Running on Empty

The title covers two subjects today, the first being how alternately I've been busy or sick, hence the lack of posting. I've managed to miss three holidays in the interim, but plan to do more writing. The second thing that running on empty applies to is the Fred Thompson campaign. Much to my disappointment, it is clear that he will be unable to get the endorsement.

I find it fascinating that when given a candidate who does everything people say they want candidates to do, they end up rejecting them. Constantly heard is the desire for a candidate who isn't after the job for power, but out of a sense of duty. Yet Fred was blasted for not acting like he wanted the job more than anything else in the world. We hear how a straight shooter who will tell us things we don't want to hear is needed, yet Fred has been ignored on the issues of social security and medicare benefits. Candidates should run a clean campaign, that's what we want say the voters, yet Fred took heat for not being aggressive enough. In fact, the only uptick he saw was when he pointed out how Huckabee is essentially a Democrat in the South Carolina debate. The issues, only if the candidates would stick to the issues is a cry heard often, but nobody paid attention to the white papers or long, thoughtul videos Thompson put out. Finally, it has been said we are waiting for another Reagan, a true conservative who believes in smaller government, protecting the Constitution, and who is also a social conservative. Well, the voters have been clear, they want the GOP to go to the political left, with the primary winning candidates all being center or center-left.

Simply put, what the voters in the Republican Party say they want and what they really want are two completely different things. I suspect the general electorate are no different.

Fred Thompson

With the new concept of never ending political campaigns, the American voter is facing a multitude of candidates at a far earlier time before November of even years. The Presidential race is the worst offender, with both main parties offering up a bewildering array of candidates already having debates! Given that politics is right up there with incest as a discussion point in conversation due to the extreme polarization instituted by the main stream media, this is something voters don't want to deal with right now. Add in a field of politicians that are failing to really catch on fire and it is all very dull and tedious at the moment. I get the feeling both parties are waiting for a 'white knight' to come in and save them from terminal boredom. A wise man would wait and build up his support and start motivating people first, rather than declaring two years out like the rest of the candidates.

It looks like we have that in Fred Thompson, politician turned actor turned politician turned actor turned politician (I bet we hear somebody try to call him a flip flopper). With great thought, he waited and sounded out whether or not he would be a viable candidate. Contrast that with other candidates who couldn't wait to declare. His feelers were greeted with a draft Fred movement and it quickly got rolling.

I admit I'm very excited by his entry into the race, he was my favorite senator to watch during hearings and my late mother and I both had thought him Presidential material. Some have faulted him for being "lazy" while in the Senate, but the man is a thinker. He doesn't knee jerk react, he considers things first - which is a rarity in the modern short attention span society we live in. Even his testing the waters was done with planning, his much younger and better looking wife is a Republican campaign consultant and was looking for a way to raise his profile in Washington last year. Can't get much higher than running for President!

Oh and a footnote about Jeri Thompson: Fred was divorced from his first wife in 1985 and first met her in 1996, they were married in 2002. I've run into ugly rumors being spread that she broke up his first marriage. Unless she has a time machine, it is impossible for this to be the case. Yes she is much younger, but she wasn't a child and is an accomplished attorney herself, so consider Fred to be a very lucky dog. I do.

Now is Fred a good conservative? This question is being asked a lot and I would call him a Reagan conservative. But what's a Reagan conservative? I categorize it as being dead center in the mainstream of the Republican Party, the group that is rarely heard from, what with the radical social conservatives and liberal/moderates shouting loudly at each other. But what I really like about Fred is that he is a Federalist who believes in limited government. Here are two quotes (via Wikipedia):

"[It] provided a basis for a proper analysis of most issues: "Is this something
government should be doing? If so, at what level of government?"

"Our
government, under our Constitution, was established upon the principles of
Federalism -- that the federal government would have limited enumerated powers
and the rest would be left to the states. It not only prevented tyranny, it just
made good sense. States become laboratories for democracy and experiment with
different kinds of laws. One state might try one welfare reform approach, for
example. Another state might try another approach. One would work and the other
would not. The federal welfare reform law resulted from just this process."
"Federalism also allows for the diversity that exists among the country's
people. Citizens of our various states have different views as to how
traditional state responsibilities should be handled. This way, states compete
with each other to attract people and businesses -- and that is a good thing."

This is what will appeal to voters fed up with an ever expanding and corrupt government, this is what our country needs.

Fred Thompson has very Reaganesque approach and will appeal across a wide spectrum, as he understands the way government should work and also the dramatic challenges the U.S.A. faces worldwide. With a disarming charm and killer wit, Thompson resembles Ronald Reagan and that has the Democrats worried -- and well they should!

I never expected to endorse or support a Presidential candidate this early, but Fred is the real deal and I am completely behind him. If you want this country to get back on the right track, check out his website, http://www.imwithfred.com/