He has been labeled lazy. Maybe he’s just laid back. Either way, it’s an image Fred Thompson is trying to get rid of:
On Tuesday, Thompson, 65, confronted the low-energy concern directly in Fort Mills, S.C., where Muzak has its headquarters. Speaking to supporters crammed into Beef O’Brady’s sports bar and restaurant, he suggested that the nation needs a leader with sound judgment, not raw passion.
“Ultimately,” he said, “the American people have to ask themselves: Do they want someone with their finger on the nuclear button who has fire in his belly?” He paused for effect. “Or her belly?” The crowd burst into laughter.
Joking aside, Thompson is trying to define himself as the purest conservative in the race. In Rochester, N.H., he toured a gun factory, a reminder that GOP campaign rivals Mitt Romney and Rudolph W. Giuliani have each backed gun-control measures, even if they now champion the 2nd Amendment affirmation of the right to bear arms.
“Do you test the accuracy manually or by machine?” Thompson, in safety goggles, asked a manager as they inspected triggers and rifle barrels.
Thompson calls terrorism his No. 1 priority. On a visit to Spartanburg, S.C., he left open the possibility of authorizing waterboarding, which simulates drowning, in interrogations. “It sounds awful to me,” he said. “But I assure you that if innocent lives are at stake, and there’s a ticking time bomb, and we have a terrorist, and our intelligence is good enough for us to be certain that he knows where that ticking time bomb is, we’re going to find out where it is.”
He supports the Iraq war but rarely brings it up.
Thompson has toughened his rhetoric on illegal immigration, denouncing “open borders” at every campaign stop. It is the main focus of his attacks on GOP rivals Giuliani and Romney.
Fred needs to drink some coffee and raise the level of his campaign up a level or two, and keep it there. I like Fred and his positions on most things. There are a few things I don’t like, but I can say that with each candidate, as can most people. But in my opinion, Fred is one of the better candidates.
Related posts:
