Well, if by "real" conservative these guys mean someone who lies about their positions and doesn't really believe in anything, then yes, Thompson and Romney are both real conservatives.
He does seem to be increasingly showing a lack of depth. First he claimed to not be familiar with the details of the Terri Schiavo case, and now isn't even up on big death penalty news in his own state when he claims the death penalty as one of his signature issues. I'm increasingly surprised, and amused, by how bad the GOP candidates really are.
Wow, this guy is worse than I thought. He is really out to betray the religious right. He doesn't remember the details of the Terri Schiavo case, he now claims. That's bull. And even if he doesn't remember the details, which I highly doubt, he most certainly remembers what his opinions were at the time about the Republican intervention.
If Fred Thompson can't answer really simple questions about rather large issues in the national experience, then the man doesn't deserve anyone's vote. Having said that, boy he is starting to tick off the fundies :-)
That's the fundie-deflating headline at Bloomberg on Fred Thompson's statements at his first campaign stop in South Carolina. All those bible beating fans of the former senator and Law and Order actor who were projecting their fantasies as a 2008 savior onto him just got drop-kicked out of the box:
Republican presidential contender Fred Thompson, who has based his campaign on appealing to conservative voters, said he isn't a regular churchgoer and doesn't plan to speak about his religion on the stump.
..."I attend church when I'm in Tennessee. I'm in McLean right now,'' he said referring to the Virginia suburb of Washington, D.C., where he lives. "I don't attend regularly when I'm up there.''
...Thompson's comment about not speaking out about his personal religious beliefs prompted a question from the crowd on whether he would commit to talking about God nationwide, not just in a southern state such as South Carolina, where many people identify themselves as evangelical Christians.
"I know that I'm right with God and the people I love,'' he said in Greenville. It's "just the way I am not to talk about some of these things.''
And how desperate are these fundies to find a winner in the clown car? Look at the pass this person gives Fred:
"As long as he was acclimated in some kind of church, involved in the church, that's very important,'' said Jamie Darnell, 27, of Greenville.
Conservative icon Paul Weyrich isn't sure Thompson will convince The Base either. From Clown Hall:
It is not entirely clear what Thompson believes. When he was Senator he seemed to support an open-borders approach to immigration. In recent speeches Thompson has not supported President George W. Bush's comprehensive immigration reform bill, which was soundly defeated.
There is the question of the Federal Marriage Amendment. Thompson initially stated that, although he is a federalist, he reluctantly supported the Amendment because it was too important to do otherwise. Now his staff has put out a clarification suggesting that Thompson does not support the Amendment. That greatly has upset social conservatives, many of whom believe that support for the Amendment a deal breaker. Thus far, Thompson has declined to meet with important social conservatives to clarify the matter. [With that Values Voter GOP debate coming up on the 17th -- headed up by WingNutDaily's Joseph Farah, with help from Don Wildmon, Phyllis Schlafly and Weyrich -- Fred's going to have to come up with some kind of answers for the wingers. ]
...Survey researchers have been amazed at the support Giuliani continues to receive from conservatives, despite his pro-abortion position, favoritism for special rights for homosexuals and his three marriages. These researchers are told that they favor Giuliani "because he has run something."
These cons are looking so pitiful, but as we all know, the Dems are great at blowing what looks like a shoe-in.
(Funny that when Howard Dean said something similar years back he was skewered by the Republicans.) Interesting that suspected terrorists at Guantanamo don't get due process, but Thompson thinks known terrorists like Osama due. I just find that curious.
Say what you will about John Edwards and the trial lawyers, but I don't recall any Democratic front runners representing terrorists.
Let's get this first bit of lunacy out of the way -- Fred Thompson on who should face criminal sanction for an abortion:
"Don't punish women who have abortions," presidential hopeful Fred Thompson says. Punish the doctors who perform them...Authorities "can do whatever they want to with abortion doctors, as far as I'm concerned," the former Tennessee senator said while campaigning in Western Iowa according to the Los Angeles Times. But "if it comes down to giving criminal sanctions to a 19-year-old girl and her mama, I'm against that."
