Posted on 09/16/2007 2:41:31 PM PDT by Plutarch
LAKELAND, Fla., Sept. 15 — At his second campaign stop of the day on Friday, just after 2 p.m., Fred D. Thompson was deep into a riff on the benefits of high-quality American health care.
“It’s allowing us to live healthier lives and to live longer,” Mr. Thompson said at a Jaycee park here. “That’s good news. But we have more retired folks. I hope to become one of them one of these days.”
Nervous laughter from the audience.
“Not too soon,” he added hastily.
So much for dispelling the idea that he is too lazy to run for president...
His critics, already pointing to what they call Mr. Thompson’s skimpy Senate record, might find even more ammunition in his campaign schedule... Mr. Thompson has made a languid three-day swing through Florida ending Saturday. The pace has kept him on a jumbo air-conditioned bus far more often than he is actually campaigning.
Since Thursday morning, when the tour began, Mr. Thompson has made no more than three campaign stops a day, with long stretches in between. In recent spins through Iowa, he kept a similarly relaxed schedule. Mitt Romney, by comparison, often does six town-hall-style forums a day when in Iowa...
But once off the bus, Mr. Thompson has shown occasional signs of discomfort. In a speech here on Friday, he sweated profusely under the afternoon sun, breathed heavily and, while struggling over a question, asked no one in particular if his microphone was on. (It was.)
Some audience members winced as Mr. Thompson sweated through the question-and-answer session.
“I’m surprised they didn’t pull him out of there,” said John Chambers of nearby Punta Gorda, after the speech ended. Suzanne Miranda, who watched the event from a lawn chair, said, “I felt bad for him...”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Listen,
I’m sorry to have to say this, but I’d rather have an ailing Fred Thompson than a healthy Mitt Romney, for just as long as Fred can manage it.
If a Fred Thompson Presidency lasts only one term, so be it. America will be just that much better off for it. If our nation gets lucky, we can have him for eight years.
May God bless Fred Thompson and may God grant him many happy and productive years of remission.
MittFan08 wrote: “Fred is not a healthy-looking man...”
Fred looks fine for a man of his age. At least he doesn’t look greasy, like Mitt does.
“McCain has canccer, Rudy has cancer.”
Yeah, people tend to forget that. Maybe their supporters will now quickly provide us with doctor’s reports, likelihood of recurrence, and 5 year and beyond survival rates for their types of prostate and skin cancer.
If you had any integrity at all, you would realize that Fred has real live doctors who do blood tests and check ups and all kinds of good doctor stuff who probably can diagnose the status of his health FAR better than you can looking at pictures. Frankly, I think your "sweaty" argument is just plain silly, and I think you realize it too. I think the term is "grasping at straws."
Plutarch wrote: “This is a NYT hit piece, true. But...”
laura Ingraham, another cancer survivor btw, has a couple of words for you: “But Monkey”
“McCain has canccer, Rudy has cancer.”
Not true, at least as far as we know. They HAD cancer, but, if reports of their current health are true, then doctors could give McCain and Rudy thorough checkups, bloodwork, CAT scan, etc and find no trace of cancer in their bodies.
My understanding of Fred’s condition is that he has a simmering, low-grade kind of cancer in his body that, if things go well, he can live a long time with. But my understanding is that doctors could look in his body right now and find evidence of that cancer.
And more importantly, McCain and Rudy have been out campaigning and working hard for the last year so there’s no doubt about their vitality. They each look well for their ages also, and that counts a lot in politics.
“I’m sorry to have to say this, but I’d rather have an ailing Fred Thompson than a healthy Mitt Romney, for just as long as Fred can manage it.”
That’s fine- you’re perfectly entitled to your opinion. Just like I’m entitled to my opinion that it will be a great roll of the dice to nominate Fred when we have no idea what his health will be like next summer and fall when he’s running against Hillary.
