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player ready...by Frank James
Fred Thompson, the former Republican senator from Tennessee who is expected to officially announce his presidential candidacy soon, was in South Carolina today where the Associated Press reports he got a good reception.
He got one of his best responses from the Republican audience when he said of the U.S. when talking about immigration: “And it is our home. And we get to decide who comes into our home.”
By LIZ SIDOTI, Associated Press Writer
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Fred Thompson focused on conservative themes as he courted Republican loyalists Wednesday, a Southerner making his initial visit to the first-in-the-South primary state since becoming a prospective presidential candidate.
“I don’t feel like I’ve left home,” the former Tennessee senator said in his slow drawl, a day after raising money in Nashville.
Thompson, 64, an actor and former Tennessee senator, has no serious political organization in South Carolina. Yet, he was greeted enthusiastically by some 400 people at a lunchtime fundraiser for the state GOP, a sign of Republican unease with the current field of 10 GOP candidates.
The reception in the state leading up to Thompson’s appearance has been favorable.
“I’m much more impressed with Thompson than I am with any of the others,” said Claude Sandidge, a 67-year-old retired produce broker. Thompson has the “conservative principles that correlate with Ronald Reagan,” he added.
Betty Jackson, 73, who has run the Sunset Grill, a meeting place for GOP faithful, for 34 years, explained: “We’re hunting a true conservative. That’s what we’re doing. That’s why we’re waiting.”
Thompson, she said, may be that candidate. “If our country needed defending, I think he would do it. But I also think that he would do something about the border situation,” Jackson said.
Thompson, who is expected to declare his candidacy next month, easily sold out a Wednesday fundraiser for the state Republican Party. He will address the group but plans no other campaign-style events during his one-day visit…