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I am getting a little tired of his Federalism excuse, I really don’t find it inspiring, plus I notice he uses it whenever he has an opinion that I disagree with. We did have a civil war, I believe that everyone has agreed that this is the United States of America. Fred acts as if the Federal Government is a 4 letter word, well if that’s the case, then why does he want to be President of the United States? He should go home and run for Governor instead.

“I am getting a little tired of his Federalism excuse, I really don’t find it inspiring, “

You probably won’t find the Constitution very inspiring then either. Maybe a BigGovernment RINO like Mitt is more to your liking?

I am getting a little tired of his Federalism excuse, I really don’t find it inspiring, plus I notice he uses it whenever he has an opinion that I disagree with. We did have a civil war,

The result of the Civil War was the abolition of slavery not abolition of the states. The states are supposed to be able to set their policies so long as they don't violate the US Constitution. Federal and some state judges routinely ignore the tenth amementment and other parts of the constitution and impose their personal policy preferences on the states with absolutely no constitutional justification.

I favor giving issues back to the state legislatures. There is no reason why all issues should be decided at the national level. That's one of the reasons why politics is so polarized these days.

I am getting a little tired of his Federalism excuse, I really don’t find it inspiring, plus I notice he uses it whenever he has an opinion that I disagree with. We did have a civil war, I believe that everyone has agreed that this is the United States of America. Fred acts as if the Federal Government is a 4 letter word, well if that’s the case, then why does he want to be President of the United States? He should go home and run for Governor instead.

Fair enough -- then there's an area of honest disagreement. Personally, the single most important reason by far that I support Thompson is because of his long-standing record on federalism. I spent the Clinton years arguing in vain with my more liberal friends about our need for a return to federalist principles. I then spent the past seven years reminding the same friends that they wouldn't have so many complaints about Bush if they hadn't invested the feds with all that power. When a candidate came along who has an actual record on federalism, I was very pleasantly surprised. In my view, federalism is a Constitutional mandate; it's also the only realistic way to run a country with 50 states and 380 million people.

However, there are obviously lots of people in and out of government today who believe in pervasive federal power -- if you don't like federalism as a concept, I doubt you'll have a shortage of candidates to support.