This from Townhall.com
Thompson thought better of this position after the program. His campaign manager Bill Lacy told me Tuesday that Thompson "does not want to change the platform" in 2008. But there was no apology for raising the criminalization chimera. Neither Thompson nor Lacy seemed to understand that what he said antagonized the social right.
Miss Jones told me she switched off "Meet the Press" after Thompson's talk about jailing women. If she had continued, she would have heard him reiterate positions that previously had disturbed social conservatives: opposition to a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage and opposition to congressional intervention to save the life of Terri Schiavo.
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But when Thompson finally threw his hat into the ring in early September, it didn't turn out that way. To be sure, he quickly joined the front-runners in what is now a four-way race. In several states, among likely Republican primary voters, he may even be the front-runner. (In others, he has done well but lagged slightly behind Giuliani.) But he assuredly hasn't routed his three somewhat more liberal rivals, and it now appears that he may not do so.
Why not? It's probably mostly a matter of style. Thompson is laid-back, soft-spoken and gives the unfortunate impression of not having thought very hard about some of the issues. (He admitted not giving much attention to the Terri Schiavo case -- the brain-damaged woman from St. Petersburg, Fla., who was taken off life support following a whirlwind of controversy -- though it had riveted the nation for a month.) Where is the genial repartee, the impish wisecrack, and the easygoing smoothness of Ronald Reagan? Granted, Reagan is a model no candidate can easily live up to, but conservatives can dream, can't they?
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