Mark My Words - commentary on news, politics, religion, philosophy, science and social issues

For those who are still undecided or willing to consider other candidates, the Republican presidential primary candidates will debate tonight in Myrtle Beach, S.C., live on FOX News Channel and FOXNews.com at 9 p.m. ET. I would also check their new section You Decide 2008 for the live streaming video of the debate. It's always best to be as informed as possible before voting and watching the debate will certainly help. You can also read up on Fred Thompson's detailed policy positions here. If you don't like mere platitudes and sound bites, Fred Thompson is your man.

Beyond presenting policy with detail and taking on serious issues, Fred Thompson is the only candidate who can unite the social, fiscal and foreign policy conservatives. This coalition will be crucial to winning the general election. Regarding social conservative values, Fred Thompson has the plan for moving our country forward on conservative social values, with the most chance for lasting success. But even better, he has the most credibility, having not pandered when at different levels of government or being very late to embrace certain positions. Because of this he's received the endorsement of a national pro-life group and a number of state affiliates.

Fred Thompson's approach to government is federalism and this can appeal to moderates more than someone haphazardly saying we need this or that amendment and having that list continuously grow. While a candidate doing so may win sound bite contests in whatever group is being addressed at the time, they're only making promises that will nearly be impossible to fulfill. It would be bad enough for a candidate to not understand the political realities arrayed against fulfilling such campaign promises, but to realize this and still throw the pandering sound bites out there, indicates that winning is seen by that candidate as being more important than speaking honestly to voters. Fred Thompson has not done this, he continues to speak straight and honestly about how to achieve his goals for the country, while being consistently conservative on social values, the economy and national security.

Fred Thompson also has the best plan for dealing with illegal immigration. In fact, rather than making wild promises to supporters or advisers, then nearly immediately step back from that, part of Fred Thompson's plan has already been shown to work when applied by states. Fred Thompson has also been able to explain his position with compassion for the plight that illegals find themselves in and that the problem is Mexico needs to fix it's economy, rather than rely on ours by way of exporting it's own citizens and violating our laws and negatively affecting our economy and job market.

To those who support Fred Thompson or hope he moves up in the polls, the time to strike is now. South Carolina is central to Fred Thompson's campaign. Right now, the contest is shaping up as a race between Fred Thompson, McCain and Huckabee. Mitt Romney, the best funded candidate, has decided to pull ad time from South Carolina for now and focus on other states. This means that the candidates left, have a more equal footing regarding finances. Huckabee has been faltering a bit in the polls lately as well.
If you've been holding back on helping Fred Thompson financially, looking for the best time, this is it. As Fred's Campaign manager, notes:

If all of Fred's friends who have not contributed financially would go to our website and donate just $10 the campaign would get an immediate 2 million dollar boost!

Those of us who supported Thompson during the Iowa caucus gave him a ticket to South Carolina. The rest of you now have a chance to set Fred Thompson's campaign on fire and give him the ticket from South Carolina to the GOP nomination. I've exceeded my last donation and this is the third time I've reached into my less than rich pocket to help Fred Thompson be the next President of the U.S. Please do what you can to help. Even if you simply do not have the money, you can forward this message to your friends and in that way support the only candidate who truly can unite social, fiscal and foreign policy conservatives and do so with credibility in the general election.

Watch out for an expected endorsement tomorrow. This just came in today:

Before starting a conference call with bloggers that is in progress, the Thompson campaign said it was expecting a "big, big, conservative endorsement" tomorrow. (source)

Also, you can find round up of reaction to that conference call with bloggers here.

Finally, this morning briefing contains input from several sources about Fred Thompson and the issues and his campaign.