Opposition Fears Thompson Most?
November 1st, 2007If Jon Ralston is any indicator, Fred strikes deep fear…
I HOPE MOST OF THE ATTENDEES HAD THEIR COFFEE:
Some pharmaceutical company ought to get what Fred Thompson has and start bottling it. It could put NyQuil out of business. Thompson’s soporific, mercifully brief speech this morning to a small gathering of folks — most of them were not GOP types and probably were given free entry to boost the crowd count. I’d like to tell you Thompson had one memorable thing to say besides claiming Ronald Reagan’s legacy mainly by calling him “The Dutchman,” but Arthur Branch had more trenchant bon mots than Thompson in one fleeting “Law and Order” scene.A few Thompson nuggets:
—- The event was at Stoney’s Rockin’ Country on way south Las Vegas Boulevard South, a seemingly incongruous place for a GOP event until you realize it’s owned by Chris Lowden, son of GOP Chairwoman Sue Lowden. Some of the folks sitting at the tables came in from Pahrump and others appeared to have been there since the previous night.
—- The event was emceed by state Sens. Bob Beers and Barbara Cegavske — the former was there apparently because he knows how to read a bad Bill Clinton joke (Beers himself is funnier) and Cegavske was the other half of the duo apparently because she is so, well, peppy, at a morning event.
—- Gov. Jim Gibbons, until he heard his master’s voice calling down the Strip at The Venetian where he had to be at that chamber event, delivered a few welcoming remarks. He talked about the “wonderful casino” where the event was taking place, which was news to everyone there because Stoney’s is not a casino and didn’t appear to have any gaming. Gibbons left quickly and gave the cold shoulder — or was it vice-versa? — to National Committeeman Joe Brown, who was right next to him on stage and whom the governor unceremoniously kicked off the state Athletic Commission a few weeks ago.
— As for Thomson’s speech, which only lasted a few minutes, I can summarize it for you, dear Flashees: Hillary bad, me good, me conservative, low taxes good. Yawn.
=============End of Ralston Review===========================
It’s a free country, and everyone is entitled to their opinion. I think Thompson really is the Republican that Democrats fear the most. Meanwhile, I thought I told a pretty good joke:
A doctor was addressing a large audience in Chicago. “The material we put into our stomachs is enough to kill most of us sitting here,” he said. “Red meat is awful. Soft drinks corrode your stomach lining. Chinese food is loaded with MSG. High fat diets can be disastrous, and none of us realizes the long term harm caused by germs in our drinking water.
But there is one thing that is the most dangerous of all and most of us will eat it or have already eaten it.
Can anyone here tell me what food causes the most grief and suffering for years after eating it?”
After several seconds of quiet, a man in the back of the room stood up, and the room gasped as everyone recognized Bill Clinton. Quietly, he answered “Wedding cake!”
I did warn the crowd I was an accountant.
Some specific rebuttals to Ralston’s report:
“Some of the folks sitting at the tables came in from Pahrump and others appeared to have been there since the previous night.”
I didn’t observe anyone looking particularly disheveled, as if the early morning event was the end of their night rather than the beginning of their day. Anyone else have any theories as to what Jon was trying to say?
Hillary bad, me good, me conservative, low taxes good. Yawn.
I heard more than this. I heard Thompson reject amnesty for illegal immigrants, approve term limits, reinforce the importance of the US Constitution, reproach judicial activism affirm the crowd’s spiritualism, and highlight the common ground we all share rather than the smaller differences we may have on policy. This may have been what Ralston meant by “Hillary bad, me good?”
I did have an interesting set-to with a couple of reporters, who suggested I was wrong in complaining that Hillary wants to socialize medicine in America (and that her advocacy would result in her failure at the polls next November, in the end), even on a continent where Canadian Members of Parliament opt to shell out cash to have American medicine knock out their breast cancer.
They both said Hillary’s single-payer plan is not socialized medicine. I guess that’s where we differ in opinion.