California Conservative

Campaign correspondents are wondering if Fred Thompson’s performance in Wednesday’s debate was too little too late. It’s a fair question asked by no less a serious man than NRO’s Byron York. The conventional wisdom is that it is. It might play out that way but I have an important question to ask of primary voters and caucusgoers:

Should it ever be too late to support the smartest man on stage in the Republican debates? Let me illustrate my point by asking some questions about Sen. Thompson’s positions on the key issues of the day.

• Were you impressed by Sen. Thompson’s intent to reform entitlements?
• Were you impressed with his standing down “Nurse Ratchet”?
• Did you like it when he said that the NEA was the single biggest thing standing in the way of education reform?
• Do you like Sen. Thompson’s unwavering support for the Tenth Amendment and the principles of federalism?
• When Sen. Thompson talks about shutting off the flow of illegal immigrants by beefing up the border partol and building the wall, do you find him credible?
• When Sen. Thompson says that he’d lay out for the American people the fight we’re facing with the jihadists, is it apparent that his plan is intelligent and aggressive?

Let’s compare your answers to those questions with some questions about Mitt Romney.

• Does it bother you that Gov. Romney says that he’s for local control of education in one sentence, then touts the fact that Massachusetts implemented many of NCLB’s provisions before it became law?
• Are you convinced that Mitt Romney is solidly pro life? If you’re convinced of that, how do you reconcile the fact that Gov. Romney put a higher priority on signing a single payer health care bill than on fighting against publicly funded abortions?
• When Gov. Romney said that he’d sign a federal law banning abortion in a post-Roe v. Wade world, was it more likely that Gov. Romney was saying that federalism wasn’t important? Or that he was simply pandering for votes?

The point I’m making is that time shouldn’t matter. It’s far more important to find the candidate with the most consistently intelligent, well-thought out answers.

Ask yourself if you’ve ever heard him give an unsatisfactory answer. Ask yourself if you agree with Sen. Thompson that federalism and libertarianism were the most important underpinnings for your policies? Ask yourself how high a priority you put on fiscal sanity, nominating and confirming strict constructionist judges and defeating the jihadists.

I’d submit that Sen. Thompson is your candidate if you put a high priority on a candidate who believes passionately in federalism and libertarianism. I’d also submit that Sen. Thompson is your candidate if you’re looking for someone who is fiscally responsible, reform-minded and strong on national security and immigration.

Technorati Tags: Fred Thompson, Federalism, Libertarianism, National Security, Immigration, Reform, Entitlements, Conservatism, Mitt Romney, NCLB, Election 2008

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 15th, 2007 at 3:37 am and is filed under Author: Gary Gross, Election 2008, Foreign Policy, Iraq, Judiciary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.