I acknowledge that there’s a chance the roll of the dice will pay off and Fred will seem active and vigorous next year. But in light of recent reports and photos it seems to be a very valid concern that next summer Fred will look and act in very poor health and, if that’s the case, there’s no way he will beat Hillary.
I think Mitt must be in the early stages of Alzheimer’s Disease. He keeps forgetting what his positions are on the issues.
“If you had any integrity at all, you would realize that Fred has real live doctors who do blood tests and check ups”
I have concerns about nominating a candidate who has cancer, and I have no integrity because of those concerns? That makes a lot of sense.
Kein Urasche.
LMAO. Nice one...
“You reluctantly came to that decision in January of this year? How much analysis could you have done when a number of candidates hadn’t even declared yet?”
One night last January I saw Romney give a speech on C-Span to some group or another and I wanted to stand up and cheer at the end of this speech. It was outstanding. I was so enthusiastic I wanted to talk about it on the internet so I chose this name.
Since that time, I’ve been disappointed in a lot of what I’ve learned about Romney. I’ve flirted with other candidates before deciding that they were either too liberal, unelectable or in poor health. So true to my name, I’m back with Romney and will keep this handle until he’s eliminated from the race then I guess I’ll have to choose another.
And for the record, I think he’s a long shot to get the nomination, but it’s still possible so I’m going to speak for him on this board until we pick someone else whom I will then support 100% as long as it’s not McCain then I’ll go third party.
“”””I have concerns about nominating a candidate who has cancer, and I have no integrity because of those concerns? “”””
To so casually think that we are the type of people that accept the following as a valid defense of Romney indicates a lack of integrity. It is the breezy defense you use in your other previous postings, you do not seem to value integrity.
>”””The fact that Mitt is a Mormon makes me think that the “real” Mitt is likely conservative and he was just playing to the left wing crowd in Massachusetts.”””<
Registering on FR solely to push your candidate seems a little weak in that area as well, within the first five days you established that you were here to “promote Romney’, ‘promote Giuliani second’ and tell us ‘how sick Thompson is’, all covered in your first five days.
The consistency I saw is an effort to push FR to a more “moderate” place.
“It’s in Georgia, well north of Florida. Tiger Woods and the rest were all sweating like pigs.
Ohmigosh. The PGA is about to be wiped out by lymphoma!”
ROFL.....priceless
You know ...the libs have me believing that they would jump for joy with a loss in Iraq...You are beginning to look as though you would jump for joy with a Fred illness since you are trying so hard to prove that he is on his death bed.
For crying out loud...His doctors have given him a clean bill of health ...it was something that he made sure of before tossing his hat in the ring. So get over it already.
“The consistency I saw is an effort to push FR to a more ‘moderate’ place.”
I disagree with that, but even if that were true, who cares? I agree that Mitt is more moderate than, say, Duncan Hunter and so if the Duncan Hunter fans want to think they have some kind of conservative street cred that I don’t then whoopie for them. They can enjoy that street cred while supporting an unelectable candidate.
And I hate to break it to the Thompson fans, but he was always known as a Howard Baker-style moderate Republican. Politically and personally, I actually like Thompson a whole lot. I’m probably a moderate Republican myself in some ways, though I am extremely conservative when it comes to illegal immigration, my most important issue.
I'd take exception to the effort, talent and skill comment. The debates do NOT offer a platform for viewers to really learn something about a candidate. There is no time for any one candidate to answer a question in depth since the time is spread over so many candidates. Everyone has their little sound byte for each topic and that's all you hear - a sound byte. Tells you absolutely nothing. Its scripted, all the candidate has to do is pull out the sound byte pertinent (or not so pertinent) to the subject of the question.
Bald faced lie.
Then he can say that he gave it a try, no regrets, yadda yadda...
Riiiight, he's doing all this instead of sitting home enjoying his wife and kids. Suuuure..
He’s not going to win.
Watch him.
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