PrairiePundit

He will be signing his new book, Teaching the Pig to Dance, at Borders bookstore at 10720 Preston Rd., #1018 around 7 p.m. Drop by after work if you get the chance.

You can see the full video here .

Fred Thompson: Recent congressional losses, President George W. Bush's unpopularity, and bleak generic ballot poll numbers have conservatives fearing the "liberalization" of America – a move toward secularization, the growth of government, stagnation, mediocrity and loss of freedom. Yet there is still a way to revive the conservative cause. Doing so will require avoiding the traps of pessimism or election-year quick fixes. Conservatives need to stand back for a moment and think about our philosophical first principles. Conservatives value the lessons of history and respect faith and tradition. They are skeptical of mass movements, perfect solutions and what often passes for "progress." At the same time, they recognize that change is inevitable. They also know that while man is prone to err, he is capable of great things and is meant to be free in an unfettered market of ideas, not subjugated by a too-powerful government. ... - Congress cannot repeal the laws o...

Fred Thompson thought he could wait to enter the 2008 Republican contest and wait to raise money. Unfortunately his candidacy peaked before he announced it formerly. Today he announced it was over. There is some indication that he is open to a VP slot. Rudy Giuliani is the other candidate with an unorthodox strategy and we will know shortly whether he will be able to sustain a campaign that begins with Florida. I think much of his front runner support has gravitated to McCain which is too bad. Rudy is better on most issues that a President can impact. While Thompson probably took votes from Huckabee in South Carolina and probably cost him the race, it does not appear that Huckabee will benefit from his departure, because he can't afford to campaign in Florida and has essentially "reallocated" his resources out of the state. That leaves Romney as a likely beneficiary and recent polls have shown him with a small lead in Florida. He may become the stop McCain candida...

NY Times: Former Gov. Mike Huckabee and Senator John McCain were locked in a tight race in the South Carolina primary on Saturday, as the dueling presidential candidates jockeyed to carve out a slight advantage in the fiercely competitive Republican field. With about a quarter of the precincts reporting, Mr. McCain, of Arizona, was leading with 35 percent of the vote, ahead of Mr. Huckabee’s 28 percent. Former Gov. Mitt Romney , who coasted to an easy victory earlier on Saturday in the Nevada caucuses, was vying for third place with Fred Thompson , the former senator of Tennessee. ... Fox News is saying that the exit polls shows despite the narrow lead for McCain among Republicans who voted in the primary they are tied at 30 percent each. This may be a problem for McCain as the campaign moves into states where only Republicans can vote. There is some speculation that Thompson may withdraw. There is some speculation that the stop McCain vote will switch to Rudy Giuliani. McCain ha...

Bill Kristol: Conservative editorialists, radio hosts, and bloggers are unhappy. They don't like the Republican presidential field, and many of them have been heaping opprobrium on the various GOP candidates with astonishing vigor. For example: John McCain--with a lifetime American Conservative Union rating of 82.3--is allegedly in no way a conservative. And, though the most favorably viewed of all the candidates right now, both among Republicans and the electorate as a whole, he would allegedly destroy the Republican party if nominated. Or take Mike Huckabee. He was a well-regarded and successful governor of Arkansas, reelected twice, the second time with 40 percent of the black vote. He's come from an asterisk to second in the national GOP polls with no money and no establishment support. Yet he is supposedly a buffoon and political naïf. He's been staunchly pro-life and pro-gun and is consistently supported by the most conservative primary voters--but he is, we'r...

David Limbaugh: Quoted material removed. You may read the original at the link above. Jed Babbin also believes Thompson can unify conservatives. He also explains why the other candidates would be less likely to bring Republicans together. If he does not win we will have to rely on Hillary Clinton and Obama to bring us together and they are just the candidates for the job. I think Fred can be a good President. He still has to sell people on the fact that he wants the job.

