Jennifer, I largely disagree with you on Thompson's performance.
I thought he came across quite well, and offered a stark contrast
to the big, bithering, blob that he's been portrayed as. On
challenging international issues: Iraq, Iran, and Pakistan he
displayed a sober understanding of the complexity of the
situations. When challenged by Russert on some controversial
statements he made (Iraq having had WMD, the insurgency being a
"bunch of kids,") Thompson defended himself quite well. He didn't
mean Saddam had WMD immediately before the invasion, but that
Saddam had had them at one time and posessed the technological
knowledge and ability to restart the program. He said not that the
insurgency is just "a bunch of kids" but that Al Qaeda would
portray a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq to recruits as a bunch of kids
beating the mighty U.S. On Iran, I don't think he sounded
Hillary-ish at all. He seemed perfectly willing and ready to use
military force as a last resort if we have good intellegence. But
he said that there are a lot of things we could be doing that we're
not currently doing--such as supporting opposition groups within
Iran given the economic turmoil.
As for his answers on abortion, it should be interesting to see
how they play out. His failure to support a human life amendment
could hurt him among social conservatives, and again brings up this
tricky situation since he also said life begins at conception. This
will raise the question: if he believes life begins at conception
and thus abortion is the taking of a human life, why shouldn't the
federal government be involved? And yes, his comment that "you
can't have a law that cuts off an age group or something like that
which potentially would take young girls in extreme situations and
say, basically, we're going to put them in jail to do that," was
Rudy-like. However, to compare his present position to Rudy by
singling out that statement simply isn't being fair or accurate.
Thompson said explicitly that Roe v. Wade
should be overturned; Giuliani has refused to make that
declaration, only saying that he'd appoint strict constructionists
who could go either way with it. Not to mention Thompson's perfect
pro-life voting record, against Giuliani's long record of
supporting choice.
So, in summary, I thought Thompson's performance showed that his
intellectual capacity and command of the issues is much deeper that
he's been given credit for, but his answers on abortion will
probably raise more questions, and perhaps lose him support among
social conservatives who are torn between him, Romney and Huckabee.
topics:
Abortion, Law, Military, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Oil
