Maryland for Fred Thompson

3 Days until the South Carolina Primary
13 Days until the Florida Primary
20 Days until Super Tuesday

• Dallas Morning News:
  

  Past the cherry cobbler and soft serve, voters crammed the back of a buffet joint to hear Fred Thompson poke at Hillary Rodham Clinton for tearing up in public, at Democrats generally for being so very wrong on taxes and Iraq, and at GOP rivals for not being Southern enough, conservative enough or consistent enough.

  Problem was, a couple hundred voters – many still weighing their options – were stuck past the fried chicken and okra, unable to hear him through the crush of Fredheads who got there early enough to stake out prime spots.

  “Can’t hear!” the shouts kept coming. “Louder!”

  Mr. Thompson adjusted his microphone and apologized, over and over. The crowds keep getting bigger, he told one disappointed voter afterward, between autographs. “It was a very good speech, I give you my word.”

  The man laughed.

• Associated Press:
  

  York Mayor Eddie Lee proclaimed Tuesday as Senator Fred Thompson Day as the former Tennessee senator campaigned in the town near the North Carolina border.

  Thompson says he appreciates the honor and hopes to get Fred Thompson Day in all of South Carolina in Saturday’s primary.

  Thompson was in Columbia Tuesday night. He told a crowd of about 300 people in a barbecue restaurant that he wants to increase the child tax credit.

  Thompson also said it’s important for the government to be careful in the type of help it offers during economic downturns.

• Rock Hill Herald:
  

  A few hours earlier, Fred Thompson asked whether Republicans would stay committed to their age-old principles of lower taxes and less government, hinting that a Huckabee administration would break toward a different path.

  …

  Thompson accuses Huckabee of promoting liberal tax policies during his time as governor, and the Club for Growth has aired TV commercials questioning his conservative credentials.

  “There’s an argument going on in the Republican Party right now,” Thompson said to 300 listeners at a Golden Corral restaurant. “We’re down a little bit to the Democrats, so do we need to be more like the Democrats? I don’t think so. Call it populist, whatever you want to call it. It always winds up more government.”

• Michael van der Galien:
  

  [I]t’s obvious that the main target of the Thompson campaign is the former Governor of Arkansas. This make sense: Huckabee was leading in South Carolina polls only a few days ago (he has dropped significantly ever since), and Huckabee’s supporters should be open to supporting Thompson. To a degree, they fight for the same voters… but only to a degree. Thompson’s no Christianist. Instead, he’s a true American conservative. Romney lost this battle with Huckabee, to a degree at least, because it was easy for Huckasaint to make Romney look like a flip-flopper. But he can’t do the same thing with Thompson.

• WYFF, Greenville, SC:
  

  Thompson told the crowd that Supreme Court appointments are the president’s second most important job. He said national security is first.

  He said he would appoint judges who follow the law to decide cases, not those who take sides in cases.

  Thompson also touched on immigration, saying it’s important to have border security and policies that do not reward illegal immigrants.

  His other major point — the “Reagan coalition” is not dead.

  “The world changes, and the challenges change, but the underlying principles do not,” Thompson said. “If you say the Reagan coalition is dead, you’re kind of like saying the Constitution is dead, because that’s what it’s based upon.”