Opinion Journal: ... The candidates now head into Saturday's South Carolina primary for what can only be called a free-for-all. Rudy Giuliani is delighted, because the lack of a clear frontrunner means the race might still be jumbled on January 29 in Florida, where he has staked his claim. Another winner yesterday was Fred Thompson, who is competitive in South Carolina and is running as the conservative who can unite the GOP's fractious wings. The former Tennessee Senator has laid out an impressive policy map, but he's suffered in early contests because his heart and energy didn't seem to be in the race. That has changed in recent weeks, especially with his pungent, quick-witted debate performances. If he can do better than Messrs. Romney and Huckabee among conservatives, he could surprise in the Palmetto State and give himself a genuine chance at the nomination. The abiding lesson from the last two weeks is that GOP voters are still sifting the field, searching for t...

Rasmussen Reports: Over the past several days, the only real movement in South Carolina’s Republican Presidential Primary has been a four-point gain for Fred Thompson and a five-point decline for Mike Huckabee. The big winner from that trade-off is John McCain. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey shows McCain at 28%, Huckabee at 19%, Mitt Romney at 17%, and Fred Thompson at 16%. Rudy Giuliani and Ron Paul are tied with 5% support. Giuliani is betting his entire campaign on a strong showing in Florida , where he is now tied for the lead with three others. The current results show McCain getting some breathing room in South Carolina. The previous South Carolina poll , conducted the night after McCain’s victory in New Hampshire, had McCain at 27% and Huckabee at 24%. Before the New Hampshire vote, Huckabee was leading McCain by seven points.... ... Thompson is getting a lot of movement following his strong performance in the GOP debate on Fox News. He has a few days to...

NY Times: John and Ann Berenberk dutifully watched the umpteenth Republican presidential debate on television on Thursday night and had an epiphany. It was about the candidate they had previously referred to as the tall, silent one. Fred D. Thompson . The last of the candidates to enter the race, Mr. Thompson, 65, a former Tennessee senator, has so far seemed to distinguish himself mainly by a laconic style that has made him almost invisible beside the others on the stage in past debates, the Berenberks said. “But then last night — we hadn’t even been thinking about him — all of a sudden it was clear he was the one,” said Mr. Berenberk, a retired teacher. “The bluntness, the forcefulness. He was really impressive.” Whether this was a new Fred Thompson, or just a sign of mirage-inducing campaign fatigue among voters, many people attending Mr. Thompson’s campaign rallies here on the day after the debate reported having similar revelations. ... In an official statement, a campaign spokes...

Almost all of the candidates but Ron Paul have helped themselves this evening. Paul would have been better served if he could have gotten himself excluded from this debate. His foreign policy positions are embarrassment. Even when he tries to make a point he comes across as confused. Romney has been very good as well as Thompson. Giuliani and McCain have also been strong. Huckabee has had a mixed presentation, but the question on marriage was one he knocked out of the park. Thompson has been especially effective on national security. Jim Geraghty has a similar take with more details. It was also interesting to see Frank Luntz's focus group also thought Thompson was a standout. They also thought Ron Paul was a clear loser. Geraghty says Paul's main function in the debate was to be a punching bag for the other candidates.

Fox has called Huckabee as leader currently at 36 Percent and Romney at 23 percent. Fred Thomson is projected at 14 percent and McCain at 12 percent. This is at about 8 p.m. Central Time. In five days we will be reporting on results from New Hampshire. It looks like the numbers have changed some in this Fox News report on the web, but not the results.

Byron York: ... I just got off the phone with Rich Galen, a top adviser to Fred Thompson, and it would be an understament to say that he is strongly denying the Politico story reporting that Thompson "will drop out of the race within days if he finishes poorly in Thursday's caucus." The story cites "several Republican officials close to Fred Thompson's presidential campaign." Galen told me, "I'm a Republican official in the Thompson campaign, and I'm denying it." Galen also said that no one inside the campaign was a source for the story. "I can't put enough adjectives in front of the 'deny' to accurately describe how vehemently I'm denying the story," he said. Galen said that "just to make sure," he checked with Thompson himself, who told him the story was not true. "We have the schedule for Saturday and Sunday in New Hampshire, and then we're going down to South Carolina," Galen told me....

