Fred Thompson On WABC

Senator Fred Thompson did a brief call in to WABC radio's John Gambling Show this morning, clearly he is growing serious about making a bid for the presidency. Any grassroots conservatives listening in would have liked what they heard. It's being delivered by a candidate who could do his own commercial voice overs probably didn't  hurt.

During the quick call Thompson emphasized a strong American economy and a strong military as necessary for America to meet her current challenges. While acknowledging mistakes in Iraq, he said he felt we are finally on the right track and that victory in Iraq must be assured. He is acquainted with General Patraeus as the General once commanded a base in Tennessee.

The former Senator went on to express serious concern over Russia for its relationship with Iran, while Putin appears to be slipping back into his old Soviet ways. Thompson pointed out that many Putin critics seem to have become accident prone of late.

Thompson also touched on immigration, stating the need for America to gain genuine control of her borders, suggesting that once that was accomplished, Americans would continue to embrace immigration as they always have, provided it's legal immigration and on a scale that fuels the economy, while not creating a potential disaster for social services.

He also mentioned the need to get a handle on entitlements like social security, which continue to move toward a fiscal meltdown while Washington refuses to act.

All in all, it was a quick, pure dose of basic Reagan conservatism. With many leading Republican presidential candidates weathering attacks on their credentials to carry the conservative banner in 2008, it will be interesting to see how Thompson's message resonates with the base going forward.

He would likely be a serious contender with the right financial support. As his television and movie image has genuinely been positive, that could help him with name recognition, while providing a bridge to voters who don't follow politics closely in between elections.

There is a long way to go until the next election. Much can happen and given the current level of political infighting among candidates on the Left and Right, it probably will.

Comments

[Darth Malice]

Then he needs to jump in.

[Zifnab]

*snicker*
Still haven't found a viable Presidential contender? The Dems have at least three. Keep hunting guys. I'm sure you'll find someone out there who's got a snowball's chance in hell.

[Andrew]

"he said he felt we are finally on the right track and that victory in Iraq must be assured"

So, basically, he's lying to the sheep. Victory. Assured. Haha.

[Darth Malice]

Andrew,Z...does Al-Quaeda and the Dems E-mail talking points to yall everyday?

[Rob Kaufman]

No Darth, we just don't bury our heads in the sand like you do.

[Darth Malice]

Rob,the left will have it's head buried while Israel is destroyed and we are all living under Sharia law.

[splashtc]

Rudy has a better chance to get the moderate lib/dem vote. Thompson will scare them away.

[Andrew]

"the left will have it's head buried while Israel is destroyed and we are all living under Sharia law"

You cons and your silly fantasies. Better stock up at walmart with bulk food & duct tape i guess.

[Darth Malice]

I am sure Islam will get yall last Andrew.Just keep appeasing.Why I will be if you were on 1 of those planes that crashed into the WTC if you had cried"I am a liberal and hate GW and the West"Why they would have spared you.

[Darth Malice]

I still think Fred would be acceptable in the WOT.

[Zifnab]

"Andrew,Z...does Al-Quaeda and the Dems E-mail talking points to yall everyday?"

No, but Halliburton sells nuclear enrichment equipment to Iran.
http://www.forbes.com/global/2004/0419/041_print.html
And Republicans take cash from terrorist weapons dealers.
So... why do you support the terrorists?

Wait, wait. Is Forbes a liberal rag? I can't remember.

[Dan Riehl]

Halliburton sells nuclear enrichment equipment to Iran

So I guess Soros should liquidate all his stock?

[Zifnab]

And Dick Cheney should spend a few dozen years in a federal pen. Yeah, they're pretty much all in the wrong here.

[seekeronos]

I'm beginning to like this Fred Thompson. Maybe he will both testicles dropped unlike Bush, or any of the other "candidates" the Left is fielding.

And now for a futile response to some selected members of our Idiotarian Gallery....

Andrew: "I am a liberal and hate GW and the West"

WTC terrorists: "Ah man, by Allah's festering anal warts! We gotta one of our liberal sheep...erm, allies, on board. Can't kill them off just yet... Now we have to turn the airplane around!"

