Buried Planet

Kathryn Jean Lopez of NRO notes Rush Limbaugh’s full quote from Thursday’s program, noting, without endorsing, that Fred is the lone conservative.

There was one candidate who did not display any moderateness or liberalism or have any of his past forays into those areas displayed, and that candidate was Fred Thompson. Now, this is not an endorsement. You know, I don’t endorse during primaries. I just point out: These are things I noticed, and I’ve told you during the course of this one campaign year that one of the things that’s bothering me, is I’m a Reagan conservative, and I believe in conservatism. It’s in my soul and it’s in my heart, and I know it is the best way for us to manage our affairs to ensure the most prosperity for the most, to continue our freedom, to protect our country.

Conservatism sees people and sees potential. Liberalism looks at people and sees victims. Liberalism looks at people and sees incompetence, and, “We gotta help ‘em out and keep ‘em forever dependent so we’ll always have power.”

and

While everybody is talking about Fred Thompson, “He’s too lazy. He’s too lackadaisical. He doesn’t seem to have whole lot of energy.” Fine and dandy. I’m not going to argue with people about your perceptions of attitudes and so forth.  I will say this.  I don’t think anybody would get into this mess running for the presidency, the media and all of these things. You can’t imagine what these people go through.  You wouldn’t want to go through it, and I can’t imagine somebody put themselves through it if they really don’t want it.  

Captain Ed of Captain’s Quarters similarly comments on the Rush quote:

I like almost all of the Republican candidates, for different reasons. My conservatism is of the Goldwater mold, the “leave us alone” faction, as Grover Norquist describes it. Some of these candidates have more of that, and some have less. Thompson, in my mind, has more of it, and a much stronger defense of federalist principles than most.

However, electability does factor into the decision-making process. So far, Fred has not changed, but expectations did. He has performed in the campaign much like he did in the precampaign, which is to say deliberately, thoughtfully, and philosophically. Unfortunately for those impatient for him to join the campaign, he did not assume a personality for the sake of a presidential run. Thompson gives us the authentic Thompson, for better or worse, and the question is whether one can run a philosopher’s campaign and hope to beat candidates running in beauty-contest mode. John McCain, by the way, has a similar problem.

Like Rush, I could support almost anyone who appeared on the stage in Florida on Wednesday. I don’t feel comfortable endorsing a specific candidate at this point because I don’t see a complete match for my policy goals in any one of them. I can wait until the primary to decide — and some of the conservative activists who endorse against their interests may have been better advised to do the same.