Thompson Talks The Talk

He will walk the walk too. Read On...

Thompson talked about the issues that he has said will be the focus of his campaign if he decides to run — entitlement reform and national security, chief among them. He also took questions about other issues including abortion and immigration as the attendees sought to get a better sense of his brand of Republican politics.

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On national security, Thompson reiterated his commitment to winning the war on terror and said the question in a post-Iraq world would be whether we would be living in a dangerous world or a very dangerous world.

On immigration, as on several other issues, Thompson did not lay out a specific policy proposal. Instead, he spoke in general terms. Thompson said that he does not believe it is possible to have a secure country without secure borders, a position that pleased many of the House Republicans for whom immigration is a "burning issue." He also said he would oppose any plan to offer blanket amnesty to illegal immigrants currently in the United States. But Thompson told the group that simply deporting those illegals is not a practical solution.

And on abortion, his comments echoed those he gave to The Weekly Standard last week, when I asked about press reports from his first Senate campaign in 1994 that identified him as pro-choice. Thompson said: "I have read these accounts and tried to think back 13 years ago as to what may have given rise to them. Although I don't remember it, I must have said something to someone as I was getting my campaign started that led to a story. Apparently, another story was based upon that story, and then another was based upon that, concluding I was pro-choice." He added: "I was interviewed and rated pro-life by the National Right to Life folks in 1994, and I had a 100-percent voting record on abortion issues while in the Senate."

In a phone interview shortly after Thompson left Capitol Hill, Representative Westmoreland said that his colleagues left impressed. "He didn't dance around any issue," Westmoreland says. "There was no 'BS-ing' around."

Courtesy of Stephen F. Hayes of the Weekly Standard by way of CBS News

CBS News eh? ... Looks like the old media is catching on.