‘I don’t even remember the details of his plan’

September 6, 2007

One of the principal knocks on actor/lobbyist/senator Fred Thompson’s presidential aspirations is that he’s kind of lazy and unwilling to go beyond the pleasantries and soundbites. He’s an all-hat, no-cattle candidate who doesn’t even take his own policy priorities seriously.

After one day as a candidate, Thompson is already reinforcing the conventional wisdom.

Fred Thompson says a top challenge for the next president is fixing Social Security. Asked how his ideas for overhauling the system differ from those of George W. Bush, the actor and former Tennessee senator says: “I don’t even remember the details of his plan.”

Got that? Social Security policy is one of the reasons he’s running for president, Thompson says, so it’s presumably an issue he knows quite a bit about. Asked about Bush’s policy proposal — from just two years ago — Thompson is surprisingly clueless.

It’s not as if some reporter caught him off-guard with a gotcha question — he brought Social Security up.

Thompson will have to demonstrate that he has “a command over policy issues,” said Ari Fleischer, Bush’s former White House spokesman. “He’s got to knock the policy questions out of the park,” as well as show executive skill in managing his campaign.

So much for that idea. Best of all, as Ezra noted, “And Fred, you may not remember whether you support Social Security privatization, but the internets do. The answer is yes.”

It looks like Fred Thompson’s campaign is off to a great start, doesn’t it?

On a related note, I finally got around to watching Thompson on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno from yesterday. Here’s the substantive part of the interview:

Most of this was pretty boilerplate, but Thompson’s comments did reflect the kind of policy depth — which is to say, no policy depth — that’s going to cause him trouble on the campaign trail. If we didn’t invade Iraq, Saddam would have continued his nuclear weapons program? He didn’t have one. The goal in Iraq is to prevent Iraqis from being killed by al Qaeda? That’s not the principal challenge of the conflict. The U.S. is unpopular internationally because we’re “prosperous”? We’ve been the richest country in the world for a few generations, but we weren’t reviled on the global stage until fairly recently.

Maybe Thompson can read a book or two and get back to us.

I’m pretty sure America doesn’t want a president who sounds like a cross between George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan. In other words a beligerent dumbass with Alzheimers.

But I’ll bet the Republican primary voters do.

Heh.

  • I’m not defending Thompson, but are there any Republican candidates who have appeared to know anything about anything? I think that the most knowledgeable Republican mentioned for president is Newt Gingrich (ugh), but he isn’t even a candidate.

    And Ron Paul. Must not forget Ron Paul or I’ll get flamed.

  • Sure the man’s an idiot, but how does he smell?

    The only good thing about his campaign (besides the added comedy value) is I believe Newter said he wouldn’t run if Thompson ran.

    GOP 2008 – The Calvacade of Cretins.

  • but tAiO, we have to integrate that with the existing frame:

    GOP 2008 – the Cultural Calvacade of Cretinous Corruption!

  • Just what we need – another lazy president.

    I think Thompson will be history by mid-February, and I will be surprised if Rudy is still standing. Huckabee seems to be the one with the momentum.

    Mitt Romney is what the Ken doll would be if plastic dolls were allowed to grow up.

  • I’m pretty sure America doesn’t want a president who sounds like a cross between George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan. In other words a beligerent dumbass with Alzheimers.

    Really? For a significant portion of my adult life that’s exactly what America has wanted.

  • LOL Anne ” Mitt Romney is what the Ken doll would be if plastic dolls were allowed to grow up.”

    You mean married to a Barbie and ball-less? 😛

  • The U.S. is unpopular internationally because we’re “prosperous”?

    I dunno, Freddie, it seems to me one really good way to measure “properity” of a nation is its per capita GDP. And while we are indeed towards the top, those globally reviled countries of Norway and Luxembourg, noted terrorist targets that they are, are more prosperous than we are.

    Other than the verifiable facts, though, I’m sure you’re all over it.

  • I don’t remember the details of Bush’s plan either, because he never actually came out with one. Of course, I do remember the bullshit Bush spewed onstage in that endless cross-country cavalcade that served to stir up general public hatred against him. Thompson should hire some people to remind him of those talking points so he will know what not to propose.

  • The repubs problem isn’t that Freddie is such an obvious fool. It’s that he’s their great white hope. My hope is that the American Taliban attaches itself to this clown’s hip before he get his due humiliation.

  • “We’re in a war in Iraq? Where’s Iraq? Well, if we’re in a war in Iraq then we should win it because Americans love a winner.”

  • Yeah, I cut Thompson a little slack on this, because I agree with Shalimar — I don’t think Bush ever proposed a plan. Bush tried to play a game of chicken with the Democrats to get them to come up with one, they wouldn’t play, and he backed down. Thompson couldn’t remember Bush’s plan because there wasn’t one. (Correct me if I don’t recall correctly.)

  • Re: Bush’s SocSec plan. Remember the “worthless pieces of paper?” It was pretty damn clear what his plan was, though doubtful that he’d ever be able to pull it off politically.

  • I love it that Fred is in. This will be great comedy. Everything about the man is just plain wrong. He’s ugly, he’s dumb, he’s a fake, he doesn’t know what he’s talking about, he has a way-young wife with big ta-ta’s and he looks like his kids’ deranged grandpa. Yeah he’s on TV but even that thrill will fade fast. Yep, Fred for Pres is going to be great. Too bad he won’t get far enough to have to debate the Democratic candidate because whoever he/she will be would absolutely devour Fred.

