Collins Report

By John F. Allen
One of the facts of political life is that whomever we pick as our next president will be something less than the ideal we hold for our national leaders. This is not to say that we should not push our field of Republican candidates as hard as we can to get the best man we can. This is to soberly consider that we must make decisions or decisions will be made for us. I’ve never been a “none of the above” fan. That’s no better than staying home.

As many of you, I have sat back waiting for Ronald Reagan to figuratively reappear. I’m a New Yorker who lost two friends in the 9-11 sneak attack. Because of that I started out as a Rudy supporter. I wanted him to be the man I could back. I have met him one to one a few times and liked what I saw. I also have a friend who was steam rolled by the viciousness of Rudy and destroyed. I was willing to even look past that (surprisingly my friend himself was willing to do so as will first).

Over the past weeks, I’ve seen Rudy has attributes I like that we can get from others who don’t have the negatives Rudy brings with him. Pro life and pro real marriage are important issues to me, but national security and border control are essential. I see control of our borders as a subset of national security. Nevertheless, Fred Thompson is better than Rudy on illegal aliens and has as good a gasp of the importance of national security. More than this Fred is 100% pro life. That let’s Rudy out for me.

I believe Mitt Romney is a good decent man who said and did a few things as governor of a very blue state that he could possibly be given a pass for. But the reality of today’s Republican Party is that the Evangelical Christians can destroy those they don’t like and they don’t like this good man.

Huckabee is a fraud and only different from Bill Clinton in that he is pro life. But he is pro tax and willing to spend our money to cater to illegal alien invaders. His pro life position is not enough to overcome his other shortcomings.

Like 95% of the true conservative base, I totally distrust John McCain. He can not be trusted with our money ( lost his understanding of the value of tax cuts), our national security ( he badmouthed Gitmo) our borders ( he is an open border supporter and an amnesty supporter) or our 1st amendment rights ( McCain Feingold).

Ron Paul is supported by the Klan and people like that. He wants to surrender in Iraq and is in a class with McCain.

This leaves Fred Thompson. By no means is Fred Thompson a perfect candidate. But he has no major baggage save for things manufactured by the media. The Democrats are on their way to nominate either a Black Muslim, the most hated candidate in the field in Hillary Clinton, or John Edwards who is a socialist in the George McGovern mold. All are 100% socialist. All are very beatable targets. By running a relatively blemish free man who is much more conservative than not, we can hold the White House.

Thompson’s positions
It makes little difference which issue is the most important to you, without a strong secure American military to guard our way of life all other issues will fade into insignificance. Fred Thompson is a man who understands that Al Qaeda will destroy America if we try talking to them instead of fighting them. He understands that if your issue is pro life you’ll get death, death, and more death. There will be no abortions if we lose or country. Terrorists won’t allow abortions; they’ll just kill the non Islamist parents. Thompson gets the issue of a strong America, big time.
Thompson understands the need to stave the federal spending beast. He will open the government’s books to head off the crisis we know is coming. He’s been there. He has learned the Washington- speak about budgets. He has a young family with an older wiser mind. Every night he sees reminders of just how important it is to get these next four years right.

Fred is not afraid to speak the truth about the tax code that has become our master over the past forty years. Like others he wants fundamental tax code reforms, but he knows that’s not enough. Fred wants to rebuild the IRS to finally make it serve us. This is no small issue. The US tax code is out of control and we know it. Fred wants to take it on because he understands that.
The first thing Fred has to say about healthcare is that America has the best system of healthcare in the world. Starting from that basic position we can be sure that he will not fall for the blather about 47 million uninsured Americans. He knows we can do better but he knows if we did nothing we could get along just fine. Thompson has not said so, but he seems to recognize that a huge portion of the “47 million uninsured American” are illegal aliens. As a believer in the power of the free market, Thompson wants to turn it loose on the medical services delivery system.
Fred has the total support of the leading Pro life organizations in the nation. He is for traditional marriage and freedom of religious practice, and giving the states the responsibly to insure these things. If you think the federal government should enforce anti gay marriage laws you disagree with Fred.
Fred Thompson is against open borders and amnesty for those who sneak into our nation uninvited or approved. He understands that America is our home and we and only we can decide who comes in and who does not come into our home. Fred will violate states rights when it comes to “sanctuary cities.” He will use the power of the presidency to end “sanctuary cities.” If you are more concerned with states right than kicking out illegal alien invaders, you and Fred disagree. Fred gets it on illegals. Fred will insure these things by “appointing strict constructionist judges who will interpret the law, not impose their views on us by legislating from the bench,” as Fred has said on his website.
Fred is pro choice on one issue: education. He wants parents to choose the schools that educate their children through a voucher system and charter schools. He understands that federal money in our schools means federal control of our schools. He wants transparency in our schools. Those of us living in big cities share Fred’s understanding of how important this can be.

A note of caution
On the issue of energy security Fred is basically fuzzy and actually needs a good kick in the butt to get him to where we need him to be. One hundred dollar per barrel oil is the direct result of Democrat and rino policies that have crippled us for far too long. Unfortunately the best we can say here is that we will be faced with an easier task getting Fred on board for what has to be done than most others in the field. He is still talking mumbo jumbo on energy security, and his talk about “reducing demand” and “reducing green house gases (read global warming ) which is disguised as “C O2 emissions” makes me nervous, but we have to work on a few things and obviously this is one of them. As I have said, by no means is Fred a perfect candidate. He is however head and shoulders above the rest.
Fred Thompson strongly supports the Second Amendment and the right to bear arms. He recognizes that taking guns away from lawful Americans is wrong and not something he will engage in or allow. Thompson wants strict enforcement of laws against unlawful use of firearms.