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George Will is wrong on Fred
American Thinker ^ | June 11, 2007 | James Lewis

Posted on 06/11/2007 8:54:25 PM PDT by Politicalmom

George Will has made a splash in Newsweek by raising a good question: Does Fred Thompson have substance, or is he just a pretty face?

Fortunately, in the Age of the Web you can get the answer right here and now on your desktop. For example, just listen to Fred Thompson's podcast.

As far as I'm concerned, Senator Thompson tells more home truths about the world in his sixty seconds than Mr. Will's friends at WaPo and Newsweek manage to publish in, oh, about a decade. All about Africa and the UN, for example. By that test, Fred Thompson looks like a pretty good conservative candidate.

I've always wondered how an elegant conservative writer like Mr. Will survives in the Holy Sanctums of the Left. Surely he wouldn't be the WaPo's messenger boy to Republicans at critical times in the election cycle? Could he?

I really don't know. I'm just beginning to wonder.


TOPICS: Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: fredthompson
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1 posted on 06/11/2007 8:54:27 PM PDT by Politicalmom
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To: Politicalmom

George Will is a Rudy shill. And he’s been a boring Pill. He should see Dr. Phil. He’s way over the hill. He should retire and chill. A monkey with a typewriter has more skill. His opinion about fred means nil. He wears dresses and calls himself Lil.


2 posted on 06/11/2007 9:00:20 PM PDT by pissant
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To: Politicalmom

Do you have a link to the Fred Thompson podcast?


3 posted on 06/11/2007 9:01:46 PM PDT by Dale 1
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To: Politicalmom

Isn’t George Will a Rutard?


4 posted on 06/11/2007 9:02:55 PM PDT by indcons (Linda and Hugo Chavez - same goals, different methods)
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To: Dale 1

http://abcradio.com/article.asp?id=421680&SPID=15663


5 posted on 06/11/2007 9:04:09 PM PDT by perfect_rovian_storm (Fred Thompson. AKA: POTUS 44)
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To: pissant
and calls himself Lil.

But everyone knows him as Nancy...

It must have been really tough for George Will to endure all those wedgies in Junior High and High School.

6 posted on 06/11/2007 9:05:04 PM PDT by HerrBlucher
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To: Politicalmom

http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/archives/010208.php#comments

Will Swings And Misses

George Will attempts to pop the Fred Thompson boomlet in his latest Newsweek column. Unfortunately for Will, Fred Thompson is not the lightweight cipher he dismisses so casually, and the normally excellent Will winds up looking a little bit of a lightweight himself:

Some say he is the Republicans’ Rorschach test: They all see in him what they crave. Or he might be the Republicans’ dot-com bubble, the result of restless political investors seeking value that the untutored eye might not discern and that might be difficult to quantify but which the investors are sure must be there, somewhere, somehow.

One does not want to be unfair to Thompson, who may have hidden depths. But ask yourself this: If he did not look like a basset hound who had just read a sad story—say, “Old Yeller”—and if he did not talk like central casting’s idea of the god Sincerity, would anyone think he ought to be entrusted with the nation’s nuclear arsenal? He is an actor, and, as a Hollywood axiom says, the key to acting is sincerity—if you can fake that, you’ve got it made.

This is, of course, all about another actor. Republicans have scrutinized the current crop of presidential candidates and succumbed to the psychosomatic disease Reagan Deprivation. It is, however, odd that many Republicans who advertise their admiration for Reagan are so ready to describe Thompson as Reaganesque because he ... what?

First and foremost, Will has both Reagan and Thompson wrong in the same manner that people dismissed Reagan in his political career. Thompson has a long career as more than just an actor. Thompson’s acting career was accidental; his political career was much more deliberate. He made his name as a reforming activist lawyer, first with Watergate, and second in exposing corruption in the Tennessee governor’s office. And like Reagan but in a much shorter time frame, he has spent the last several months delivering speeches and papers on issues.

Thompson first came to national attention by working with Senator Howard Baker on the Watergate committee. It was Thompson who brought out the Oval Office taping system that captured all of Richard Nixon’s incriminating conversations. Thompson also asked the critical question: “What did the President know, and when did he know it?”

Afterwards, Thompson pursued a case of pardons-for-bribes corruption in Tennessee. He represented Marie Ragghianti, a whistleblower who uncovered the corruption. With Thompson’s help, a number of Tennessee state officials went to prison, and while Governor Ray Blanton managed to remain free, his political career was finished. The film Marie tells the story based on the Peter Maas book, and Thompson played himself. That started his improbable Hollywood career; he did not train to be an actor, but a lawyer and a clean-government activist.