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rob Kaufman:

The Day of Resurrection will not arrive until you make war on the Jews, until a Jew will hide behind a rock or tree, and the rock or tree will say: Oh Muslim, servant of Allah, here is a Jew behind me, kill him!’”

http://www.pmw.org.il/specrep-37.html

Funny, your name sounds like it could be Jewish. I hear them Muzzies really like teh J00s. Why, I am sure they will leet you alone even if a tree calls out to them to say that you are hiding behind it with your head in the sand!!

[Zifnab]

Ah religion. The opiate of the masses. That's really the only explaination for how high seekeronos is acting.

[Andrew]

I have to ask, why is it that the hicks (red states) are so afraid of terror? Do they really believe that the 'evil-doers' have any interest in destroying their walmarts, nascar tracks or mansions-on-wheels??

After 16 years of living in Manhattan (below 14th st, no less) I'm amazed at the fear from flyover country.

[seekeronos]

"...After 16 years of living in Manhattan (below 14th st, no less) I'm amazed at the fear from flyover country."

Yer kidding me, right?

SOHO/NOHO and Little Italy? Even much of Chinatown, that's all nice and gentrified now. Hardly any of the crack dens and hookers and vice and all that's not nice from the Ed Koch/David Dinkins era is left.

What you have there now (and from the late 1990s till now, the bulk of your tenure there) has been brought to you by Rudy Guliani and Mayor Bloomberg: both of whom, as I recall, are on the Right side of the aisle.

But (the rest of) your comment on your fellow citizens of "flyover country":

"I have to ask, why is it that the hicks (red states) are so afraid of terror? Do they really believe that the 'evil-doers' have any interest in destroying their walmarts, nascar tracks or mansions-on-wheels??..."

It just smacks of the elitism typical of you poxy lot of shandy-sipping syphillitic lefties: you want to rule with your brand of tyranny, but not play by your own rules.

Here's a big hint: Most of middle America neither lives in trailers, nor shop exclusively at Walmart. Some of us even live in the big city.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

And for Comrade Ziffy-pooperoos:

"Ah religion. The opiate of the masses."

Ah, you must be a Communist, quoting party line like that!

Actually, I was referencing a hadith, of a religion I have no faith in.

Unlike y'all elitist types, I do not endorse murder of Jews or Americans. I'm mainly interested in removing the enemy aliens --- primarily Muslims, and second, the Mexican crime gangs like Mara Salvatruchas and related OTMs from our land.

[yyy]

You only endorse the murder, er, extermination, of the muslims, right?

And only the bad ones at that, but since they're almost all bad anyway, and so dangerous and subversive, it's really for their own good afterall.....

[seekeronos]

I mainly endorse (as I said) the removal of enemy aliens from the USA. If they resist and carry out acts of insurrection and/or rebellion, then, I guess we'd have to come down on them with both feet.

If they go peaceably, then all is well.

I think it's reasonable: we leave their land, they leave ours. We trade in oil until such time as we are fully nuclearized and free from foreign oil as a primary energy source.

Israel remains as a "touch-me-not" on pains of nuclear retribution.

[yyy]

I don't think anyone aruges that if someone drops a nuclear bomb on Israel they will get and would deserve to be nuked in return. What I can't understand is why the same doesn't hold for Israel, why it is okay for them to use nukes in a first strike to 'protect' themselves against a potential threat? Seems to me first strike, pre emptive use of nukes should be off the table for everyone.

My opinion is that the illegal Mexican immigrants are a much more real threat than the muslims who are here legally.

I can't calculate the odds myself, but I would venture to guess the odds of me being harmed by an illegal mexican or central american immigrant are astronimically higher than me being harmed by a legal muslim immigrant.

That would mean that in the real world we live in that illegal immigration is a much more pressing and significant problem for Americans than the immaginary jihad that certain crazy people believe all muslims are waging against the west.

[Zifnab]

"If they go peaceably, then all is well."

And if Iraq doesn't have WMDs, then we won't invade.
I pray our little plague of wingnuts in office comes to a close quickly. I really don't want to live through a Holocaust of redneck revolutionaries trying to "save" the country from liberal tyranny. Reminds me of how in the "War of Northern Aggression" it was the south that shot first.

Maybe Thompson can run for President of the Confederacy.

