompson headed north, with several photographers ahead of him, walking backward to get photos of Thompson walking forward. A short block later, Thompson stepped into Halfway to Habana, a cigar store. Not that many candidates would associate themselves with smoking these days, but Thompson headed straight for the walk-in humidor. He checked out a few brands and picked up a single La Gloria Cubana, a cigar made in the Dominican Republic. “I’m going to save this for later,” he told owner Paolo Varvaro as he paid at the counter. “I like to chew on them more than I do smoke them. They taste pretty good.” And then, after a few more hellos, Thompson was out the door.
At that, Thompson headed back toward the bus. Before he got there, a young man named Jason Beard approached him. Beard, who later told me he drove nine hours from Memphis to see Thompson, had brought a paperback copy of Barry Goldwater’s Conscience of a Conservative. He asked Thompson to sign it, and Thompson was happy to oblige. “I hope it inspires you as much as it inspired me in college,” Thompson told Beard. Later that night, at the Embassy Suites, Thompson would credit the book with inspiring him to be a conservative. I saw Beard there, still carrying around his signed copy.
The RealClearPolitics average of polls in South Carolina has Thompson virtually tied with Mitt Romney for third place, well behind John McCain and Mike Huckabee. Most observers view this state as Thompson’s last stand, although his aides say simply that they don’t know what’s coming next. If he does leave the race, there will be lots of suggestions that he didn’t really want to run, that he didn’t have the taste for the frenetic campaigning that wins presidential primaries. No one beyond Thompson himself knows the answer to the first question, but there’s no doubt the latter is true; throughout the campaign, Thompson showed great impatience with some of the ridiculous demands presidential campaigns place on candidates. But on those occasions when he put himself into it fully, as he did at the Embassy Suites on Friday, Thompson left supporters wanting more — and wishing they had seen this months ago.
At the Beacon, Thompson offers conservative a'plenty By Robert W. Dalton
Republican presidential hopeful Fred Thompson played up his Southern roots and his conservative resume Friday during a campaign stop at the Beacon Drive-In.
"It's so good to be here among folks who don't think I talk funny," Thompson, a former Tennessee senator, said to a crowd of about 300.
He did little campaigning in states where they do think he talks funny - Iowa, New Hampshire and Michigan - and the results were predictable. He was third in Iowa, sixth in New Hampshire and fifth in Michigan.
Thompson spent most of the past two weeks traveling across South Carolina, and today's primary is crucial for him. He didn't say a poor showing would be the end of the line, but he did say the state is "very important" for his campaign.
Thompson told an appreciative crowd at the Beacon that curbing illegal immigration, a hot-button issue for voters here, would be a top priority for him.
"A nation that cannot secure its borders will not remain a sovereign nation," Thompson said. "We must stop illegal immigration. It's a fairness issue and a national security issue."
Thompson said the Republican Party also needs to refocus on core conservative principles such as holding the line on spending, lowering taxes and limiting government. He said the party has suffered when it has gotten away from those ideals.
"There are some who think we need to move in a more moderate direction to defeat the Democrats," Thompson said. "I reject that notion with every fiber of my being."
When asked by a young member of the audience about his stance on global warming, Thompson said the U.S. must not act alone or in haste. He said there are a lot of questions yet to be answered.
"We need to be modest about what we know and what we don't know," Thompson said. "We don't know if these changes are permanent, or the extent to which man is having an impact."
He said acting unilaterally could put a hole in the U.S. economy.
"We need to try to answer these questions while talking together around the world about what we can do," he said.
Thompson said he's concerned about the unemployment rate, which is creeping up nationwide. South Carolina's rate hit 6.6 percent in December, according to figures released Friday - and that doesn't include the 525 jobs that will be lost when Spartanburg's Mrs. Smith's plant closes in March.
"You have to be concerned when it's moving in the wrong direction," he said. "But policies of lower taxes, less regulations, and free and fair trade will be good for the economy and will lessen unemployment and put us in a growth pattern."
As he made his way out of the Beacon and back to his bus, Thompson stopped to sign autographs and pose for photos with fawning supporters.
Rachel Dill of Spartanburg brought her infant son, Graham, whom she called a "Fred Head," to have his picture snapped with the candidate.
"I wanted to come see him before he becomes president," Dill said. "He's strong in his faith, and that's important."
Regina Draper of Spartanburg said she liked what Thompson had to say. She said he would unite the country - and a fractured Republican Party.
"With Fred Thompson as president, he can bring us back to the principles we're about," Draper said. "He covers all the bases, from national security to Social Security."
