Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Charlie Rose Interview

Fred is on Charlie Rose. I doubt that Rose has much of an audience, which is unfortunate because this interview is outstanding.

They started talking Iran and Iraq and Fred demonstrated a great deal of knowledge and understanding of the political situation as well as intelligence gathering.

Charlie allowed Fred to discuss his ideas of Federalism which dovetailed to Education. Fred explained that he sees education as a federal issue due to world economy and competitiveness. (I'm not sure that I completely agree here, but it does explain how he brings his Federalist position and the education program together).

They moved to the economy--the value of the dollar and tax rates/cuts. Rose brings up illegal immigration. Rose confronted Fred with a Wall Street Journal opinion piece that criticized Fred along with Mitt and Rudy. Fred defended his record on immigration and "respectively disagrees" with the WSJ on this issue.

Rose brought up McCain's position on torture. 1. Torture is not our policy 2. We obey the law 3. Any President, if it comes down to it and the lives of a lot of Americans are saved, then measures commensurate to the situation would be acceptable.

Leadership and character. Fred believes that character and integrity--he mentions Washington in this context. Favorite founder: John Adams.

What is conservative. Rose tried to get Fred onto Bush, but Fred responded, "let's talk about me." Good response. Fred uses the term repeatedly "wisdom of the ages" which goes a long way to explain his idea of conservatism (it goes a long way to explain my own definition of conservatism). Rose brought up Issues (abortion, gay rights, etc.) but Fred says that is not the Principles of conservatism.

Rose asks the question of why Fred ran. Fred gave his answer of leaving the country better off for his children and grandchildren.

Excellent interview. Hopefully some video tomorrow.

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