US Features
Fred Thompson, actor who would be US president
By Tony Czuczka Sep 7, 2007, 15:10 GMT
US actor and former senator Fred Thompson speaks during a rally in Des Moines, Iowa, USA, 06 September 2007. Fred Thompson formally announced his intention to seek the 2008 Republican presidential nomination. EPA/STEVE POPE
Washington - Actor and former US senator Fred Thompson has played a Navy admiral, a tough New York prosecutor and a president. Now, his real-life bid for the White House is shaking up the Republican nomination fight.
Thompson's supporters believe his long-awaited entry into the 2008 race will galvanize conservative voters who polls suggest are underwhelmed by the other eight Republican hopefuls already in the race. Some even compare him to former president Ronald Reagan, a towering icon of the US right.
In an internet video launching his candidacy, Thompson, 65, pledged to make America stronger and richer - and to confront Islamic terrorists intent on 'killing hundreds of thousands of innocent people if possible.'
'If I am commander-in-chief, this country is never going to be left at the mercy of terror regimes or terror states,' he said.
The deep-voiced Southerner's attraction for Republicans goes beyond his tough talk on Iraq and Afghanistan. Conservatives like his low-tax, limited-government, anti-abortion stands, coupled with celebrity appeal from his career in films and television.
Thompson's screen roles include Cold War thriller The Hunt for Red October, in which his character commanded a US carrier fleet, and prosecutor Arthur Branch in the US crime series Law & Order. He played 19th-century US president Ulysses S Grant in a 2007 made-for- TV movie.
Announcing his bid Wednesday on late-night talk show, Thompson pointedly skipped a televised debate by his Republican rivals, who have been jostling for position for months.
In his video, he presented himself as a 'small-town kid' who has stayed in touch with average Americans while pursuing successful careers as a lawyer, politician, lobbyist and actor.
'I've worked for minimum wages, for salaries more than I ever thought I'd make, and for everything in between,' he said. 'I have had dinners on the factory floor while working the graveyard shift, and I have dined with world leaders in foreign capitals.'
Though he's seeking to place himself above the fray, Thompson has been close to the Washington political establishment for decades.
As a young lawyer, he worked for opposition Republicans in Congress during the 1970s Watergate hearings that helped topple then- president Richard Nixon. He was a US senator from the southern state of Tennessee from 1994-2003 and has also worked as a corporate lobbyist in Washington.
Thompson kicked off his campaign Thursday in Iowa, the Midwestern state where the centre-right Republicans and centre-left Democrats are to hold the first votes of their presidential nomination processes in January.
'Decisions are going to be made on this next president's watch that's going to determine the course of our country for many years to come,' he told cheering supporters.
Nationwide polls of Republican voters show Thompson running second behind former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani and ahead of millionaire venture capitalist Mitt Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts.
But Thompson's late entry means he may face an uphill battle to raise the tens of millions of dollars needed to win his party's nomination and the November 2008 presidential election.
In April, Thompson said he had lymphoma but that the cancer was in remission. He and his 40-year-old wife have two young children.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-AgenturCOMMENT
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Older Talkback
page: 1
i wish there was some way geo.w bush could run again.
he is without a doubt the king of all presidents..
Surely, even a Politician would be better than an Actor.
'You can fool some of the people,
some of the time,
but you can't fool all of the people,
all of the time!
enuff of them damn republican swile
me
i wish there was some way geo.w bush could run again.
he is without a doubt the king of all presidents
No that's not ME honest cross my heart
it's me..little old lying back stabbing me
'The right wing neo-cons are so desperate to replace the worst president in history with one that will erase all the bad. Can't be done with this guy, and only a couple of the others on the noe-con ticket.'
What do you care? You are not an American.
anyone but clinton.
It just dumbfounds me that someone can actually slime Thompson, while Hillary is hip deep caught in the act with her slimey chinese campaign laundering point guy, Mr. Hsu!