Paul Johnson is a diehard Thompson supporter - and he can't even vote in today's primary. He drove from Walton, Ky. - a small town in the northern part of the state near Cincinnati - through Wednesday night's snowstorm to follow Thompson on his bus tour across South Carolina.
Johnson used a loudspeaker in his car and implored people to vote for "the tall man."
"He's the only one who will stop the illegal invasion, pull the ears off earmarks and stop activist judges from taking your house to build a 7-11," Johnson said.
Before heading back to Kentucky on Sunday, Johnson plans to join other Thompson faithful tonight for a party.
"I hope it's going to be a celebration," he said.
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I'll be gone most of the day. Rock on, Fred!
Shorter Michael Gerson: Fred Thompson is a Big Meanie
I have to give you credit for loyalty and tenacity. You hung in there all the way to the end.
Thanks for the update, jellybean! And thanks for doing this thread all along as it sure helps us all know what is going on. I really appreciate it!:) Sure looking forward to Fred getting down here in Florida! I am sure he will do very well in South Carolina as I have trust in the Republicans in SC to make the right choice today! GO FRED!
I wonder if there are any South Carolina Freepers who got to go to Fred’s Pre-election Rally in Greenville last night. Sure would like to get a report from someone who was there! GO FRED!
His best bet now is to be a VP for McCain or Huckabee. As McCain's VP, he would be in a great position to take over in the event of a health crisis for the aged front runner or he can run in 2012 if McCain decides to serve only one term which he has hinted at. This way he can gain some experience as VP and can shed the reputation of being lazy through Cheney-like activism.
Since so many conservatives are afflicted with McCain Derangement Syndrome from endless hours of Rush-babble that they would rather see Hillary as president then to vote for him, I wouldn't count on Fred being chosen by McCain as a running mate. McCain may go to the center and pick Lieberman which would totally alienate the right wing from power and representation in DC but produce a ticket that would easily beat Clinton or Obama in a general election.
Your tag line gives you away. “Centrist” is just another word for liberal. When it comes to the war of ideas, there is no middle ground. As my grandfather used to say, the only thing in the middle of the road is yellow streaks, and dead skunks.
You need to put down the crack pipe if you think the “sort of liberal” McCain, teamed with a “very liberal” Lieberman would win anything. All the committed leftists, would still vote Dem. Conservatives would sit home and watch TV. At the end of the day, McCain Lieberman would produce one of the lowest GOP vote turnouts in history ensuring a DEM win.
You are sensible in NH and in your own mind, but nowhere else. McCain and Huckabee are just liberal wet dreams. Their popularity is created and controlled by liberal press and phony liberal polling.
"Comitted leftists" are about as numerous in this country as comitted rightists like yourself, less than 25% of voters on either side of the spectrum. Elections are won by convincing the rest of us that your candidate is the best person to lead the country.
If the far right wing, after blindly supporting Bush's failed war strategy and historic spending and deficit increases, think you can win the election without teaming up with moderates then you deserve the irrelevancy that you are quickly sliding into.
I don't want to hear any complaining about socialized medicine, huge tax increases, gun control, cut and run in the WOT, etc. because you will have helped to bring that about.
As someone once said, there are “Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics.” Conservatives are far more than 25%, unfortunately sheep are even more numerous.
Also, I seem to remember the left supporting Bush’s war strategy as well. The only difference is the left including the so-called centrists waffle back and forth with every poll. Reagan didn’t win landslides by compromising with moderates. Bush won by the narrowest of margins, by compromising with moderates. I’ll take the landslide.
Ironic to hear you use the WOT as a reason to vote for McCain right after you describe “Bush’s failed strategy”. As far as tax increases that’s something McCain has been for.
If you get your way and McCain wins out, we can look forward to activist judges, more restrictions on free speech. 20-40 million illegals, to start with..., CO2 emission regulations killing our economy.....etc. Although as a “centrist” you probably welcome those things.
“You hung in there all the way to the end.”
This is not over!
You don’t know McCain very well if you believe he would ever give up power voluntarily. The man is a megalomaniac.
You are right. It’s far from over.
(John Wayne voice...)
Don't be blowing taps just yet, mister.
You lie in your second sentence. I didn’t even finish reading your drek.
I suspect we’ll find out he lied in his very first sentence. There seems to be a fire burning for Thompson in SC that I’ve not seen since the days of Reagan. People want to vote FOR him and not simply against the other candidate. I hope and pray that the sense I get from people there is what I think it is.
Read this all you FRedheads!!
It can’t be posted, but notice how many people are breaking for FRed at the last minute!
http://www.greenvilleonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080119/NEWS03/80119008
Uh huh...
Okey Dokey...
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