Take it to the bank. OK, maybe not.
That was the result of our 2008 presidential straw poll on the radio earlier Monday. Fred Thompson, who has yet to declare his candidacy, defeated John Edwards three votes to two. Mike Huckabee, John McCain and Ron Paul received one vote each.
What was very clear is this — thoughtful conservatives have not yet settled in their own minds which candidate they should get behind.
I’m wondering if many are projecting onto Thompson the attributes of their ideal candidate, regardless of where he stands on the issue. I see that with Giuliani, although not as much as when he first edged toward candidacy.
I was with a group of 17 yr. old young Republicans last week who will vote for the first time in the next election. They were excited about Fred Thompson’s candidacy because his record on social issues seemed to be more consistent than some of the other top tier candidates. Immigration, the Iraq war also loomed as important areas, but they felt a candidate’s position on the social issues portends for the others.
While I don’t know much about Thompson, I think that conservatives should take a close look at Mike Huckabee. He is with us on all of the important issues: immigration, abortion, taxes, national security, war on terror, etc. I am looking forward to a debate that eliminates people like Gilmore, Tommy Thompson, Ron Paul, and Tom Tancredo, so that Huckabee’s record can be compared and constrasted more clearly with the 3 top-tier candidates.
Huckabee is moving up in the Iowa polls. The latest has him in 4th place — ahead of McCain, but behind Romney, Thompson and Julie Annie.
I’m curious to know what you all think about Thompson (the one who isn’t running yet, but will be!). People keep comparing him to Reagan, so I’d be interested to hear what the PRO-PACkers think about that.
Found this in Newsweek:
On a 1994 Eagle Forum survey, Thompson said he opposed criminalizing abortion. Two years later, on a Christian Coalition questionnaire, he checked “opposed” to a proposed constitutional amendment protecting the sanctity of human life. He struggled with the question of when life begins. “I do believe that the decision to have an early term abortion is a moral issue and should not be a legal one subject to the dictates of the government,” he wrote in a campaign policy statement filed in the archives.
Stapled to the paper was a January 1994 interview that Thompson gave to the Conservative Spectator, a Tennessee newspaper. Thompson told the paper, “I’m not willing to support laws that prohibit early term abortions … It comes down to whether life begins at conception. I don’t know in my own mind if that is the case so I don’t feel the law ought to impose that standard on other people.” The file also includes a copy of answers provided in 1994 to another newspaper. “The ultimate decision on abortion should be left with the woman and not the government,” he answered.