Yes, folks, Hillary is 'donating' more money to charity, because, if it were pursued, you'd find it was bundled from chinese donations to buy influence when she arrives at the white house. The old tricks are the best tricks.
And Smack convenently forgot to mention that, but seems to think Thompson has something to hide.
By all means, vote your conscience Smack!
SP-4, I always have and I always will. If this guy is your only hope, and I believe he is, I am real happy for you. Good luck with keeping all your lies going until the election, you will need them. Reality never crosses your or your neo-con's minds.
Just check the facts Smack, and then realize, when you pull the handle for Hillary, you just backed a candidate that voted for this war, just like me!
Try that reality and suck on it.
She would be better than the whole group you have on you side combined. That said the only way I will vote for her is if she makes it that far, and I doubt she is going there. We (unlike the neo-cons) have numerous choices of numerous backgrounds---not all white old men.
Hillary has a real big mountain to climb, remember they are all at the base.
You have Hillary, the propped up primped up choice ALREADY made for you by your masters in charge. Given that, she could back a war anywhere in the world and get elected. Then again, she is on record doing so, right Smack?
You have Edwards, a man so desperate he had to invoke the fact that Dick Cheney' daughter was a lesbian, just to titillate his constituency.
DOA
You have Barak the magic Negro, with the lilly white distinction of never voting for this war, as his only attribute. Unless he, magically, wins a whole set of primaries...
DOA
No, Smack, you problem isn't the candidate, it's the flock they supposedly represent, although, like I keep trying to tell you, they pretty much represent what the republicans do, if you just bother to look at their voting record.
The sad part is, there are some REAL democrats that would be nice to see on the ticket. Joe lieberman, for one, just as soon as he pulls his pecker out of Ned Lamont's rectum.
I'll take the old guys.
just as soon as he pulls his pecker out of Ned Lamont's rectum ,I'll take the old guys.
SP4, yes I know you will 'take the old guys' and continue down the path of lies and destruction. More of our young people die every day and it is because of your 'old guys'. Rmemeber 'old soldiers never die, only young ones do'. You and your neo-con buddies need to take long walk off a short pier and let the young guys/ladies fix all of the ills you have caused.
Let's take a stroll down memory lane, Jack.
Looks like the next democratic presidential candidate will be the perpetrator of:
Whitewater
FBI records scandal
White House Travel office Scandal
Chinese and russian campaign funds scandal
9/11 document coverup.
This is the alternative to the 'old guys'
I'll still take the old guys.
Oh yeah, and she also greenlighted this war. Go f--king ask her about the dead and wounded. Ask her how trying to bear trap Bush is panning out.
Besides, she no younger than Bush.
Get used to it, Jack. We're going to trot this out for the next year!
SP4, looks like the pressure of loosing all of your power is starting to get to you. My, my, my looks like you are going to implode, just like your party is.
I can't wait till next year a this time when it will even be worst for you and your kind. I believe I would much rather be on the side of saving our soldiers that sending them to their deaths---for no obtainable cause. Get some prozak, you need it SP4.
Fred Thompson is a giant turd sandwich.
Inform us: How does pulling a few troops out secure the rest from danger????? How, exactly, do your dem masters rationalize this, or do their sheep constituants even demand such an explanation?
Show us how withdrawing the troops we surged up 90 days ago gets democrats the privilege of going back to their sheeplike constituants and claiming victory over Darth Bush. Explain this calculus to us, please. If you can, I'll be a loyal dem-drone forever.
Regale us on how Princess Hillary slayed the mighty dragon of the Iraq war, gaining her the coveted crown of GW (George Washington). Explain how she, magically, got her sheep to forge the fact that she is one of the resons we are there. Show us the logic of why she is not responsible when she voted to put troops in Iraq.
Movies over Smak. Leave though the lighted areas marked 'Exit'
Honestly, do you folks ever actually think? When you do, what is it about? Do you sit in Mom's basement, don the tinfoil helmet and flagellate yourselves to pictures of Hillary?
