I haven’t posted in over a week now because I have made a long distance move. I have left Pennsylvania and am now settled into my new place in South Carolina, a nice red state, where I have relocated with my company and will be working just over the state line in downtown Charlotte. The weather is beautiful down here and I am loving it so far. No more PA and not looking back!
Fred Thompson fervently backed the Iraq war, railed against an expanding federal government, took stands that occasionally annoyed his party and rarely spoke about his views on social issues during his tenure as a senator from Tennessee or in his writings and speeches since leaving office.
In short, the man some in the GOP are touting as a dream candidate has often sounded like the presidential hopeful many of them seem ready to dismiss: Sen. John McCain Ariz.
With some in the party clamoring for an alternative to their current field of presidential contenders and Thompson’s allies hinting strongly that he will run, 400 conservatives flocked to Newport Beach, Calif., on Friday night to hear the actor-turned-politician-turned-actor address the annual dinner of the Lincoln Club of Orange County, a group that credits itself with pushing Ronald Reagan to run for governor of California in the 1960s. Thompson delivered a vision of cutting taxes, reducing the size of government, overhauling Social Security and staying in Iraq until “there is some semblance of stability.”
He also called for “reform-minded, change-minded leaders,” a profile that McCain — whom Thompson described as “a man of the highest integrity and courage” in 1999 when he co-chaired the Arizonan’s presidential run — has worked hard to lay claim to over the past decade. Thompson was one of only four GOP senators to back McCain’s bid in 2000, and a former aide to the Tennessean said McCain “was far and away his best friend in the Senate.”
This is an interesting point that the author brought up. There are a lot of similarities between McCain and Thompson and they worked closely together in the Senate. I know that Thompson even supported the notorious Campaign Finance Reform. Why then is there so much animosity towards McCain, but so much encouragement from the same people for Thompson to run in his place? I’m playing devil’s advocate here.