AP News, December 2nd, 2007
Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson said Saturday that election of a Democrat to the White House in 2008 would open the way for a welfare state where bigger government, higher taxes and defense cutbacks sap the country's economic and military strength.
"Our country is at a crossroads," Thompson told several hundred people at a rally at a community clubhouse.
"We know that the most liberal element of the Democratic Party has taken control of the Democratic Party, and if they win this next election we're going to go down the road of a welfare state," he said.
After warning of a government that gets "bigger and bigger," he said "I don't think the American people are going to turn the keys to this country over to the most left-wing part of a left-wing party next year."
"We've got to make sure that doesn't happen," he said.
Thompson's speech came on a day when most of his time was devoted to a string of fundraisers.
He never mentioned his Republican rivals in his remarks, but in a GOP race where some candidates have been criticized for shifting positions on conservative touchstone issues, Thompson asserted he is squarely in the Reagan tradition. "Principles don't change, circumstances change," he said.
In an interview published on the Orange County Register Web site, Thompson said he was "pretty much where I thought we'd be" in the polls but stressed that races in early voting states remain volatile.
He hinted he'd have to win South Carolina, or come close to it, to remain competitive.
"I must do pretty well in Iowa. I must do very well in South Carolina. And then once you come South, anybody who's keeping up with any of that knows that I'm ahead most places," Thompson said.
