Fred Thompson Compares Debates To Seals Lining Up For Fish

Fred Thompson has been campaigning in Florida and he talked about education, life and death issues, and why he doesn’t like debates. Thompson voted for President Bush’s No Child Left Behind program in 2001, but now he thinks it is not working. He said he would provide federal dollars for education with fewer strings attached. “We’ve been spending increasing amounts of federal money for decades, with increasing rules, increasing mandates, increasing regulations,” Thompson said. “It’s not working.” He said there are problems with the testing with Bush’s No Child Left Behind program. “No Child Left Behind, good concept, I’m all for testing, but it seems like now some of these states are teaching to the test and kind of making it so that everybody does well on the test, you can’t really tell that everybody’s doing that well. And it’s not objective,” Thompson said. A Republican that actually agrees with the folks that are in the trenches with our kids, the teachers union. Thompson said education should be more of a local problem. “We expect you to get objective testing done and publicize those tests for the local parents and for the local citizens and suffer the political ramifications locally if things don’t work out right,” he said. “It’s your responsibility,” Thompson said. “If you don’t like what’s going on, don’t get in your car and drive by your school board and maybe drive by the capitol and get on an airplane and fly to Washington and say, ‘I don’t like the way the school down the street is being run.'” Thompson was also asked what he thought about the Terri Schiavo case. Schiavo was the brain dead lady that Congress tried to save in 2005 when her feeding tube was removed. Congress passed a bill, and President Bush returned from his Texas ranch to sign the bill into law. But a federal judge refused to order the tube reinserted, a decision that was later upheld by the Supreme Court. Meanwhile Terri Schiavo died. Just like education Thompson felt this was a local matter. “Local matters generally speaking should be left to the locals. I think Congress has got an awful lot to keep up with.” But really he didn’t know the details of the case. “I can’t pass judgment on it. I know that good people were doing what they thought was best,” Thompson said. “That’s going back in history. I don’t remember the details of it.” Later in the day he was asked why he was not participating in Values Voter debate in Fort Lauderdale on Monday. He said he would like to participate in as many debates as possible, but his schedule always doesn’t allow it. “Debates are important, but let’s don’t let the tail wag the dog here. Standing up there 10 in a row, you know, like a bunch of seals waiting for someone to throw you the next fish is not necessarily the best way to impart your information to the American people,” Thompson said. “I’m not above acting like a seal every once in a while and waiting for the next fish. I just don’t want to do it all the time.” The Thompson lazy factor is showing up here. On Fox he said he liked debates to be more one on one, and then Mike Huckabee challenged him to one of those. Thompson hasn’t replied to Huckabee yet. This is the second debate he could have participated in, and it appears he will not. He turned down the first one to go on The Tonight Show, a much more relaxed atmosphere. For Thompson it seems easier to just let the locals work it out, because Washington is just to busy to deal with it. Besides I bet a President Thompson will be on vacation or something.
Alan Cosgrove