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 "It's like they're all in training for the NASCAR, you know, nothing but a left turn, just steady as she goes, all the way around," he said at a coffee house in northeastern Iowa. "And they're going to wind up kinda where they started from, too, like the George McGovern days, some of them driving a little faster than the others, but they're all going in the same direction."
Thompson continued the comparison, saying, "I don't think the United States of America is prepared to turn the keys over to the most left-wing part of the left-wing party."
Not that Thompson, the former Tennessee senator, or other Republican candidates have anything against stock car racing or the NASCAR circuit.
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, for example, campaigned at last Sunday's race in Florida, his third event of the year.
Earlier this month, Thompson visited a NASCAR-themed restaurant in Myrtle Beach, S.C., and joked about his rivals Giuliani and Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
"Now, when Rudy and Mitt come down here from New York and Massachusetts, I want you to be nice to them. And the first thing I want you to do is explain to them what NASCAR is," Thompson said. "It's not a hybrid automobile."
On Tuesday, Thompson said the Democratic Party's candidates "are being driven off ... a left wing cliff just as fast as they can."
"I think no matter who their nominee is, if they are elected president of the United States, we're going to move more and more toward weakness in terms of national security, and more and more toward a welfare state in terms of economic policy," he said.
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 Later in the day in Le Mars, Iowa, Thompson criticized Giuliani and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee on immigration, an issue that has divided Republicans. Thompson was asked by a reporter what he thought about Des Moines city officials considering a proposal that would make raids on illegal immigrants more difficult.
"I don't believe at the end of the day, Des Moines wants to follow the pattern of New York City or Little Rock, Ark.," Thompson said. "I think that they will reject becoming a sanctuary city or anything close to that."
On other subjects:
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Asked about global warming in Orange City, he said all nations must help out. "We could do lots of things here in this country, by ourselves, that would have significant negative impacts on our economy," Thompson said, but the good effects would be wiped out if other nations didn't chip in, too.
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Asked about Israel and Middle East, he said: "We need to be realistic and understand that we can't impose peace on any other sets of nations or would-be nations in that part of the world, especially with regard to something that's been going on so long, with such deep divisions." Still, he said, "we have to be resolute in doing what we feel is necessary to protect our friends in a very dangerous place."
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On the Net:
Fred Thompson: http://www.fred08.com/index.aspx
[Associated
Press; By AMY LORENTZEN]
Copyright 2007 The Associated
Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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