the genuine moderate as opposed to conservative aspects of three of the top-tier, four of the top-tier candidates were on full-fledged display last night. There was one candidate who did not display any moderateness or liberalism or have any of his past forays into those areas displayed, and that candidate was Fred Thompson. %u2026 %u2026we have a campaign now where most of the candidates are not genuine conservatives. They may be saying they are, but in their past they have done some things that are not conservative in any way, shape, manner, or form %u2014 and I think a lot of those things are being overlooked even by friends of mine in the conservative media because the obsession is Hillary. [%u2026]

While everybody is talking about Fred Thompson, %u201CHe%u2019s too lazy. He%u2019s too lackadaisical. He doesn%u2019t seem to have whole lot of energy.%u201D Fine and dandy. I%u2019m not going to argue with people about your perceptions of attitudes and so forth. I will say this. I don%u2019t think anybody would get into this mess running for the presidency, the media and all of these things. You can%u2019t imagine what these people go through. You wouldn%u2019t want to go through it, and I can%u2019t imagine somebody put themselves through it if they really don%u2019t want it. You know, one of the arguments about Fred Thompson is, %u201CWell, I can%u2019t see the fire in his belly.%u201D Well, he%u2019s got a different personality than the others. We%u2019ll just have to see how all this shakes out. But those are the high points that I took.