Will’s description of Thompson manages to miss all that, as well as the eight years he served in the Senate. That isn’t an extraordinarily long time, but it’s the same amount of experience Ronald Reagan had as a public officeholder when he ran for President in 1976 and 1980, although Reagan’s experience was as an executive. Reagan had ten years on the lecture circuit talking politics before he won election as California’s governor, but Thompson has had plenty of real-life experience in politics before he became, in Will’s dismissive tone, “an actor”.

Thompson is a lot more than 99 percent charm. His speeches and writings have very clearly defined his driving philosophy as a federalist, and his track record as a reformer needs no apologetics to anyone except Will. He has to answer for his record on campaign-finance reform as well as the rest of his votes and actions, of course, but that’s what all candidates have to do when they run for President.

George Will mostly hits home runs with his columns, whether on politics or baseball. In this case, he whiffed.


7 posted on 06/11/2007 9:06:23 PM PDT by Blue_Ridge_Mtn_Geek
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To: Politicalmom

I know of NO serious person who quotes George Will on anything. He is a MSM dinosaur.


8 posted on 06/11/2007 9:07:23 PM PDT by Biblebelter (I can't believe people still watch TV with the sound on.)
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To: HerrBlucher

He still walks funny.


9 posted on 06/11/2007 9:07:28 PM PDT by pissant
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To: Politicalmom

George Will jumped the shark many years ago.


10 posted on 06/11/2007 9:11:17 PM PDT by sitetest (If Roe is not overturned, no unborn child will ever be protected in law.)
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To: Politicalmom
George Will is wrong on Fred

George Will is wrong on a lot of things. For some reason, his fixation on baseball really rubs me the wrong way.
11 posted on 06/11/2007 9:15:36 PM PDT by aruanan
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To: aruanan

George Will is a has been......


12 posted on 06/11/2007 9:23:04 PM PDT by Shortstop7
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To: Politicalmom
Speaking as a a longtime FR media watcher, George Will is a lightweight. He relies on his diction and usage to bluff the causal reader into thinking "This guy's REALLY smart!".

George Will IS smart, but his opinions are not relevant. He has consistently shown that in the many dustups following [and including] the impeachment wars.

13 posted on 06/11/2007 9:45:19 PM PDT by an amused spectator (AGW: If you drag a hundred dollar bill through a research lab, you never know what you'll find)
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To: Politicalmom
by virtue of spending too many years in the beltway, gw has been indoctrinated to think and write like the rest of the msm. think of how he was during the david brinkley era of this week and see what he has become. even his articles about baseball have warped over time, becoming more and more elitist.
JMHO
14 posted on 06/11/2007 9:48:14 PM PDT by JohnLongIsland
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To: pissant

LOL, that was awesome! You could be the fourth Beastie Boy, you got a LISCENCE TO ILL!


15 posted on 06/11/2007 10:04:18 PM PDT by lesser_satan (FRED THOMPSON '08)
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To: Politicalmom

Will would never lasted a month on ABC if he was a true conservative. He runs with the RINO’s. I do like some of his humor.


16 posted on 06/11/2007 10:05:23 PM PDT by HisKingdomWillAbolishSinDeath (Christ's Kingdom on Earth is the answer. What is your question?)
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To: Politicalmom
george will is a moderate WIMP, along the same lines as harry reid and tom daschel (or whatever the "F" his name was). Some, including me, would call him a PUSSY.

Screw Will and the horse he rode in on (also, while I'm at it, SCREW liberal RINOS like RINO-rudy and "Maverick" MOONBATS like crazy-ass-mcinsane).

Long live TRUE CONSERVATISM and the likes of Thompson and Hunter.

17 posted on 06/11/2007 10:16:19 PM PDT by DocH (RINO-rudy for BRONX Dog Catcher 2008!!!)
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To: DocH
george will is a moderate WIMP, along the same lines as harry reid and tom daschel (or whatever the "F" his name was) ARE LIBERAL WIMPS.
18 posted on 06/11/2007 10:18:13 PM PDT by DocH (RINO-rudy for BRONX Dog Catcher 2008!!!)
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To: pissant

#2 -——————
pissant, RECANT!!!!


19 posted on 06/11/2007 10:18:47 PM PDT by supremedoctrine
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To: Politicalmom

“Does Fred Thompson have substance, or is he just a pretty face?”

Fred is many things, a “pretty face” is not one of those things.


20 posted on 06/11/2007 10:21:34 PM PDT by Grunthor (Imwithfred.com)
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