Event Showcases Increased Attention on Cowboy State

In Wyoming, Thompson Shines in First GOP Forum

By Brodie Farquhar, 9-30-07

	Above: Fred Thompson addresses the crowd in Casper Saturday. Middle: Duncan Hunter. Below: Sam Brownback. Photos by Travis Gough

Three Republican candidates for president—Fred Thompson, Duncan Hunter and Sam Brownback—all ventured into “Cheney country” this weekend, during a meet-the-candidates forum held at Swede Erickson Thunderbird Gymnasium at Casper College.

The college is just up the hill from the alma mater of Vice-President Dick Cheney, Natrona County High School.

All three sounded largely the same themes, although Hunter took a more populist slant, decrying the loss of manufacturing jobs to China.

The Wyoming Republican Party has scheduled a Jan. 5 convention, allowing Wyoming to compete in staging the first presidential primaries and county conventions in the country.

“We’re going to break the lock Iowa and New Hampshire have on selecting presidential candidates,” said Fred Paraday, state party chairman.

It is widely believed that this move has brought increased attention from Republican candidates. Two other candidates – Ron Paul and Tom Tancredo—had been scheduled to attend the forums in Casper and Riverton, but dropped out in the prior week.

Thompson, a former senator from Tennessee, was the only GOP candidate whose national poll numbers put him in the top tier of Republican candidates, behind Rudy Giuliani. Representative Hunter, R-Calif. and Senator Brownback, R-Kan., both score in the low single digits at 2 and 1 percent, respectively, according to the September 15 Gallup national polls.

Giuliani, former mayor of New York City, leads the GOP pack at 30 percent, followed by Thompson at 22 percent, Sen. John McCain of Arizona at 18 percent and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney at 7 percent. Romney attended a Jackson Hole fund-raiser in late August.

Star power
Thompson, the “Law and Order” TV star, spoke last, in what was apparently his first appearance with other presidential candidates.

“I have nothing to lose by telling the truth,” he said. “I’m free to tell it like it is, as I see it.” The worst that can happen to him, he said, is that if the public doesn’t like what he has to say, they can send him home, “where I’ll be the happiest man in Tennessee.”

In a 15-minute presentation, followed by a 15-minute question and answer session, Thompson spoke about the first principles of the nation – that rights come from God, not the state. That no one branch of government should have too much power. That a government “that is powerful enough to give everything can take it away.”

Thompson decried the Democratic candidates for president, as they seek bigger government, more taxes and a western European approach to social services – just as western European governments are rejecting socialism.

“We can’t turn the keys over to them (the Democratic party),” said Thompson to applause.

Thompson said he was pleased to usher through the nomination of Judge John Roberts to the Supreme Court. As president, Thompson pledged to nominate judges who rule according to the Constitution, “not who make it up as they go along.”

He praised the United States as a nation of immigrants, but emphasized standing in line and playing by the rules. “If we cannot secure our borders, we will not remain sovereign very long,” he said, stopping short of Duncan Hunter’s pledge to build a massive, 800-mile fence along the U.S. – Mexico border.

Thompson said the nation has yet to come to terms with a global conflict, “of which Iraq and Iran are a part.” He said Islamofascism has declared war on the United States, and the rest of the world is watching to see how the nation responds.

“We need to do whatever is necessary” to defend ourselves, said Thompson.
In answering questions posed by party precinct members, Thompson:

• Pledged to fight to preserve the tax cuts passed during the Bush Administration.
• Warned that energy independence won’t come easily or quickly.
• Cautioned that there are “no silver bullets” in improving schools.
• Suggested greater education flexibility for the states, and “local parents and voters will take care of the problem.”

Tough Marine
Rep. Hunter, who served in Vietnam as a Marine and whose father was a Marine, credited the late Sen. Craig Thomas as inspiring Hunter’s son to be a Marine, when Hunter and Thomas served together in the U.S. House of Representatives, and Duncan Hunter II scampered around the floor of the House, as a small boy.
Hunter said he’s proud of the United States and its role as the arsenal for democracy in World War II, when Ford Motor Company cranked out a bomber an hour and Chrysler made tanks. He told the audience that that arsenal is in danger – that only one manufacturer was left in the country that could armor-up Humvees or provide guidance systems for “smart bombs.”

Hunter said the nation’s “industrial base must be restored.” Without mentioning U.S. businesses that have exported industries and jobs overseas, Hunter blamed China for cheating on trade issues and devaluing its currency by 40 percent .
Hunter pledged to stop China’s unfair trade practices and to “bring jobs back to the United States.”

Hunter said the recent “surge” in Iraq is working, and that as the 131 battalions of the Iraqi army stand up, American troops will be able to come home.
He spoke with distain of Democratic candidates worrying about how many countries now hold the U.S. in poor regard, noting that those counties have received vital help from the U.S. in times of need. “I will never apologize for the United States,” he said, receiving a standing ovation.

Rep. Hunter also pledged to:

• Build an 800-mile fence on the Mexico border within the first six months of his presidency.
• Appoint judges who can look at a sonogram and see a human being.
• Pursue energy independence, including Wyoming coal, Colorado oil shale, Canadian oil sands, alternative and renewable energy.
• Inspire kids to pursue careers in science and engineering, at an early age.
• Pursue a “good neighbor” policy between public lands and rural communities.
• Protect the Second Amendment, noting he and his wife were going antelope hunting in Wyoming the next day.

Hey neighbor!
Sen. Brownback told the Wyoming audience, that if they liked Senators Mike Enzi and Craig Thomas, “I voted with them 98 percent of the time. The other two percent, I was wrong.”

The Kansas senator even teased Thomas’ replacement, Dr. John Barrasso, noting that he’d just seen Sen. John Warner of Virginia complain about his trick knee to the orthopedic surgeon.

Brownback said he’d gone to Washington the same year as Wyoming’s Rep. Barbara Cubin, “and she’s been a firecracker ever since.”

A more polished speaker than Thompson and Hunter, Brownback drew the audience into a story about his abortive career as an auctioneer, getting them to repeat tongue-twisters like “Rubber baby buggy bumper.”

On a more serious note, Brownback praised the recent bill that was passed in the Senate – a “soft partition” bill that would divide Iraq into Kurd, Sunni and Shia regions, with Baghdad as a federal city.

“We can’t resolve Sunni/Shia differences,” he said bluntly, adding that the partition of the country could lend itself to a political solution.

Brownback also pledged to:

• Achieve energy security in North America in 15 years, by using local energy sources.
• Get rid of the tax code, in favor of a flat tax.
• Encourage the public to privatize Social Security, as a way to save it from default. “It was great for my grandparents and it stinks for my kids,” he said.
• Secure the nation’s border.
• Appoint a judge who’ll overturn Roe V. Wade.

Most of all, Brownback wanted to bring God back into the public square and to “get life right,” from conception to death. Brownback has co-sponsored a bill to de-fund the nation’s largest contraception provider, Planned Parenthood, by excluding it from Title X family planning for the poor.

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