SP4...Coming from such a coolaid drinker as yourself, I appreciate the ramblings from you, showing all of us just how disconnected you really are.
First of all, I am not in for gradual withdrawl, I want it done in the next 9 months. I was in one war where we kept sacraficing our soldiers for nothing and did not know how to get out (another group of right wingers), just start now and get it over. It is a civil war and we are in the middle of it.
Now, I know you will blow a plug, and start your continual rantings about how the dem's did this and how the dem's did that, but remember what 'accountability' is all about. All of this in fact happened on your watch, you did not have the plans needed to be successful in the first year like you should have and YOUR SIDE HAS COMPLETELY FAILED.
Lets stop killing our sons, daughters, mothers and fathers for a faile plan. There will never be democracy in Iraq, get used to it. They would not know what to do with it if it actually happened! It is an entire different culture that ours.
Get out now!
Record tax revenue, low inflation, high employment, record household wealth..
If this is failure, get me some more! The Bush economic juggernaut is a record setting success! His economic policies have allowed a level of prosperity all in the middle of a war that Mr. Clinton ignored and left for the Bush mop and bucket brigade.
N. Korea, Osama Bin Laden, Iran, Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein were left for the next guy, and the next guy has gotten results by rolling up his sleeves and getting to the hard work that Billy just sat back and got a bobbing, while ignoring it all for eight years.
Peace dividend? Hell, you squandered the money and never paid the tab. Bush had to ante up after you vacated. He dealt with Saddam, Got N. Korea to deal, Got Libya to give up it's nuke program, faced off with Al Qaeda, has Bin Laden in a cave (or dead, my guess!) 'Hey Bill, thanks a pantload for all the hep!'
If Hillary wins, I'd pay for tickets to see the look on her face when she'd open the top drawer of the oval office desk and there be a cigar right in the middle, with a note that says, 'enjoy'.
Run and vote for your mistress Smackie, after all, it's already been decided, you just don't know it. Then, sit in a quiet place, pour a nice drink and realize, she did exactly what Bush did: Greenlight this war!
She's a big girl, smak. Be a big boy.
That Shut him up!
You guys seem to miss an important feature .The article said that Thompson is a corporate lobbyist ?Does that not remind you all of somebody else ?Cheney ?Rumsfeld ?Is this what republicans want ?
Are stements as ''I've worked for minimum wages, for salaries more than I ever thought I'd make, and for everything in between,' he said. 'I have had dinners on the factory floor while working the graveyard shift, and I have dined with world leaders in foreign capitals' realy the apex of intelligent thinking .Nothing wrong with the content but it is the kind of language you use to convince the mist sompleminded oy you .What about a program ?Is there no need for one ?What about health care,education,justice ?Are these to be for the benefit of the wealth only ?
Most of the white guys in the USA have been outraged at OJ Simpson escaping the law because he was rich .Then what about the rich and white people .Too many people are left behind without any justification .Freedom is more than casting a vote every four years ,it involves solidarity,justice equal rights and chances .None of that is available to the majority of the americans .
How you actually feal you make good points Tonny. Really you should just shut up. Where are you from ? Beligium ? There is good beer there. A nice restaraunt in Philly on N. Green st. Called the Belgian house.
But you ? Shut up you nonsensical nonsence talking person you.
And what gets me is...Nov 4th,
'Really you should just shut up. Where are you from ?
But you ? Shut up you nonsensical nonsence talking person you'.
Er! Sorry, this is 'ancient history'. The last post on this thread, you nerd, was over a MONTH ago.
page: 1
Jack SmackSep 7th, 2007 - 16:44:34
Just another overweight old white man lying through his teeth to get the brass ring. This guy has special interests that will surface and he will become one of the 'has-beens'.
The right wing neo-cons are so desperate to replace the worst president in history with one that will erase all the bad. Can't be done with this guy, and only a couple of the others on the noe-con ticket.
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