[The following is a guest commentary penned by former FlashReport Managing Editor and Fred Thompson supporter Nicholas Romero who attended the Thompson rally yesterday. – Flash]
Yesterday morning I had the great pleasure of attending a rally of roughly seven hundred experienced conservative activists who all came together in the City of Laguna Woods to listen to and support former United States Senator and presidential candidate Fred Thompson. What a great event. Don’t believe me? Check out the Orange County Register’s write-up or the Los Angeles Times’s piece.
Former KFI radio host, now documentarian John Ziegler emceed and began the proceedings with a couple of zingers. (He, of course, made clear everyone understood he was speaking only for himself and not the Thompson campaign.) Take, for instance, his confidence in the superiority of the Republican field over the Democrat field of candidates for the presidency. He said, “All you need to do to see how much better our candidates are than theirs is to compare our nutjob to their nutjob. I’d take Ron Paul over Dennis Kucinich any day!”
Retired California Army National Guard Lieutenant Colonel and Assemblyman Chuck DeVore – who was one of the first to endorse Thompson many months ago – oversaw the posting of the colors, the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, and the retiring of the colors by cadets in the Cal State Fullerton ROTC. Laguna Woods is a retirement community of high propensity voters in DeVore’s Assembly District. So, as a joke, he instructed the crowd of potential retiree constituents to not hold Thompson’s youth against him, since he is three years younger than Ronald Reagan when he won the presidency. He also reminded the crowd that Rush Limbaugh recently stated on air that, “the only consistent conservative is Fred Thompson.”
Former Republican State Senator and United States Senate candidate Dick Mountjoy followed DeVore and more Ziegler jokes with a big announcement of his own. On stage, at the rally, Mountjoy officially endorsed Fred Thompson for President of the United States. He talked about the War on Terror and it’s seriousness and his confidence in Thompson’s ability to lead our country in war and protect his grandchildren. It was a strong message delivered by a man one wishes had the opportunity to represent our great state in Washington.
Next came State Senator and conservative icon Tom McClintock (pictured below with Thompson). Ziegler introduced him as, “the man who should have been elected Governor,” to a raucous applause. He also said McClintock was the smartest man in the State Legislature, to which Senator McClintock replied once he took the podium, “being called the smartest in the Legislature is like being called the tallest building in Modesto.” McClintock explained to us that he’s never seen an episode of “Law & Order” and he hasn’t been wildly enthusiastic about a presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan, However, after hearing Thompson avail himself in interviews, avail conservatism with simplicity, appeal, and concision, and seeing Thompson prominently take on Al Gore’s flawed theory of anthropogenic global warming, McClintock knew who he would support for President of the United States in this election cycle.
Finally, after campaign hands quickly raised the podium to a suitable height, Fred and Jeri Thompson took the stage greeted by the hundreds of wildly enthusiastic rally attendees. Since I was seated in the bleachers directly behind Thompson, I was in a perfect position to see just how happy the crowd was to see him.
Thompson opened by remarking that, “every time [he hears] Tom [McClintock] speak, there’s not much left for [him] to say.” His speech touched on lowering taxes, the War on Terror, illegal immigration, again taxes and entitlement programs, judicial appointments, and campaigning on one’s own beliefs not out of political pragmatism. He didn’t talk about gun rights or abortion, probably figuring the audience knew where he stood on those issues and that those stances won’t change (unlike others’ stances).
He said, “I don’t need to add to my resume, I just care about my country,” and, “I don’t think the country will turn the reigns over to the most left-wing people of the left-wing party.” These were, in essence, very clever ways of digging at Romney, who seems to have started running for president in utero, and Giuliani, who’s counting on everyone forgetting how left-wing he is if he just – falsely – states that he’s the only Republican who can beat Hillary enough.
He brought up the Separation of Powers and constitutional necessity that government act slowly to preserve individual liberties. He also invoked what has been from the very beginning his campaign’s watchword: federalism. He stands by the Tenth Amendment and believes in its virtues, even if local control might – perhaps – allow Huckabee to increase taxes on Arkansans, or Romney to shove a socialized health care plan down Bay Staters’ throats, or Giuliani to provide taxpayer-funded public services to illegal immigrants.
(In order to warn you against some potentially misleading future video on YouTube, Thompson also – accidentally – referred to the Death Tax as the “death penalty” when calling for its end. Attendees knew exactly what he meant, and he caught himself, but an opponent campaign’s film editor could probably make a mountain out of mole hill with regards to it.)
However, the most powerful thing for me was not getting to sit behind Thompson as he delivered a speech to hundreds of people and dozens of flashing cameras and getting to meet him and Jeri again, as now I’ve heard him speak and met them a few times. The most powerful thing for me was watching a woman seated near the back left (my left) of the audience proudly raise her hand-made sign that read, “Marine Wife For Fred” (pictured below). For that’s what this election is about.
It’s about electing our next Commander-in-Chief. It’s about electing someone who views his responsibilities with seriousness, not someone who equates political handshakes with military service (Romney). It’s about electing someone who cares about the men and women in uniform, not someone who seems to disregard the opinions of and relationships with his own children or might be inclined to use Air Force One for fancy dates or extramarital affairs (Giuliani). It’s about electing someone who will ensure that those who have so far sacrificed their lives for the cause of world freedom did not die in vain, not someone who has only a myopic worldview, who believes we can, as President Kennedy said, “ride the back of the tiger,” of radical Islam (every one of the Democrats and Ron Paul).
All of this furthered the hope that next year I will have the pleasure of rallying for Fred Thompson’s acceptance of the Republican nomination for President of the United States. Visit www.fred08.com for details about how you can help make that hope a reality.
Thank you for reading.
Respectfully,
Nicholas Romero
FlashReport Managing Editor Emeritus
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