Thompson hunts for votes in South Carolina

SURFSIDE BEACH, S.C. -- It was the morning after, but the sleeping bear was still on the attack.

Fred Thompson joked that he was tired and in need of caffeine. But when his presidential campaign landed at Surfside Jenny's restaurant just outside of Myrtle Beach the morning after last week's GOP debate, he wasted no time ripping into the man who'd been his main target the night before, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

Huckabee, Thompson said, isn't committed to the conservative principles embodied by Ronald Reagan and is so out of touch that he favors a federal smoking ban.

"This (election) is about the heart and soul of the Republican Party and where the Republican Party is going to go over the next several years," Thompson said, hitting on one of his main themes from the debate.

The restaurant event, which drew a standing-room-only crowd, was billed as a town-hall forum, one of many stops on Thompson's 11-day bus tour across South Carolina in advance of the state's GOP primary on Saturday.

But with his aides and many in the crowd still pumped from his debate performance the night before, the rowdy gathering at times seemed like a victory celebration instead of one more stop in a long, difficult campaign.

The moderator, a local radio personality, set the tone when she read Thompson an Australian newspaper's review of his debate performance. "Sleeping bear stirs to maul Huckabee," the headline screamed.

"I'm basically a laid-back guy. Always have been," protested Thompson, a former U.S. senator from Tennessee. But, he said, "this is a serious business about serious things."

So Thompson himself got serious.

He talked about the importance of a strong national defense and limited government. He railed against illegal immigration ("we need to be a nation of wide fences and high gates"), praised the troops in Iraq ("I don't think it's another Vietnam") and slammed the media for its war coverage ("things are going well over there, and you can tell because you don't read about it anymore").

When he wrapped up about an hour later, he headed for the door only to face a huge crowd waiting in the parking lot outside. He shook hands, signed autographs and posed for pictures with those who had been unable to get inside the capacity-filled restaurant. Then, he disappeared inside his campaign bus with his name and larger-than-life picture emblazoned on the side.

It was on to the next stop.

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A crowd had already gathered on the sidewalk a little past noon when Thompson's bus rolled into Georgetown, a picturesque little town on the South Carolina coast.

"You know, I like this Georgetown a lot better than the one in Washington," Thompson said, looking up and down the quaint, shop-lined street.

"Too many liberals there!" someone in the crowd shouted in agreement.

After a short visit to the local newspaper, Thompson headed down the street with a gaggle of reporters, news cameras and curious onlookers in tow. He paused briefly and chatted with Carlene Gauler, a real-estate agent who said she hadn't settled on a presidential candidate until she watched Thompson in the debate the night before.

"He won me over last night," Gauler said. "He had so much energy."

Shopkeeper Jeanette Ard watched through an open door as Thompson worked the lunch crowd inside Thomas Cafe. As he left the restaurant, she handed him a small gift -- an imported cigar from her shop, The Humidor. Ard said she still hasn't decided whom she'll support for president, but the stogie reminded her of the cigar-loving Thompson in more ways than one. The brand name: Ancient Warrior.

"I just thought the name was fitting," she said.

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A couple of hours later, inside a seafood restaurant overlooking the Cooper River in Moncks Corner, Thompson told a crowd that his presidential campaign is a lot like his first race for U.S. Senate in 1994.

Back in '94, he said, he drove a red pickup across Tennessee to hear what was on voters' minds. He may be traveling on a chartered bus this time, he said, but his approach is the same as it was back then -- to meet as many people as possible, to hear their concerns and tell them what he'll do if elected.

"We went from 20 points down to 20 points ahead on election night" in '94, Thompson recalled, hinting that he's hoping for similar results this time.

At the back of the room, supporter Jerry Wolf rose from his seat and assured the candidate, "South Carolina is yours for the asking."

On the other side of the room, a man who identified himself as an Air Force veteran told Thompson that he had been injured in the service and has been in pain for years. He urged Thompson to support the legalization of medical marijuana.

"Well, buddy, I'm sorry for your pain, ... but I can't support you on medical marijuana. It's a controlled substance," Thompson said, drawing a loud round of applause.

The man got up and left in disgust.

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"I'm not everybody's idea of a perfect candidate, and I understand that," Thompson told the lunch crowd at a restaurant on Lady's Island near Beaufort the next day.

But, "I think I understand the nature of the world we are living in today and the kinds of things we need to do."

Jose de Marco, an AIDS activist from Philadelphia, wanted to know if Thompson would be committed to addressing the domestic AIDS crisis.

AIDS is a serious problem, Thompson agreed, "but it is one of many serious problems." When allocating government resources, Thompson said, he'd have to consider a number of things, such as the likelihood that federally funded research would yield results and the extent to which the problem is caused by human behavior.

"I guess people of color and life-threatening diseases are not a priority," de Marco said afterward. "That's exactly what I'm taking from his comments."

Thompson's response wasn't what de Marco wanted to hear, but it was the kind of straightforward talk for which Thompson is known -- and something he thinks voters can appreciate.

As he boasted earlier, "What you see is what you get."

(Contact Michael Collins at collinsm(at)shns.com.)

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com)