Wait a minute. If it's going to be a crime, why not punish the mother? If we're going to do the whole law and order thing (har-dee-har-har), when it comes to state womb control, doesn't the woman represent the one contracting the hit on the fetus?
As even one Freepersanely noted, the inconsistency makes no sense:
Under Thompson's logic here, it's perfectly legal for a woman to use a coat hanger to perform an abortion on herself but illegal for her to receive medical assistance in doing it. In other words, it's not illegal to kill a child. But it's illegal to help a woman do such. That doesn’t make much sense to me at all. I'm not sure how that’s even a pro-life argument.
And what about the male partner in this equation? What if he agrees with the woman in question that she should have an abortion, perhaps even drives her to the clinic in support of her decision -- is he then an accessory to the crime? Shouldn't he be prosecuted, Fred? Maybe the fantasy candidate of the freeper set agrees with Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. He recently said that women who seek out the abortion are too "impaired" to be responsible for their actions.
The newest occupant of the GOP clown car also made it plainly clear where his thinking lies regarding marriage equality:
Thompson chastised those judges in Iowa, Massachusetts and other states for rulings that opened the way to same-sex marriage, calling for constitutional amendments to curb judges' power to do so.
"What we're seeing here is a totally judicially created problem," he told a crowd in Sioux City, Iowa according to the Times. "You know how many states have affirmatively approved gay marriage? State legislatures? Zero."
He also would like a constitutional amendment called for an amendment to bar judges from allowing marriage equality unless it is approved by a state legislature.
Fred's setting himself up to have egg on his face fairly soon, because California's legislature again approved a marriage equality bill, which first passed in 2005 and was vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger. This year the Governator has until October 14th to sign or veto the bill. He has cited in the past that the courts (I guess those "activist judges") should decide what to do about marriage, not the legislature.
Mitt is seems freaked out about Thompson. This should get good and ugly:
"We all get the chance to go on the talk shows. But it's not the sort of questions you get in the debates or the town meetings that I've had," Romney said in an Associated Press interview, alluding to Thompson's planned appearance Wednesday on the "Tonight Show with Jay Leno." Thompson is to officially enter the race Thursday.
"The talk show circuit is fine, but the town meetings show you're willing to listen to people and take their questions," continued Romney.
While Thompson, the "Law & Order" television actor and former senator from Tennessee, will be in Los Angeles for the Leno show Romney will be among the GOP contenders at a Wednesday night debate in Durham., N.H.
"I think it will boost the ratings for Jay Leno's show, but I'd rather be doing well in New Hampshire," Romney earlier told reporters before he marched in a Labor Day parade in Milford, N.H.
Romney also took a jab as Thompson's long delayed decision to become an official candidate for the GOP nomination.
"Well, I guess the only comment I'd make to Fred Thompson would be: Why the hurry? Why not take a little longer to think this over? From my standpoint, if he wants to wait until January or February, that would be ideal."
Responded Todd Harris, a Thompson spokesman: "People often use humor to try to mask the fact that they're nervous."
Finally, presidential semi-wannabe, former Tennesee senator and Law & Order actor Fred Thompson has hailed the GOP clown car to pick him up. The man hailed by the Freeper set as the next Ronald Reagan is going to announce his bid via webcast next week.
"I believe that there are millions of Americans who know that our security and prosperity are at risk if we don't address the challenges of our time," Thompson said in a statement.
The formal announcement will come in a webcast on September 6, followed by a tour of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. A second leg will hit Florida and wind up at home in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee, on September 15.
"We enter this campaign in a strong position," said campaign manager Bill Lacy. "Fred is consistently near the top in the polls, and conservatives across the country have put together the closest thing to a draft in recent presidential campaign history in an effort to bring about this day."
But Thompson's long-delayed formal entry had made some supporters anxious and sparked complaints he was violating Federal Election Commission laws by running a shadow campaign.
