Patterico's Pontifications

8/31/2007

Is Fred Thompson the GOP’s Man of the Future?

Filed under: Politics — DRJ @ 7:50 am



[Guest post by DRJ]

“On September 6, 2007, Fred Thompson will be announcing his intention to run for President of the United States with a webcast available to millions at www.imwithfred.com.”

23 Responses to “Is Fred Thompson the GOP’s Man of the Future?”

  1. In short, yes.

    JD (0b8ce0)

  2. I don’t see what this Thompson guy has to offer the GOP, but then I’ve never seen his movies or TV shows. Didn’t understand the attraction of the Arnold Schwarterwhatshisname either…I guess I gotta watch more movies if I’m gonna be a Republican.

    j curtis (ecc9cc)

  3. The fact that he is, basicly, a slightly heavyier Ronald Reagan for all intents and purposes…

    Some pretty solid Conservative stances, the lobbying he’s done he says “Look, it was a job. I don’t have to agree in order to do my job” (Which strikes me as very true and valid – not all clients a defense attourny might take are innocent, after all, but they still defend them), and by golly he sounds and looks the part.

    He’s got some stuff on iTunes under “The Fred Thompson Report” (last episode was in early/mid July, I doubt there will be more now).

    It’s free, so go give a listen. The one about “Halls of Montazuma” and the one about Zimbabwi are personal favorites…

    Scott Jacobs (c0db90)

  4. When Fred announces, I will support him (until he says/does something I consider stupid) if for no other reason than to try to preserve the spring and summer of 2011 from campaigning.

    Nony Mouse (5cddf4)

  5. Michael Reagan said that Thompson cannot come close to Ronald Reagan so any comparison to Reagan is a figment of someone’s imagination. Ronald Reagan was not just an actor but a two-term Governor CA who had a backbone and was anything but lazy. Lazy is the keyword for Fred Thompson and always has been. Looks at his non-record – steamrolled by John Glenn on Chinagate, co-sponsor of CFR which he now skirts, and a lobbyist in DC for years.

    Buckeyefan (56a0a8)

  6. the lobbying he’s done he says “Look, it was a job. I don’t have to agree in order to do my job” (Which strikes me as very true and valid – not all clients a defense attourny might take are innocent, after all, but they still defend them)

    Scott Jacobs

    I can’t imagine a liberal ACLU type lawyer ever lobbying for something that goes against his principles so are we to believe that liberal lawyers have more integrity than conservative lawyers?

    j curtis (ecc9cc)

  7. how will women swing voters react to some old geezer trotting around a young filly who (in one picture i saw) apparently hadn’t discovered underwire brassieres?

    the lobbying isn’t a big deal; lawyers represent causes they don’t personally agree with all the time. the lying is something else. when the story first hit, thompson dismissed it with some folksy bullshit about bigger flies buzzing in the summer. he lied.

    assistant devil's advocate (0cf0a5)

  8. I can’t imagine a liberal ACLU type lawyer ever lobbying for something that goes against his principles so are we to believe that liberal lawyers have more integrity than conservative lawyers?

    Hardly.

    You don’t know a heck of a lot of defense lawyers, do you…

    Scott Jacobs (c0db90)

  9. ADA, what lying?

    Scott Jacobs (c0db90)

  10. how will women swing voters react to some old geezer trotting around a young filly who (in one picture i saw) apparently hadn’t discovered underwire brassieres?

    Envious, ADA?

    Paul (09c70a)

  11. I know I am Paul… 🙂

    Scott Jacobs (c0db90)

  12. 8

    Name me a liberal ACLU type attorney who has lobbied on behalf of pro-life causes because it was part of his job.

    If you are saying that all defense attorneys have no personal integrity and just do what their clients pay them to do then why should we ever consider one for POTUS?

    j curtis (ecc9cc)

  13. j curtis #8,

    I have defended someone (for pay) who gave gonnorhea to a two-year old. I have defended a double-murderer and rapist pro bono. Our President has a button he can push which will launch 4,000 nuclear warheads and essentially wipe most life off of earth and he stands ready to push it. Of the three, which is the most immoral act?

    nk (a6ecc6)

  14. Sorry that should have been “j curtis #12).

    nk (a6ecc6)

  15. 13

    I don’t really get your point about the button but I suspect there is something masquerading as a point constructed within a logical fallacy in your post and I really don’t feel like deconstructing it.

