Fred calls for unity, then blasts rivals

Posted: Monday, November 05, 2007 12:52 PM by Mark Murray

After a scramble for autographs on the event’s traditional souvenir -- the wooden egg --Thompson delivered his typical stump speech, addressing immigration, economic security, and the lack of integrity in Washington. “If you can't run for president by telling the truth then you shouldn’t be running for president,” he said, recycling a favorite line. “Washington has no credibility anymore with the American people. I don’t think anybody believes anything coming out of Washington anymore.”

But then Thompson tried to tread on ground Obama often walks on by presenting himself as a unifying candidate, ready to reach across party lines to build a consensus on the tough issues. “All these things have to be dealt with on a bipartisan basis,” he said. “And all you see is fighting over things large and small, meaningful and meaningless out of Washington, DC. And when a leader comes forth nowadays and says look, here’s the problem … here’s what we need to do, I know that you’ll join with me as Americans have in times past in difficult times and we’ll get through this thing together. When that speech is made who’s going to believe it anymore?

“I’d like to think the [Bush] Administration would have done a lot more things had it not been for 9/11, but you’ve got to recognize that that did happen. But now we’ve got to get back to a situation that’s growing even worse… Loss of confidence in our government is not good.”

He continued on that theme when answering a question posed by Wayne Jennings of the New Hampshire Cultural Diversity Awareness Council on the importance of racial diversity. Thompson equated the scourge of racial discrimination to problems with gender discrimination and discrimination against the undereducated -- referencing his own mother who had “no formal education,” because she had to go to work but was still able to provide “moral support.”

“I don’t know how a president can create that [moral support] other than to know that it’s the truth and to use the bully pulpit of America to speak the truth about that,” Thompson said. “At the end of the day, and all of the partisan battles, and you get into the mud wrestling in the primary and then you really get into the mud wrestling in the general election. Are you going to mean enough? Are you going to be aggressive enough? Are you going to kick hard enough? And all that. I don’t think the American people want a mud wrestler for president. But I do think the American people want someone who understands, at the end of the day, he represents all the people.”

This answer impressed Jennings so much that he invited Thompson to speak at his organization’s Martin Luther King Jr. event two days before the expected primary date on January 8. But after speaking tough on staying above the fray of partisan politics, Thompson criticized nearly all of his opponents in a brief interview with Fox News’ Carl Cameron. 

“We can talk about sanctuary cities,” Thompson said. “[Huckabee] wanted a sanctuary state in Arkansas. He’s very weak on immigration policy. He was one of the highest taxing governors that we had in this country.

“Governor Romney supported the Administration’s position [on immigration]. [He] said Republicans who oppose the president would make a mistake. Well, I’m one of them. I guess I was making a mistake. In fact, I wasn’t. I said it’s a bad bill and it won’t fly, and the American people are saying enforce the borders first before you get into these other policies.

“Now I’ve put out an immigration plan, which would also crack down on sanctuary cities. We’ve got cities in this country that basically say to their employees, you cannot help the federal authorities when you find illegal immigration. It makes no sense at all. It goes against our policies, the rule of law and it goes against national security. And yet that’s what Mayor Giuliani supports.”

So much for staying above the fray...

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