Thompson endorses Juan McCain

According to The Washington Post, Fred Thompson has decided to back Juan McCain.

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/02/08/fred_thompson_backs_mccain.html

Fred Thompson Backs McCain

By Michael D. Shear
Fred Thompson, the one-time Republican presidential candidate, endorsed Sen. John McCain Friday, calling on the party to "close ranks" behind the presumed nominee.

"This is no longer about past preferences or differences. It is about what is best for our country and for me that means that Republican should close ranks behind John McCain," Thompson said in a statement reported by the Associated Press.

WHAT THE EFF?!?! AAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!

Are there no Conservatives that are willing to actually take a freaking stand in this election?

The only choice we have now it to make sure we elect Conservative candidates to the House and Senate. Our state Representatives and Senators are just as critical. This will be the only way we will be able to keep our wonderful President under control.

Regardless of what Fred says, I seriously do not think I can vote for McCain with a clear conscience.

SeeDub starts it all

SeeDub is causing a firestorm in the blogosphere by pointing out that not everyone is enamored of the phrase "fire in the belly". Of course he doesn't take credit for this phenomena but everyone knows it started on his blog :)

I've had pretty much this discussion with quite a few others, why is it that we only want to vote for people that CAMPAIGN well instead of people that will you know, govern well? It is absolutely idiotic to vote for someone based on how they approached the run-up to the Iowa caucuses instead of their stands on the issues that are important to the voter. That would be like voting for Hillary because she has more experience heh.

Click the link below to read seedub's post on all this.
Click for the rest of the story

My grousing about the "fire in the belly" MSM moron-meme is resonating* around the blogosphere. Michael Bates had talked about it here, and Anwyn linked me in this post. Even Allah admitted I had a point, but he's such a drooling wild-eyed Fredhead fanboy it's hard to take him seriously on the issue.

JunkYardBlog
Seedub also talks about the actual voter that asked the question about ambition and what he thought of the answer (as opposed to what the press thought), you may be surprised, or not, since I seem to be in slow motion.

tag: Fred, MSM, presidential campaign, JunkYardBlog, fire-in-the-belly, Verlin Martin, Lord Nazh

Fred!

Misha jumps into the blogburst!

Count us in.

First Name:

Last Name:

Amount:
25501002505001000

(note: the donation comes to my referral instead of misha's)

tag: blogburst, Fred Thompson, donation, Verlin Martin, Lord Nazh

Fred!

Hawkins interviews Fred's campaign manager (Bill Lacy):

Let's say a fan of Fred comes up to you and says, "If Fred wins the nomination, tell me how he could beat Hillary?" Give us an idea of what you would tell him about how Fred could beat Hillary Clinton.

The first thing I will tell you, John, is that I have been quoted 2 or 3 times during the campaign as saying, since I arrived on the scene in August and since there was so much work to be done to win the nomination, I have been repeatedly quoted as saying that I spent about 3 seconds trying to figure out how to win the general election. Let me say that as a very honest caveat.

But, what I think Fred Thompson has going for him in the general election, and this is true whether it's Senator Clinton, Senator Obama, or Senator Edwards that he's running against is,

#1) He's a good, solid conservative.

#2) His image is...thoughtful and non-threatening. What I think makes Fred an absolutely superior general election candidate is that his rhetoric is not going to scare people. His policies are going to be thoughtful. It will be a little bit Reaganesque because people will disagree with his policies, but they will respect him as an individual. That offers our party a wonderful opportunity to bust out of this total "us vs. them" mentality and to reach out to the other side of the aisle, to some of the more conservative Democrats, to get them supporting the Republican nominee for President.

I think Fred has improved as a candidate dramatically in the last four months. He has done well in the debates he has been in and has steadily improved. He is a very, very capable candidate and I think he is someone that the Republican Party can very easily rally around. He is really acceptable to everyone. He is not acceptable to very few in the party. I think he can ignite the faithful of the party, he can reach out to others, and...his policies are the most conservative, in a reasonable way, of any of the Republican candidates. (Also), I think he would be viewed as less threatening and more genuine. That is (something) that would work very well for him in the general election.

RightWingNews

Read the whole interview. There are some good questions by John and good answers by Bill; with Huck about to take a fall, there will be a 'conservative' hole to fill and Fred should be able to jump right into it.

tag: John Hawkins, presidential race, RightWingNews, Bill Lacy, Fred Thompson, Lord Nazh

Club for Growth on Fred

Summation

Senator Thompson's eight-year record in the U.S. Senate demonstrates an admirable commitment to limited government and free-market principles. His record on entitlement reform and school choice is excellent, while his support for lower taxes and free trade is very good. On Social Security reform in particular, Thompson courageously supported personal accounts at a time when few politicians were willing to risk their necks taking on the third rail of American politics.

His record on spending (save the occasional pork project) is generally impressive, as demonstrated by his votes to restrict the growth and reach of the federal government. On regulation, too, Thompson voted generally against government intrusion in the private sector. Many Republican politicians talk about limited government and the principle of federalism but Thompson exemplified those ideas, often voting against bills that would have made it easy for a political opponent to paint him in a negative light.

While this strong federalist philosophy casts a redemptive light on his opposition to tort reform, it does not fully excuse or explain a number of his votes. His persistent federalism also makes his role in the passage of McCain-Feingold all the more disappointing. It is difficult to reconcile Thompson's fervent belief in a limited government with his enthusiasm for increasing government regulation on political speech. Thompson has never adequately addressed this contradiction and will have to do so. His recent doubts over the legislation's efficacy are encouraging, least of all because all politicians make mistakes, and rare are those willing to admit their own.[link]

The above summation is from the Club for Growth (limited government, pro-growth, anti-tax organization) on Sen. Fred Thompson. His record (on subjects important to the club) is spread out and talked about with a 'white paper' pdf at the link also. Good read and good summary of the political career (Senate) of Fred.

Jay at StoptheACLU is having weekend trackbacks again, go over and check the links.

A New Race

Fred! is finally in (good thing too, since I already put my official bumper sticker up):

Update: Can't get the link to work here, so you'll have to travel over to Fred's site to see the video.

On with the real race.

Fred in Arizona

Thompson Outperforms McCain in Arizona
Tuesday, September 04, 2007

Arizona is the home state for John McCain, but Fred Thompson is the strongest GOP Presidential candidate in the state at this time.

A Rasmussen Reports telephone survey found that Thompson leads Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton by seventeen percentage points, 51% to 34%. Thompson will be formally announcing his candidacy this week.

Rudy Giuliani, who leads the polls for the Republican Presidential nomination, leads Clinton by eleven points, 49% to 38%. McCain has a ten-point edge over Clinton, 46% to 36%. With McCain as the GOP candidate, 15% of Arizona voters say they’d select a third party option. Mitt Romney is the weakest of the GOP candidates in Arizona but still leads Clinton by seven points, 46% to 39%.

For question wording and responses, click here. [link]

Fred is heating up in the south (leads in South Carolina) and getting a boost from McCain's stance on illegal immigration.

All three front runners (and McCain) have comfortable leads on Hillary in Az, but of course polls don't mean anything without votes.