Terse and defensive because of O’Reilly’s overinflated ego not being staisfied with Jerry Thompson and wanting Thompson himself...
I don’t blame them at all for not being asked what their positions are on issues and wasting their precious little airtime on these trivial side issues.
I also find it interesting that you think citing the Constitution as a guide was a mistake! It was a good answer, but not a great one. The critcism here seems a bit nit-picky to me. One could actually engage in this level of critcism on every single answer he gives. He coulda said, he shoulda said....
If Fred Thompson can’t stand up to Bill O’Reilly, can we expect him to stand up to Bin Laden and Ahmadinajad?
Food for thought.
I believe his reference to the Constitution was the third such reference among the candidates and did nothing to differentiate himself from Ron Paul or McCain.