Washington Times: A more fired-up Fred Thompson said yesterday he needs to finish second in Iowa's caucuses this week, and he went on the attack, accusing Democratic leaders of having let their party be hijacked by liberal interest groups. Campaigning heavily here over the past two weeks, Mr. Thompson has refined his message and yesterday released a 15-minute Web video laying out his qualifications and telling voters they need to pick a Republican nominee who is willing to call out Democratic leaders for abandoning their principles. "They're all NEA, MoveOn.org, ACLU, Michael Moore Democrats," Mr. Thompson charges in the video, which is on his campaign Web site. "They've allowed these radicals to take control of the party and dictate their course." He said that gives Republicans a chance to recapture independents and "good Democrats" who agree their party has been hijacked, but he said Republicans must choose someone capable of making that case...

Thomas Sowell: Apparently there is nobody among either the Democrats or the Republicans who is going to cause a runaway stampede like that which toppled all the Republican front-runners in 1940, when the convention delegates began loudly chanting "We want Wilkie!" It is a struggle to keep awake during most of the so-called "debates" among the small army of candidates in both parties. At least the primaries will put an end to those awful spectacles. It is much too early to try to guess who is going to win either party's nomination. The most we can have at this point are some general impressions. None of the candidates looks truly inspiring at this point. I wouldn't buy a used car from most of them, nor a brand new car from some of them. John Edwards is the easiest to peg. He looks just like the phony that he is. His talk about poor children going to bed hungry may rouse the far left in his party but in fact the lowest-income people are even more obese t...

AP: Presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee would seem to be the answer to their prayers, yet for many Christian conservatives in Iowa, he has not closed the deal for the Republican caucuses. Do they still like Mitt Romney? Are they intrigued by Fred Thompson? As always, voter uncertainty comes with the Jan. 3 caucuses, now just a week away. Huckabee, the former Baptist minister, is leading in the Republican polls here, though his advantage has narrowed. Perhaps, that's due in part to the negative TV commercials Romney is airing. "I think I'm leaning toward Governor Huckabee," says Lori Brown, who works at an accounting firm in Sheldon. "I guess I'm not sure who else I really like. But he seems to be just a real guy. I'm a Christian, too, so I see eye-to-eye with him. "At this point." On Huckabee's final swing through Iowa before Christmas, many found him funny and charming, especially when he borrowed a bass guitar to play "Takin' C...

Patrick Ruffini has his calendar, and it is hard to imagine any candidate outworking him on that schedule of five events a day.

Washington Post: For three decades, the Republican presidential nominating contest has served to unify the national party's coalition of social, economic and foreign policy conservatives in advance of a general election fight with Democrats. This year, it is ripping that coalition apart. Is the GOP grounded in the social issues embodied by Baptist preacher Mike Huckabee or the foreign policy experience of former POW John McCain ? Do Republicans see their futures in a former CEO such as Mitt Romney, who promises to tackle Washington incompetence, or in a leader such as Rudolph W. Giuliani, who talks tough on terrorism and crime? Should the party embrace anger about immigration or optimism about America's potential? Among members of Congress, the lobbying shops on K Street and the local GOP committees in Iowa and New Hampshire, Republicans are divided, confused and sometimes demoralized about their choices for president. With less than two weeks left before voting begins, th...

Politico's Jonathon Martin sums up the race: ... Huckabee: The major question now looming over his surge — is it for real? — will be emphatically answered by how he finishes in the caucuses. If Huck can withstand the pounding he's taking (and will continue to take) from Romney and Romney allies as well as the heightened scrutiny he's getting from the MSM, he'll be a serious contender into New Hampshire and beyond. If he can't succeed in a low-turnout caucus dominated by his kind of people (His kind of people, if you will), he's Howard Dean. He may have hit a poll plateau, but his crowds here this week have been very good and there remains a loud buzz about his candidacy in the grass roots.... Romney: A loss in Iowa would be devastating to his campaign. He can embrace the underdog role all he wants, but given the time he's spent, resources he's invested and organization he's constructed, he's the closest thing to the establishment candidate ...