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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: D. Long who wrote (217023)	8/26/2007 1:09:45 AM
From: KLP	Respond to of 793842

Any time now ...Complete Fred Thompson Interview Aug 25, 2007 04:35 PM PDT wishtv.com INDIANAPOLIS - While in the Circle City for the Midwest Republican Leadership Conference possible Republican candidate for President Fred Thompson granted his only one on one interview exclusively to 24-Hour News 8's Karen Hensel. Thompson talked about a wide variety of topics ranging from Peyton to his possible run for President. Here is the complete transcription from Saturday's interview. Karen: Advice for Peyton as he goes into the game tonight? Fred: Keep on doing what you're doing. Don't listen to too much advice" Karen: You are used to auditions, now you are auditioning for the career of a lifetime. How do you prepare for that? Fred: I don't prepare for it as such, I think it has to do with how you relate to the people. You've got to be yourself. You've got to speak what's on your mind and in your heart and see whether or not you're a man for the times. It's just that simple. You don't try to necessarily go out of your way to appeal to any particular group. You can't get the job under false pretenses. You've got to lay it out the way it is and see whether or not that connects. If it doesn't you better find out soon. You better find out before you become President. Karen: People do compare you to Ronald Reagan, is that fair. Are you similar? Fred: No, that's not fair because there's no other Ronald Reagan. Nobody can live up to that. But I like the comparison if they're talking about the fact he was so believable because he believed so strongly in what he did and that came across. It didn't have anything to do with acting technique or I don't think even making any great stylistic gestures on the speakers podium. It was the intensity of his ideas, it's what he stood for and the fact that he believed so strongly in them and stayed with them through thick and thin. Now, if they want to make that comparison I'd love to have that. But in terms of communication and directly in terms with the American people there will probably never be anybody that will be his equal. Karen: At a time some people are calling for troop withdrawal, if you were President today, what would be your message-what would be your decision? Fred: It is presumptuous to say exactly what you would do when you're not president and you don't have access to all the information that he has. But it certainly seems to me like announcing a troop withdrawal date or withdrawing troops too rapidly would be a big mistake for our country. Iraq is only the front in a much more serious matter, in a much larger global war. We cannot leave before we have stabilized the place if at all possible, it at all possible. Because we're going to be looked upon as divided among our people and people will wonder whether or not if we are too weak to sustain progress in that regard. That will make the world much more dangerous, that will make the United States much more dangerous. So we shouldn't be talking about withdrawing troops until it is obvious there is no more hope and I think we're a long way from that point now. Karen: So stay the course. Fred: I'm not using any particular catch-phrase. I just think General Patraeus will be making a report to us before long and we ought to wait and listen to him and see what he has to say. Nobody said stay forever in a hopeless cause. But to only have a debate about withdrawing troops and when to withdraw troops and not how to achieve what opportunity we might have to stabilize the situation and leave that place better than when we found it under Saddam Hussein I think would be a very big mistake for us. That would come back to haunt us for many years in the future. Karen: A year ago I was in Iraq and I have focused a lot on roadside bombs and the traumatic brain injuries our troops are getting. As they come back and this war ends are there any military programs you would like to see in place that are not already there or ones we should focus on? Fred: That's getting down into details again that someone who is not there, does not have full information. We're clearly doing a better job in a lot of areas. But is is unfortunate it has taken so long to be able to counter the improvised explosive devices that's doing so much damage to our people. You go to the hospitals and medical centers that take care of our troops when they come back and you see most of them have those kinds of injuries. I'd like to see our technology be at a point where we can counter that better. We can't let a bunch of kids on the Iraq/Iranian border making these little devices bring the United States to it's knees. So that is one thing, but the broader picture is much more important for anybody who thinks about the presidency. That is the fact we're going to have to make more of a commitment, more of a fiscal commitment, toward our military and what we have to confront in the future. We're going to have to do a better job as far as our intelligence capabilities which we let wither on the vine. We took a holiday from history back in the 90's and we cut our military, we cut our procurement, we cut our research and development. We've got to change that and understand this is a long protracted deal and the world is not sitting idly by while we solve our terrorism problem. We still have a big world out there that can pose dangers to us that we've got to be able to defend ourselves against. That's what I'm concerned about. Karen: I know you've said "it won't be long" about making an announcement one way or the other. What's the advantage to showing up in the polls as well as you do, showing up at events and you haven't declared? Fred: You test the waters and see if you can raise the money as an organization to be competitive. This is not a part of some strategy of mine it's just that I haven't been deciding I wanted to run for president since I was high school prom king, and I never was incidentally. We're doing in a few months what others have taken years to do. We simply want to do it step by step on the right way. They made different rules this year. Usually people don't announce until later than this but this year everybody wanted to get out there earlier and start spending large huge amounts of money that much earlier. I just refuse to play that game. I couldn't if I wanted to. I don't think it's necessary. I think all the inside the beltway pundits and politicians and all the people who make their living off of this process have stampeded everybody into a much earlier process than necessary. If you can't get your message out in the months that you've got to do so with modern communications being what they are than you don't have much of a message. All that to say it won't be long before we're making a statement on it so to all my friends out there all I can say is keep the powder dry. Karen: Your producer from Law and Order said when you walk in the room people want to "stand and salute". Is there anything similar between you and the tough guy we know from Law and Order? Fred: Just the good stuff. I had a little input into some of the comments my character would make or not make. But it's a character, let's just say I've been a lawyer and I've been a prosecutor so to play a lawyer prosecutor on television was not that much of a stretch for me.