By FOXNews.com
Published: 09-03-08
Thompson firmly defended McCain’s newly minted running mate
Barack Obama can’t dress up his record with fancy speeches Independent Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman told the Republican National Convention audience Tuesday night in a stinging address that signaled politics was back in play after a muted start to festivities the day before.
Lieberman the Democratic vice presidential nominee just eight years ago leaped over the partisan fence to deliver the remarks.
His very presence in St. Paul was a message to undecided voters that McCain’s appeal crosses party lines. He urged those voters directly to support his colleague in the Senate casting him as a seasoned and principled candidate while diminishing his Democratic rival.
Lieberman spoke after President Bush and former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson who both took shots at the Democrats.
Thompson called Obama the “most liberal most inexperienced nominee to ever run for president.”
The tone contrasted the somber attitude Monday when the schedule was stripped out of respect for victims of Hurricane Gustav.
“Senator Obama is a gifted and eloquent young man who I think can do great things for our country in the years ahead. But eloquence is no substitute for a record — not in these tough times” Lieberman said.
“In the Senate …. he has not reached across party lines to accomplish anything significant nor has he been willing to take on powerful interest groups in the Democratic Party to get something done.”
First he addressed questions as to why he was the headlining speaker at a Republican convention.
“What after all is a Democrat like me doing at a Republican convention like this?” Lieberman said. “Well I’ll tell you what I’m here to support John McCain because country matters more than party.”
Lieberman said McCain was the only candidate with a real record of bipartisanship.
“Only one on them has shown the courage and the capability to rise above the smallness of our politics to get big things done for our country and our people” Lieberman said.
Like the other speakers he praised McCain for supporting the U.S. military mission in Iraq and defending the troop surge.
“When others were silent John McCain had the guts and the judgment to sound the alarm about the mistakes we were making in Iraq. When others wanted to retreat in defeat from the field of battle … when colleagues like Barack Obama were voting to cut off funding for American troops on the battlefield John McCain had the courage to stand against the tide of public opinion advocate the surge” he said.
Lieberman also dismissed Democratic effort to link McCain to President Bush urging voter not to be “fooled” by that campaign.
“God only made one John McCain and he is his own man” Lieberman said.
Thompson — delivering his remarks in his trademark slow-talking casual manner — described McCain as a maverick whose character is unshakable. He described in detail his years as a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War.
“John McCain’s bones may have been broken but his spirit never was” he said. “Now being a POW certainly doesn’t qualify anyone to be president. But it does reveal character.
“This is the kind of character that civilizations from the beginning of our history have sought in their leaders” he said.
Taking a jab at Obama’s “change you can believe in” slogan he said “that’s character you can believe in.”
“This man John McCain is not intimidated by what the polls say or by what is politically safe or popular” Thompson said.
Thompson also used his speech to denounce Obama for declining to say when human life begins although Thompson’s own record on abortion is mixed.
“We need a president who doesn’t think that the protection of the unborn or a newly born baby is above his pay grade” Thompson said.
The comment was a clear reference to an answer that Obama gave at a forum at California’s Saddleback Church sponsored by the popular evangelical pastor Rick Warren. On a question referring to the number of abortions in the country Warren asked Obama at what point he believed babies had human rights.
Thompson also firmly defended McCain’s newly minted running mate in a move to quell recent personal and ethical controversies surrounding Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.
“What a breath of fresh air Governor Sarah Palin is” Thompson said in St. Paul. “She is from a small town with small town values but apparently that’s not good enough for those folks who are attacking her and her family.”
He and many other Republicans have stepped up to defend Palin in recent days after she disclosed on Monday that her 17-year-old unmarried daughter is pregnant. A lawyer has also been hired to represent her in an ethics-related controversy regarding the dismissal of her public safety commissioner in Alaska after he refused to fire a state trooper who divorced the governor’s sister.
“Some Washington pundits and media big shots are in a frenzy over the selection of a woman who has actually governed rather than just talked a good game on the Sunday talk shows and hit the Washington cocktail circuit” Thompson said. “I say give me a tough Alaskan Governor who has taken on the political establishment in the largest state in the union — and won — over the beltway business-as-usual crowd any day of the week.
Thompson best known as the gruff district attorney on NBC’s “Law & Order” dropped out of the presidential race in January after his much-anticipated campaign failed to gain strong support among conservatives.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