  • “I love it that Fred is in. This will be great comedy. Everything about the man is just plain wrong. He’s ugly, he’s dumb, he’s a fake, he doesn’t know what he’s talking about, he has a way-young wife with big ta-ta’s and he looks like his kids’ deranged grandpa.”

    Exactly right. That’s why he’ll be the next president.

    The other reason is that Democrats in congress are going nuclear on their feet. Already.

  • Can you believe this guy? Another loyal bushie clone. Ugly, old, frog faced and out of touch. I hope he does get the gop nomination! The majority of Americans would NEVER vote in a bush clone only to have to listen to the same bullshit lies for another 4 years. The more these empty, pandering douche bags sound like bush the better the chances of having a Democrat in the White House with a Democratically controlled congress.

  • Exactly right. That’s why he’ll be the next president.

    I disagree strongly..When Bush got in, he was handed it via SCOTUS, and the butterfly ballot designed by Theresa Lapore who was a Rebulican OP that had taken that job and switched to Dem affilation to make it look good.. It was all a heist.

    America does not want another incompetent hick to have a beer with, America wants a designated driver.. I don’t think Bush was ever truely elected, truth be told, it was a fix both times.

  • What the @#$% does Bush’s Social Security plan have to do with Fred Thompson’s?

    By the way, let’s be honest here (for a change). He’s only spouting the same kind of meaningless crap the other GOP candidates and the Dem candidates are spouting off with. Have their debates so far really been any better? LOL Nice one-sided views here, though. It’s funny to read.

  • Could you people PLEASE get it right. His name is not FRED Thompson, it is FRAUD Thompson.

    And he will win the GOP nomination for president because he’s as much of a liar and manipulator as the Bushistas. Republican voters fall for that every time, don’t they? Right now we got the fake cowboy who bought the fake ranch to use as a prop just before he ran for president. And soon we’ll have the fake Ronald Reagan (a fake of a fake!) who once took limo rides to a red pickup so he could drive it 2 blocks over to campaign events and appear to be a homespun country boy rather than the slick corporate lobbyist, hollywood actor that he actually was.

    The corporate media loves this guy because he’ll give them 8 more years of Bush policies and he can be sold to the public just like the Marlboro Man. Witness Chris Matthews’ man-crush on the guy as just one example.

    That’s FRAUD Thompson. Got it?

  • If the nation’s national debt equals or exceeds its net worth, is the country “prosperous?” This country is in hock up to its eyeballs and someday the chits are going to be called in, and guess who is going to pay the bill? The good ol’ middle and lower classes.

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  • Sure, Freddy’s proving himself even more inept than many people expected. Could we, though, take a good look at ourselves — meaning the country as a whole — and the lessons we have NOT learned? Here’s example No. 1: Jingoism played a big part in getting us into this mess. And it’s certainly not going to get us out of it. That hit me when Freddy announced that maybe we American had misjudged the support for the war overseas among the “people,” and that perhaps it was just the media and the defeatist chirac-types who were against the war. his support for this: that sarkozy had visited washington prior to the french election, said he wanted france and the u.s. to be friends and — HE WON THE ELECTION!!!
    if freddy wasn’t napping so much, he may have noticed that Segolene Royal, sarkozy’s opponent, also visited washington and declared her desire for friendship. (for that matter, chirac remained civil — not always easy for him — during the war dispute while congressional republicans were calling for wine boycotts and ‘freedom fries.’ what a low that was.)
    he also apparently missed sarkozy’s plea to washington not to repeat the “historic mistake” made in Iraq by launching an attack on Iran.
    and if words and gestures aren’t convincing, consider the empirical data: without exception, polls showed that more than 90 percent of the french people were opposed to the war before it started. ah, but they’re wimps. i guess the brit’s are, then, too, because a large majority of them were against the war, too.
    facts, smacts, freddy?

  • ah. i managed to chop off the end of my post, which refers back to the danger of jingoism.

    my point is that as nauseating as freddy’s remarks were, what i found more disturbing was the response he got after two statements. the first was americans have shed more blood than anybody to keep this world working and he’s not about to apologize for anything. (loud applause.) the second remark was when he tried to pass off sarkozy’s victory as an indication that the french might really like us after all, so screw everybody. (applause.)
    somehow, guys, instead of merely preaching to each other, we need to help get people in this country eductated — just a bit. he’s spewing the same crap as bush, only with better grammar.

    think about it: he ‘bravely’ refuses to apologize for the u.s. helping defeat the nazis? what??? i won’t apologize either. i don’t know any american who would apologize for ww2. and guess what else? NOBODY’S asking for an apology. but…it sounded good, this picking a fight over a dispute that doesn’t exist — and at a time when we can use all the friends we can get. usa! usa! usa!
    it’s the bush way: deceive, distract, distort.

    the problem for freddy and bush should be — SHOULD be — that americans can no longer be fooled. but look what’s happening again, this time with the iraqi ‘surge’ statistics. ‘we’re kicking ass.’ no, we’re not. we’re sending young men and young women to iraq to die for bush’s political sake. and we have no idea how to get them back — except of course, for those troops who come back dead. and how do we honor them? we hide the caskets and chant, “usa! usa! usa!” and then allow more to be sent in their place. we have a responsibility to end that conveyor belt.

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