[charles]

i am completely convinced that the lefties around here never read the articles they link to

it just seems like they see it posted somewhere else and link it here without actually reading to see what it says

or maybe they just like the shiney misleading headlines

[BobInStamford]

Haha, John Gambling? That guy is to radio what Matlock is to TV. Oh wait, Thompson is an old geezer too. Did they talk about how those kids listen to that loud rock music? Hahahaha.

[bloodrage bob]

thompson's no older than that dried-out crone, hillary, is he? so we can call her a doddering geezer? great! just wanted to be sure.

[BobInStamford]

Fred is 5 years older. That might not seem like much to you heros, but look at how badly your leader has screwed up Iraq in only 4! Time to complete the mission, heros!

[bloodrage bob]

then put it to a vote, heroes! let the brave, proud democrat warriors stand up in open session and bravely, proudly, say in public what they've been whispering in private: "we want to run away".

c'mon, studs! you run the congress! stand up! be proud! let us know *precisely* where you stand on this, nancy & harry!!

(cue crickets chirping)

[templar knight]

The crickets are still chirping, I see, bob.

[seekeronos]

*chirp*

*chirp*

[Zifnab]

"then put it to a vote, heroes! let the brave, proud democrat warriors stand up in open session and bravely, proudly, say in public what they've been whispering in private: "we want to run away"."

We have been. Republicans seem to enjoy filibustering them down alot more than they enjoy debating them.

But we won't concern ourselves with pesky reality. "Democrats haven't release ANY redeployment legislation! It never existed! Why won't Democrats put forward the Levin bill or the Kennedy bill or the Fiengold bill?! I don't understand Senatorial procedure! *chirp*!"

The only thing worse than a coward, is a coward that hurls insults behind a filibuster.

[bloodrage bob]

oh, dear. do the halfwits no longer enjoy quite so much the power the senate minority party wields? pity.

well, since the eeeeeeebil, mean ol' republicans won't go along with the bold dem plan to run away like bitches, let's see the dems run some full-page ads: "we want to quit! this *war* stuff is too **hard**!! it's been almost 4 whole YEARS now!"

nothing stopping them from doing that, is there? oh, wait: the same bravery that makes them run away from debates will no doubt be a problem here, won't it. perhaps the moronic old geezer hillary will think of something.

[seekeronos]

"The only thing worse than a coward, is a coward that hurls insults behind a filibuster."

Awww, man... that Congressional procedure sure is a beast, isn't it? I guess you could override the filibuster...

...if you could get.the.votes. :P

No rubbah stamps for y00!

[templar knight]

*CHIRP*

*CHIRP*

[yyy]

Isn't it funny that it was only a short time ago that the Republicans were so convinced they would be in the majority forever they wanted to get rid of the filibuster?????

Funny. Ironic. Typical.

It's a horrible and obstructionist tool that should be outlawed, until you need it, then it's an essential part of the democratic tradition.

[Zifnab]

It's just... retarded. Like watching a man eat pooh and then scream "You eat pooh!" in your face, spitting pooh all over you all the while.

"Why don't the Dems have a plan?" "Plan! Filibuster!" "Dems don't have a plan!"

[templar knight]

You kinda liked that filibuster yourself a few months ago, didn't you, Ziffy? That's why I never pushed to get rid of it. I figured we would need it to stop you totalitarians sooner or later, Ziffy. I hate that it's sooner, but, whatever.

[yyy]

The Republican use of the filibuster is more evidence of their extreme hypocracy. They wanted to get rid of it because it thwarted the will of the majority, it was undemocratic and unAmerican. If they weren't hypocrites they would never deign to use the filibuster, the tool of oppression.

Since they are using the filibuster it makes them hypocrites. No surprise there though.

[seekeronos]

I never said the filibuster was a bad thing.

In a way, it safeguards against excessive and tryrannical legislation.

However, should there be a sufficient number of votes to override a particular filibuster, then "circle gets the square", and we move on to getting some work done in Congress.

Similarly, if the Dems actually had any semblance of unity in the Donkey Kongress, they'd use that massive, overwhelming majority to utterly crush dissent, and smite us with their righteous "nuclear option".

Of course, that might cause the Commander-in-Chief to crack the glass case guarding the golden Pen of VETO, thus either lining out certain unpalatable bits, or scrapping the bill altogether.

Yet, the only thing I'm hearing is:

*CHIRP*

*CHIRP*