And this is the alleged savior of the GOP presidential field -- the yet-to-announce Fred Thompson, at Sunday's GOP clown car debate:
"I believe that Vice President Cheney is criticized for a lot of things that he doesn't do. And I believe that Dick Cheney is an honorable individual. And I think the president of the United States depends a great deal upon him."
According to several reports, Fred Thompson's campaign will report only $3 million raised so far, a disappointing figure.
Fred Thompson plans to announce Tuesday that his committee to test the waters for a Republican presidential campaign raised slightly more than $3 million in June, substantially less than some backers had hoped, according to Republican sources.
This means he probably has as many ex-staffers as he does donors. Fred Thompson is rapidly becoming the "New Coke" of the 2008 Presidential cycle, all hype, no substance.
Fred D. Thompson, who is campaigning for president as an antiabortion Republican, accepted an assignment from a family-planning group to lobby the first Bush White House to ease a controversial abortion restriction, according to a 1991 document and several people familiar with the matter.
A spokesman for the former Tennessee senator denied that Thompson did the lobbying work. But the minutes of a 1991 board meeting of the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Assn. say that the group hired Thompson that year.
His task was to urge the administration of President George H. W. Bush to withdraw or relax a rule that barred abortion counseling at clinics that received federal money, according to the records and to people who worked on the matter.
The abortion "gag rule" was then a major political flashpoint. Lobbying against the rule would have placed Thompson at odds with the antiabortion movement that he is now trying to rally behind his expected declaration of a presidential bid.
The basic problem is that the Republican politicians don't really stand for anything any more. They've been lying to the public and their own voters for years - claiming to be for a strong defense, lower taxes, and family values. But those are just slogans, slogans that Republican politicians know Republican voters will buy, so they just keep repeating them decade after decade, even though the politicians themselves don't even believe the mantra. Republicans are for family values - sure, just ask Mitt Romney, friend of pornographers and the the guy who once sold himself as better on gay issues than Ted Kennedy himself. Republicans are for the 2nd Amendment - uh huh, and Rudy Giuliani has been the best friend gun control advocates ever had. Republicans are strong on defense - yeah, well, Republicans got us into the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and how are those going? Republicans are for fiscal restraint - and Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush have both bankrupted the country and sent us into record deficits.
Republican politicians lie. The thing is, they get away with it because for some reason Republican voters just don't care if they're lied to. So long as you tell them you're for a strong defense, cutting taxes, and family values, they believe you, in spite of the evidence to the contrary.
So it's no surprise that Fred Thompson advocates abortion. He lies like all the rest of the Republican politicians nowadays. But fortunately for Fred, Republican voters are so easily misled that so long as he gives a good speech, they probably won't even care about his pro-abortion record.
As Fred Thompson prepares to finally announce that he's actually running for president, he gets smacked around by AP's Liz Sidoti. The headline of her piece is "Thompson lacking substance." True -- and while they GOPers want to compare him to Reagan, he's more like George W. Bush:
Top candidates Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney and John McCain mix it up daily, taking questions from voters and fleshing out their presidential agendas.
Not Thompson.
His stump speech consists of broad conservative themes, talk of bipartisanship and commentary on issues of the day, but it largely lacks any vision for the future of the country. He deflects questions on what a Thompson presidency would look like and demurs when pressed for specific proposals for how to fix the nation's ills. He opines on hot topics, from taxes to terrorism, in online columns and on his Web site, usually without being challenged.
There's no meat on the bones. And, there won't be.
UPDATE: The title now reads, "Thompson Strong on Style, Not Substance." Huh. How did that happen?
There they go again, raising money for a good cause that will help over a billion people. Why can't they just act and do nothing like good Republicans?
Two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank launched on Friday an around-the-world relay race to raise money and awareness for 1.1 billion people without safe drinking water.
Organized by the Blue Planet Run Foundation, some 20 runners will log 15,000 miles over 95 days through 16 Northern Hemisphere countries and end back in New York on September 4.
"What if it were your job to carry in a rusty metal pail all the water you and your family would use for the day?" Swank told the audience on the U.N. lawn of runners, schoolchildren and musicians.
"What if the water made you sick? What if you had no choice?
Let's get this 