    Fine, you defended people you were certain were guilty, that’s okay, someone’s gotta do it, but it should disqualify you as a Republican presidential candidate. I’m still waiting for an instance of a leftist ACLU type lawyer who lobbied for pro-life groups because it was part of his job.

    j curtis (ecc9cc)

  16. NK;

    You volunteered to defend these scum. So you pretty much answered your own question.

    Thomas Jackson (bf83e0)

  17. Comment by Thomas Jackson

    Maybe he believes an accused person has a right to a lawyer considering the state has massive resources and knowledge of the court system at its disposable.

    Your ad hominem attack proves nothing other than your unwillingness or inability to debate substance.

    Good think you’re not a lawyer. You actually have to think and speak.

    Christoph (92b8f7)

  18. The way these clowns dislike Thompson is why I like him. They try to portray him as nothing other than a hick actor, their new version of the dumb Republican, which ironically, they cannot seem to beat.

    JD (0c5b67)

  19. 18

    You mean you have a reason to vote for Thompson other than his acting ability? Well quit holding back and give us the reason!

    j curtis (ecc9cc)

  20. j curtis – Since you tend to view those that you disagree with as charicatures in your mind, it does not surprise me that all you know about him is what you read at Kos, MediaMatters, or firegodlake. I will bet you that Thompson will carry Tennessee, something Gore and Kerry could not do. How would you compare Thompson’s resume to Edwards, or 0bama ?

    JD (a61287)

  21. Thomson has accomplished a fair bit and there’s nothing wrong with being an actor.

    And the fact is, Rudy, his main contender, doesn’t excite me for his authoritarian yet surprisingly socially liberal views… it’s a strange combination, however tough and competent he is, which I grant.

    Mitt seems to be quite a good campaigner and a self-disciplined achiever and accomplished businessman par excellence, who even has some mediocre governing experience, but he just isn’t electable due to many people, including my, discomfort with his religion.

    Oh, if I had the franchise, I could vote for him; I might campaign for him. But I STILL if I were in a private discussion with him where religion came up would criticize his religion and its founder relentlessly.

    And many people do not separate the man from his religion as well as I can, which is middle of the road.

    McCain is a decent bloke who deserves the chance, in a sense, but has the wrong temperament. He tends toward angry outbursts and then stubbornness, which is in large measure he’s lost the base.

    That and he sucks up too much to Kennedy and the like when most conservatives hate the man for his shrill rhetoric and indeed his piss-poor morals ála Mary Joe Kopechne.

    To someone like myself, not a Christian, but a believe of good over evil, leaving a woman to asphyxiate and and later drown in an air pocket in the bottom of a pond in your car where you put her while you sober up to avoid consequences for yourself is just not acceptable.

    Such a man — fake nake brace and all — will always be someone I despise barring a serious repentance for this specific action, which has never happened.

    So fairly or not, sucking up to Kennedy is going to diminish my support. But mostly it’s his temper.

    Fred Thompson has a much better temperament, but hasn’t accomplished as much with legislation as has McCain (thank God!).

    I’m okay with a President not writing a bunch of new laws. Again, if I had the franchise, he could get my support by campaigning on removing some.

    Yet… his farting around instead of declaring and running seriously is hurting him with his former supporters (and fundraising). If he actually announces or attempts to upstage the other the other candidates during the debate rather than being onstage with them debating, that’s going to look awful, especially for those of us who would like to respect him, but won’t be able to because he hasn’t thrown his hat into the ring.

    “It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”

    — Theodore Roosevelt
    “Citizenship in a Republic,”
    Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910

    He’s not exactly living up to that high standard.

    Christoph (92b8f7)

  22. writing = advocating

    Christoph (92b8f7)

  23. 20

    How would you compare Thompson’s resume to Edwards, or 0bama ?

    I asked for a reason to vote for Thompson and you respond by asking me about his resume.

    j curtis (ecc9cc)


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