Posted by
PoliCzar on Monday, April 02, 2007 6:30:11 PM
Fred Thompson is considering a run for the Republican nomination for
President. He has not, of course, announced this. He is not to be
confused with former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson, who has announced
his plans to run this past weekend, claims he is the “reliable
conservative”. As the field grows larger and larger the front runners
are starting to lose support. Candidates are starting to call
themselves ‘conservative’. But which one is more conservative? That is
for Republicans to decide in the primaries. The funny thing is, if they
are all going to argue as to who is more conservative they will be
missing out on many important issues that bother the middle of the road
Republican, who is considering a vote for a Democrat. Take what
happened last November as an example. Conservatism is important, but
it’s not the most important quality in a candidate. As we see in recent
polls, they show Giuliani still ahead, but this may only be his
popularity. Giuliani is not very conservative and middle of the road
voters like him. But, a great mayor doesn’t always make a great
president. He should not count on a big social conservative vote
because he is lacking certain moral values that many social
conservatives hold dear. John McCain is holding steady in these polls.
He is the one who may actually still grab the nomination, believe it or
not. He has a lot of work to do, however, in convincing fellow
Republicans that he is not too left wing on many issues, including
illegal immigration. The main question surrounding Mitt Romney is
obvious, Can a Mormon become President? Good question isn’t it? I
remember when they said no Catholic could be elected. How wrong ‘they’
were.
Some of the other, lesser known candidates such as Duncan
Hunter and Tom Tancredo offer a hard line stance on illegal immigration
and support many social conservative issues. The problem here is that
they probably will not gather enough support, money or fame to win the
nomination let alone defeat Queen Hillary. This does not mean that
these men should not be listened to. If the current top 3 really want
to succeed and remain in the top 3, it would do them some good to come
out with a stance on illegal immigration and stick with it. Abortion,
gay marriage and the war in Iraq are all good issues to discuss, but
illegal immigration is definitely a higher priority for many Americans.
Fred Thompson for President? He is conservative. He was a
senator. He is an actor. His voting record is very good. He is
certainly a tough guy. If he does run, he will definitely be one to
consider, listen to and possibly support come primary season.