Yesterday afternoon, I was invited to a small private reception with former United States Senator Fred Thompson at the beautiful home of the Davis family, nestled on the coastal hillside overlooking Crystal Cove State Park and the pacific ocean in Newport Beach. It truly was an intimate affair, with about twenty folks in attendance, including the Presidential aspirant, his beautiful wife, and two of Thompson’s political point people in California, longtime political strategist Ken Khachigian and local consultant Dave Ellis.
All told had nearly an hour with Senator Thompson, and it was spent the way you would like it to be… We all gathered up chairs in the back patio of this gorgeous home and had an intimate chat with the man who aspires to the top elective office in our nation.
Having never spent any real quality time with Thompson before, I have to say I was very impressed by him. It was very clear in hearing him talk about issues (and this was an environment where he was free to expand on issues, without having a time-keeper reigning him in) that he truly has put a lot of thought into the issues of the day.
Thompson talked about the challenges facing America today, and how resolving many of them will necessitate a President who is willing to make hard decisions, since we are in some tough times. His topics ranged from the growing capabilities of China to the importance of making permanent President Bush’s tax cuts.
Thompson was asked whether he would consider running on a ticket with independent Senator Joe Lieberman. Thompson took the question as a serious one, and actually walked all of us through his relationship and friendship with Lieberman (the two had a Committee Chairman/Ranking Member pairing on a major committee for many years). He had great things to say about him. He did not say he would slate up with Lieberman though, nor, however, did he rule it out…
One question that Thompson answered without equivocation was his position on gay marriage. He was clear that he opposed any special privileges or status for gay people, and the marriage can only be between a man and a woman.
I can tell you that I was very impressed that Thompson took note of that fact that yesterday would have been the birthday of famed nobel lauriate scholor and economist Milton Friedman, and he spent a few minutes talking about Friedman’s philosophies. Outstanding.
The last question posited to Thompson was asked by a pastor of a large congregation, who wanted to know about how Thompson was going to take on Hillary Clinton. Thompson talked about Hillary’s amazingly high 50% negative rating, and mentioned that he felt that while her husband would be of assistance to her during the primary, he would be a severe problem for her in a general election. He added that he thought that Hillary was actually the least formidable of the prominent Democrats, and that if she were the nominee, we had all best be prepared for a very negative campaign.
Though the gathering was small, there were some familiar faces amongst the group, whom I shall not call out here. But I will say that it was a pleasure to see former FlashReport Managing Editor Nicholas Romero at the event. For those of you who don’t get to spent much time with Nick, for the past few months, all he can talk about is Fred Thompson’s candidacy. Nick is pictured to the right with Thompson’s wife, Jeri. Notice the big smile on Nick’s face!
Thompson had just flown into the airport before coming to our little event, and I know that he had two larger events to go…. The first an event with the Orange County New Majority, and then last evening he had a more traditional fundraising event for his exploratory efforts.
We’ll see how Senator Thompson’s campaign gears up over the coming months, but I can tell you that he certainly made quite an impression on those of us that where gathered on the Newport Coast this afternoon. While Thompson did not come across as super-enegetic to our little group, he did come across as someone with the gravitas and with the expertise to be a very capable President.
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