The Thompson Awakening

As the GOP primary season rolls on, and the issue of substance rears its head, it's becoming increasingly clear that Fred Thompson remains the only true conservative choice:

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. — John and Ann Berenberk dutifully watched the umpteenth Republican presidential debate on television on Thursday night and had an epiphany. It was about the candidate they had previously referred to as the tall, silent one. Fred D. Thompson.

The last of the candidates to enter the race, Mr. Thompson, 65, a former Tennessee senator, has so far seemed to distinguish himself mainly by a laconic style that has made him almost invisible beside the others on the stage in past debates, the Berenberks said.

“But then last night — we hadn’t even been thinking about him — all of a sudden it was clear he was the one,” said Mr. Berenberk, a retired teacher. “The bluntness, the forcefulness. He was really impressive.”

Whether this was a new Fred Thompson, or just a sign of mirage-inducing campaign fatigue among voters, many people attending Mr. Thompson’s campaign rallies here on the day after the debate reported having similar revelations.

[SNIP]

Mr. Thompson has made all the same points during campaign events throughout the state, aides said. But many voters who flocked to his rallies on Friday had never heard him make them until they heard him in the latest debate on the Fox News Channel.

Jim Sickles, a retired corrections officer; Natalie Bankowski, an office manager; and Maryanne Gasper, who said she was “a waitress, with two other jobs,” were among a dozen people randomly interviewed who said they had been undecided or leaning toward other Republican candidates — mainly Mr. Huckabee — until Thursday night.

The more the campaign wears on, the more that everyday people are starting to realize that, far from being a slick re-packaged candidate that speaks in focus-group tested soundbites, Fred Thompson is a genuine man who has, and will continue to deal in true conservative principles and ideals. To Fred, they're not soundbites, nor trite platitudes. They're the core of his being.

As time goes by, epiphanies to that effect will become the norm, not the exception.

***UPDATE****

Joe Sixpack isn't the only one awakening to the merits of a Fred Thompson presidency; the major media pundits are taking note as well.

See Flopping Aces for a great compendium of thoughts around the MSM as well as the blogosphere.

Memo to Primary Voters...

To those of you who think Fred can't win...

(click for full size)

Fred distinguishes self from Rudy...

And speaks of the importance, relevance, and righteousness of running on, not away from conservative principles:

"Some think the way to beat the Democrats in November is to be more like them. I could not disagree more," the one-time Tennessee senator says in remarks he was delivering Monday to the Conservative Party of New York. "I believe that conservatives beat liberals only when we challenge their outdated positions, not embrace them. This is not a time for philosophical flexibility, it is a time to stand up for what we believe in."

Thompson does not mention Giuliani in excerpts made available to The Associated Press, but he is clearly trying to draw a contrast with the rival leads in national Republican polls. Unlike Thompson, Giuliani backs abortion and gay rights. And, the ex-mayor's central argument for Republicans to nominate him is that he has the best chance to win in the general election.

Thompson was more direct in an interview on Fox News Channel before the speech.

"I don't think that the mayor has ever claimed to be a conservative," he said before rattling off Giuliani's history.

He noted that Giuliani, who ran as a Republican, sought and won the Liberal Party's endorsement in his first mayoral race in 1989, and that as mayor, he broke from the Republican Party and endorsed Democratic Governor Mario Cuomo in an unsuccessful race for a fourth term.

"So I don't know that he's ever claimed to be anything else," Thompson said, suggesting Giuliani was more a liberal than a conservative.

FULL SPEED AHEAD, FRED!! (c)

Yet another evangelical's take on Fred

A lot has been made with regard to James Dobson's apparent refusal to support Fred during the primaries; but this evangelical takes a different stand:

Southern Baptist Leader Defends Fred Thompson

September 25, 2007

Richard Land, the President of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (which is part of the influential Southern Baptist Convention), tells The Brody File that the criticism leveled at Fred Thompson by James Dobson and others is a tad bit over the top. Recently, Dr. Dobson, Founder of Focus on the Family, said he wouldn’t support Thompson for a number of reasons including Thompson’s stance against a one size fits all marriage amendment. Read more on that here. As for Dr. Land’s comments, here’s what he told me:

“I’ve received phone calls and emails from Southern Baptists about Senator Thompson. They are all furious at Doctor Dobson. They just feel that first of all there was a mischaracterizing of his positions. Do I wish that he supported the marriage protection amendment? Of course I do. To say that he is for 50 different views of marriage in 50 different states is a gross mischaracterization of his position. Secondly, do I wish that he attended church every Sunday? As a Baptist pastor, of course I do. But does that make him a person of unbelief? That’s harsh and unwarranted.”

The split between Dobson and Land on Thompson is a microcosm of what’s going on right now within the Evangelical movement. There are those who think Thompson is the guy and others who don’t.

