Grin and Bear It: Is Fred Thompson Made of Presidential Material?

Newsweek/MSNBC ^ | Sept. 10, 2007 issue | Holly Bailey with Richard Wolffe, Eleanor Clift, Eve Conant and Mary Carmichael

[2ndDivisionVet]

Fred Thompson does not want to meet the Butter Princess. Everywhere he turns at this morning's meet-and-greet at the Minnesota State Fair, he is surrounded by hundreds of star-struck onlookers, many of them "Law & Order" fans who line up three-dozen deep for a close-up with the actor who would be president. Thompson, a sometimes reluctant campaigner, is in full movie-star mode, and has his good-ole-boy charm set on high. All the women he meets are "honey" and the men "buddy." Even dressed down in khakis and a blue shirt with the sleeves rolled up, he is hard to miss. At 6 feet 6, he is head-and-shoulders taller than anyone around him. Posing for picture after picture, he reflexively stoops to fit in the frame. Some fans ask him to autograph DVDs of "The Hunt for Red October" and "In the Line of Fire," movies in which he had small but memorable parts playing powerful, world-weary men. "Run, Fred, run!" comes a shout from the crowd. Thompson lets out a long, low chuckle. All in all, he looks downright thrilled to be here.

[FlashBack]

Good info at the I’mWithFred site for sure...good way to get to know the new FRedministration.

[trisham]

Along with everything else, he’s folksy. :)

[FlashBack]

And let's not forget that he's a Hollywood Actor too! I don't think that we can emphasize that enough! (sarc)
I think he'll fare better than most in a general election and that's why they're aFRED of him so much.

[Politicalmom]

[ejonesie22]

That was mean....

Hit her in the reality like that.

Don’t you know Ducan is personally going to drive each and every one of them stinkin’ “Mehicans” back to Tijuana...

[ejonesie22]

Clara, looks like you have been having fun without me there...

[rogue yam]

No, I meant 5’3”.

I think maybe you're getting Nixon confused with Sammy Davis Jr. A lot of people mix those two up and they were pretty much inseperable back in the day.

[hoosierpearl]

John Glenn was the one who came out the worse for wear in that one. He is no hero, not anymore.

Fred did what he could, some good came out of it. There are restrictions on a committee, rules that govern them, a time frame. Clinton and the dems did some of their dirty work when the rules were drawn up on that committee and you can’t pin that on Fred. Witnesses disappeared, left the country, took the fifth amendment. You can’t do anything in a committee like that unless you have witnesses and do it within the rules.

Which makes Fred an honorable man, and very courageous walking in the lion’s den as he did. There were some convictions from that.

The Clintons walked all over everybody, and continue to do so until this day despite the impeachment and him losing his law license. Which to me means they are walking all over you as well and you really ought to do something about that.

[hoosierpearl]

I think Duncan Hunter promised to shoo them out.

Sounds really definitive, don’t you think? Or he could ask them to go home. That would be decisive.

[Ditter]

I have never met Sammy Davis Jr. If Nixon wasn’t that short, tell me how tall he was and how do you know that.

[rogue yam]

...tell me how tall he was and how do you know that.

Have you never heard of Google, are you too lazy and/or stupid to use it, or do you simply enjoy acting like a jerk online?

[ejonesie22]

Actually I understand he has fleshed out his plan.

He has decided to rely on some older "tried and true" technology to handle the problems of deportation...

Here are some secret images of field tests on the California coast just last week:

[Ditter]

Who is calling people lazy or stupid? Not me, I’m not the jerk here. I know how tall Nixon was I met him remember?

[John in Nashville]

Tennessee does not require that a voter register by political party. In order to lawfully vote in a party primary election, however, a voter must be a bona fide member of and affiliated with that political party, or else must intend to affiliate with that party. The applicable statute is Tennessee Code Annotated § 2-7-115.

Regarding Fred Thompson, does anyone know whether the senator is in good standing with the fundamentalist church in which he claims membership? Thompson reportedly claims membership in the Church of Christ, whose doctrine disapproves of divorced members remarrying. Some members make an exception where the divorce was based upon a spouse’s adultery. (The Gospel of Matthew includes such an exception; the Gospel of Mark does not.)

Mr. Thompson’s marriage to a much younger woman occurred in the United Church of Christ, a much different (and doctrinally very liberal) group. Has his home congregation (each local church of Christ is autonomous) inquired into the circumstances of Senator Thompson’s 1985 divorce?

[rogue yam]

Not me, I’m not the jerk here. I know how tall Nixon was I met him remember?

Your "recollection" is off by eight inches. That's a lot.

[rogue yam]

And if you had spent thirty seconds Googling this you might have known several comments ago.

[P-Marlowe]

I could easily be wrong, here.

Easily.

[Randy Larsen]

Please Add Me!

[Politicalmom]

Welcome aboard!!

[Smokin' Joe]

I grew up in Maryland, where “hon” was a pronoun. One of the few remaining regional differences. I still smile when a waitress calls me “hon”, and every one of my grand daughters and daughters would think I was mad at them if I did not call them “honey” or something similar...YMMV