10:00. The Meet the Press interview is about to start
10:02. Russert asks about Pakistan. Weak answer on telling his people to "learn about the situation". But accurately assesses the political challenges. He does not know what the Pakistan people see that led them to suspend the Constitution.
10:04. "Help work the situation to a civilian government." "Too early to make broad pronouncements."
10:07. Fred makes the case that things are improving drastically in Iraq. He wants to see our troops come home as early as possible, but "as part of a success scenario".
10:09. Now that we are seeing so many good things happen, it would be the absolutely wrong time to set deadlines or precipitously withdraw troops. Fred wants to follow Petraeus' suggestions for troop withdrawal.
10:12. Fred talks about the recruiting talking points of al Qaida IF we leave Iraq without success.
10:14. Fred defends himself well against an incorrect report that he said that there were WMDs in Iraq at the time of our invasion. He point out that Hussein had WMDs at times previous to our invasion, but had designs to regain them.
10:16. Russert is asking about bin Laden and quoting Fred talking about bin Laden being symbolic. Fred is pointing out that catching bin Laden will not solve the terrorism problem.
In this first segment, Russert is hitting pretty hard, but Fred is handling himself very well.
10:18. Russert asks about "torture" and specifically asks about waterboarding. Fred does not deal with waterboarding specifically. "The measures must meet the circumstances" regarding what we do to get information from suspects regarding terror threats.
10:20. Preemption is on the table for Iran, but there are a lot of things that can be done without military action. In particular there is a lot of dissent in Iran. We need to support them and encourage them to take back their country.
10:25. Negotiations with Iran will probably be fruitless since they consider us "the great Satan". He will do all that he can to keep them from getting an atomic bomb. There may be a backlash if we used military. Fred's position is to use other methods to get political change in Iran. Fred is clearly showing himself to be willing to use military power, but make sure that he is not painted as a war hungry candidate.
10:27. Improve our intelligence in Iran. Our decisions are more difficult because we don't have good intelligence.
In this first segment Russert has been trying to push him into decisions that he said he is willing to make (e.g. military into Iran and torturing terrorism suspects) but are not what he considers last resort decisions.
Fred has handled himself well to try to portray himself as not as extreme as Russert is trying to make him out to be.
Domestic issues are next.
10:33. Gun Control. Russert brings up the Virginia Tech massacre. Fred allows for campuses to allow for guns. Not as strong of a statement that he has made before.
10:39. Abortion. Will not propose an amendment prohibiting abortions and even opposes such an amendment. Wants this to be a State issue--Federalism theme. He brings up papers that he said in 1994 where he said that he did not oppose laws over early-term abortion. Fred bring up the distinction between Federal abortion laws and policies versus State laws and policies. He brings up seeing the sonogram of his 4 year old. Fred believes that life begins at conception and would work for the Federal Government to discourage abortion. But still he would allow States to make laws determining various legalities.
10:40. Gay Marriage. Fred reiterates his well-known positions on State's rights on gay marriage.
10:41. Terri Schaivo. Russert asks if he means that there should be no laws involved. Once again States should be the ones dealing with this, and not the Federal government. There would need to be laws.
10:44. Accusation of taking favors from a businessman that is a convicted felon (from back in 1983). Nothing illegal being alleged here. "Phil has paid his debt to society."
10:46. His weight loss. By diet not due to any health issues. Tests performed on the non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in September. Everything is clear. He is interested in the fact that he gets these questions, but others who have announced cancer diagnoses have not been fielding these questions.
He feels better than he has before.
Fred did well. I think he did better than Russert. The interview was a series of mini-attacks on little controversial issues rather than getting a better feel for who he is and where he stands on issues. Russert simply went down the list of issues that have caused a flap on the campaign trail and asked questions on these. In reality it is a disservice to Fred, the show, and the Presidential campaign.
I just noticed that Russert never brought up immigration. Other than the principle of Federalism, this is Fred's #1 issue and it is probably irresponsible to have a "meet the candidate" show that ignores this issue.
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2 comments:
I watched Meet the Press for the first time in many months because of Fred Thompson`s appearance. I feel he came across very knowledgable and forthright. That is one reason I am supporting him. I am tired of pandering and evading questions. Even tho' I would like an end to all abortions, I understand that will never happen at the federal level. And I am also a federalist and believe in power to the states. I wonder how many voters know what a federalist is.
Keep up the good work.
I agree with you on abortions. But I also think that Fred is absolutely correct on a couple of levels. From the legal standpoint, this will have to be addressed at the state level. Reversing Roe is the only way for that to happen. From a practical standpoint, abortions will only become "rare" when people are converted in their thinking about life.
I don't think many voters know about federalism, which is one reason that I am frustrated with Russert for not allowing for that discussion today.
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