The American Spectator

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p> LIMITED GOVERNMENT THOMPSON br> Re: Lawrence Henry's Creative Destruction in the GOP : /p>

While I agree with a great deal of what Mr. Henry has to say in his column, I believe that he is looking at the candidates through at least a partial MSM prism. He writes; "Other than Paul and Duncan Hunter, no one in the contest decisively represents limited government conservatism, the essence of Ronald Reagan's message." That quite simply is NOT true. Whatever else you may think of him as a candidate, Fred Thompson is a definite "limited government conservative." He is a champion of federalism to his very core. Many of the disagreements that he has with the GOP electorate come about due to his penchant for attempting to push issues down to the state level and away from Washington D.C. Come now, Mr. Henry, is not that the very definition of "limited government conservatism"? If it is not, perhaps you can tell us how you are defining the term.

You also write; "Fred Thompson has great ideas and a surfeit of charisma, but would apparently rather blog from home than speak on the stump or shake hands in diners." It is certainly true that Sen. Thompson has not been away from home campaigning for a year and a half, almost solid, as some of the other candidates have. However, I was paying attention and saw that Fred did a bus tour of Iowa during the two weeks leading up to the caucus. I have also noted that he is campaigning hard, and almost constantly, on the ground in South Carolina. He does not seem to be "blogging from home" to me, but perhaps you have a different definition for that phrase.

Now I admit to being a fan of Sen. Thompson, but has it now come to pass that the nomination is supposed to be wrapped up by the night BEFORE the Iowa caucus, or the day after the New Hampshire primary? Can we now simply do away with the bother and expense of the nomination battles in the other 48 states? How many years ahead of time must a candidate announce his interest in the POTUS nomination to not be deemed to be starting too late? How many of these inane, stupid, boring "debates" must a candidate endure to be considered legitimate? Oh, and how about having real debates instead of these ritualized multi-candidate press conferences designed to give the media a way to try to be relevant? Are nominating conventions now decreed to be simply expensive wastes of money because the nominee is already settled. I, for one, would welcome an old fashioned convention where no one has the votes for the nomination on opening night of the affair. People in the media, and elsewhere, wonder and/or bemoan the fact that no one watches the conventions any more. The TV networks are even curtailing coverage. Why not? They are boring affairs where nothing is decided that wasn't already a fait accompli.

p>Mr. Henry, I understand that you make your living expressing your opinions in writing. I applaud you for that. That does not, however, give you a pass to get away with writing things that are demonstrably wrong on their face. Do try to keep you columns plausible, won't you? br> -- Ken Shreve /p>

Fred Thompson has been out speaking to audiences and meeting people and shaking hands. I get updates everyday about what he has been doing. He has not been "blogging from home!" You guys might get out into the "countryside" sometime before you try make all these calls about conservatives. They (we) are still here. We just don't live in New Hampshire and Iowa, and we haven't voted yet, though everyone is trying to make it so we can't vote for who we support.

Also, I am distressed that our conservative writers are becoming as unimaginative as the former mainstream media!

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