Thompson Runs to The Right By Michael D. Shear, Washington Post Staff Writer

DES MOINES, Sept. 6 — Fred D. Thompson took his bid for the White House to the campaign trail Thursday, vowing to compete aggressively for the support of Iowans and pitching steady, experienced and conservative leadership.

“I still have the same common-sense conservative beliefs I did when I ran in 1994,” the former senator said in a speech at a Des Moines conference center, a not-so-subtle reference to criticism about the changing positions of his main Republican rivals, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani. …

In Thursday’s speech, he pledged fidelity to a series of conservative principles — limited government, an aggressive foreign policy and lower taxes — and promised a commitment to securing the borders and appointing conservative judges. …

A national anti-tax group Thursday proclaimed that his record has the “hallmarks of a pro-growth economic conservative,” but the Club for Growth cautioned that the senator has an “enigmatic” record on tort reform and must explain his support for limits on political speech.
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A Conservative for . . . 1994? By E. J. Dionne Jr.

Fred Thompson, who proposes to be what Republicans need to overcome their malaise, may himself be part of the problem.

And the problem is that conservatism as a philosophy no longer produces ready-made answers to the quandaries that face the country or the voters. Republicans do not need to debate who is conservative enough. They need to argue about what conservatism is. …

Republicans, says [Tony Fabrizio, a neutral Republican pollster], who conducted a similar study a decade ago, are more conservative than ever but in ways more complicated than many appreciate. [mjh: Snicker. Guffaw. Yup, they’re deeeeep thinkers.]

That will make Thompson’s effort to become the Man for All Conservatives much more difficult. And Mickey Edwards, a former Republican congressman whose book “Reclaiming Conservatism” will be published in the spring, says that providing the backdrop for the contest is a conservative “awakening that we completely lost our way.”

This means that making conservatives feel good will not be enough for Fred Thompson. He needs to show where he will lead a movement shrewd enough to know that it is now in the wilderness.
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ConservativesBetrayed.com
Fred Thompson, the Faux Conservative By Richard A. Viguerie

The American people want a President who will finally bring conservative values—honesty, faith, a belief in limited government, and respect for the family as the core of society—to the White House. After eight years of Democratic Big Government under Clinton and eight years of Republican Bigger Government under Bush, they certainly deserve a break.

They won’t get it with Fred Thompson.

Fred Thompson is just playing a conservative for your consumption. In real life he’s a typical Washington insider.

Granted, most Republican politicians play that game to a greater or lesser degree. But Thompson does it so well that it becomes truly difficult to separate the acting from the reality.