He was a good man.
Posted on 06/06/2007 7:56:22 PM PDT by Eric Blair 2084
Republican angst has created an opening for Fred Thompson.
As G.O.P. voters’ concern has turned to panic—hastened by the much-criticized immigration bill—they now recognize that the Bush Presidency may rank with Hoover’s and Carter’s, and that their 2008 Presidential pick will therefore have to offer not only competency but the promise of change.
Mr. Thompson will enter the race as the focus of many conservatives’ fixation to find an unblemished candidate. On the one hand, he seems to please many conservatives: no offense offered on social issues, sound foreign policy and soothing to the ears. However, it’s not clear that Mr. Thompson has either the experience or the ideas to rescue the G.O.P. from its current plight.
His “elder statesman” screen persona obscures the fact he is the most inexperienced of the major G.O.P. contenders, with seven dimly remembered years as U.S. Senator, no area of expertise, no executive experience and no major legislative achievements bearing his name.
Nor is it apparent—not yet, at least—that he is offering any original ideas to qualify him as the “change” candidate that Republican voters could sorely use.
Classic change candidates offer personal vision, new ideas, and the hope that business will not be conducted as usual if elected. Ronald Reagan in particular offered a new vision of conservative governance and redefined his party.
But Mr. Thompson’s public pronouncements to date offer little sign that he can define and lead the party in the post-Bush era. Bashing Fidel Castro, the U.N. and the President’s immigration proposal, however artfully done, are not terribly new in conservative Republican circles.
(Excerpt) Read more at observer.com ...
Thompson was the backup QB. Now he's the starter.
I guess this twit doesn't realize that Fred has to win the GOP nomination first and then the general.
In all honesty we don’t need new ideas, we need old ones. Constitutional ideas.
100% CORRECT!
Some of his old ideas are classics.
Yeah, and I can’t recall the general liberal press’ swooning editorials praising Reagan’s “new ideas” back in the time, either.
History is whatever liberals want it to be - whatever seems to buttress their current storyline.
I'm not interested in any President who wants to reinvent the wheel--that's what the dems want to do.
You’re right. No “new ideas” please. I don’t want a Reagan Republican. Maybe a Goldwater Republican.
On defense and judicial issues...more likely comparable to Nixon, IMO.
So what - I’ll take a Reagan re-hash over Bush, Clintoon et al any day
Not much substance to the article either.
Fred is a Federalist. Something the media needs to read up on. It is not a NEW idea, but an old one.
I guess we need to just watch all the attacks come out as Fred’s popularity goes up.
i found this article to have no new ideas, and nothing conservatives would be interested in
You mean a newspaper from New York doesn’t like Fred? Good! I like him even more (if that was possible).
While I haven’t thrown my support behind Thompson yet, who here wants something new? Different- yes. but I’m more then happy with the conservative propositions stipulated in past. The problem is finding a conservative to actually bring them about. that’s the only change I want. Not new legislative endeavors that further enhance liberalism.
Boy does this ever deserve a Barf Alert. The author completely ignores the work Fred did on Watergate, Bush's judicial picks, and bringing down a corrupt TN Governor.
And Fred didn't pick his rear in the Senate either. He did a lot of work in the trenches.
So the author can go get bent. Her publication criticized FR over the Giuliani purge so they have no credibility.
“In all honesty we don’t need new ideas, we need old ones. Constitutional ideas.”
AMEN! Timeless ideals.
He was a good man.
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