Dr. Land and Dr. Dobson both believe that there should be a federal marriage amendment to the constitution that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman. Plain and simple. Fred Thompson agrees but argues that if a state legislature passes a gay marriage law and the Governor signs it, then gay couples should be allowed to marry. So how does Dr. Land reconcile his position that seems to differ from Thompson’s?

“David, the problem with these cotton picking conviction politicians is that they follow their convictions and Fred Thompson has been for a long long time a very staunch federalist and it’s hard to convince conviction politicians to change their minds.”

“It’s (Thompson’s marriage amendment position) a problem. I think Southern Baptists have an ethical issue in which they need to deal. They may face a situation where they have a choice of three candidates. One they agree with 95% of the time, one they agree with 80 percent of the time and one they agree with 10% of the time. It may come to pass that they’re faced with a choice.”

In the end though, Land is still a Thompson supporter. I asked him what it is about Thompson that appeals to him and many other Evangelicals.

“Fred Thompson grew up in a very modest means in a small town in America just like Ronald Reagan grew up in very modest means in a small town in Illinois. You acquire not only an understanding of but a respect for everyday folk when you come from the background that you don’t get otherwise and people sense it. That this is a guy who respects me, a guy who understands that we are the backbone of this country, we are the salt of the Earth and he not only understands us, he’s one of us. He’s a successful one of us but he’s one of us and they trust a guy like that. They give a guy like that a larger margin of error. Nobody gets everything right but its core values. My assessment is that this guy is a whole much like Reagan including his Teflon quality. The press has been beating up with him for these types of gaffes and he continues to climb in the polls.”

Amen, Rev.!

Fred Thompson and the Power of a Message

From Townhall:

"Well, he's done it. Hugo Chavez was already systematically silencing criticism of his autocratic rule through threats and intimidation. Journalists have been threatened, beaten and even killed. Now he's shut down the last opposition television networks in Venezuela and arrested nearly 200 protesters – mostly students. It’s a monumental tragedy and the Venezuelan people will pay the price for decades to come. Americans are also at risk as he funds anti-American candidates and radicals all over Latin America.

It’s equally tragic that the U.S. is in no position to provide the victims of this emerging dictator with the truth. There was a time, though, when Americans were on the front lines of pro-freedom movements all over the world. I'm talking about the “surrogate” broadcast network that included Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty, often called "the Radios."

When Ronald Reagan was elected, he greatly empowered the private, congressionally funded effort and handpicked the Radios’ top staff to bring freedom to the Soviet Union. Steve Forbes led the group.

Cynics still say that the USSR fell of its own weight, and that President Reagan’s efforts to bring it down were irrelevant, but Boris Yeltsin and Mikhail Gorbachev say differently. Both have said that, without the Radios, the USSR wouldn't have fallen. The Radios were not some bland public relations effort, attracting audiences only with American pop music. They engaged the intellectual and influential populations behind the Iron Curtain with accurate news and smart programming about freedom and democracy. They had sources and networks within those countries that sometimes outperformed the CIA. When Soviet hardliners and reformers were facing off, and crowds and tanks were on the streets of Moscow and Bucharest, the radios were sending real-time information to the people, including the military, and reminding them of what was at stake.

Then we won the Cold War. The USSR collapsed in 1991, and America relaxed. Military downsizing began and the Radios began to reduce broadcast air time to target countries.

Now, of course, we know that the Islamofascists, many trained by the old Soviets, were making plans and plots of their own. Unfortunately, the plans to broadcast a pro-freedom message into Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Uzbekistan, Georgia, Kurdistan and Ukraine were shelved or diluted. Reagan's ideological audacity was replaced with a more "diplomatic" tone.

And see where it's got us? Not only has Islamic totalitarianism spread without a true ideological challenge, many of the freed Soviet bloc countries are slipping back into repression. Russia is making the same old threats and even protecting Iran's efforts to build nukes.

We'll never know if Afghanistan might have rejected al Qaeda if America had actively engaged that country as we did those Eastern Europeans. We can't know if Venezuelans would have chosen liberty over the false security of authoritarianism if they had been challenged to face the issues. I do know, though, that it's time for a new generation of Americans to stand up for freedom -- like others before us. And this time, we’ll have a whole new set of media technologies."

In the tradition of the "Great Communicator," Fred Thompson knows the the driving force of a powerful message of truth, powerfully delivered. Web savvy, as well as Hollywood savvy, Thompson has the ability and the wherewithal to articulate the Conservative message with brevity, clarity and forthrightness, without pretense.

Fred Thompson is just the kind of "Great Communicator" that this country desperately needs, in a time when the message of hope that is true conservatism is otherwise under-articulated in a sea of prevarication and liberal doublespeak.