'Meet the Press' transcript for Nov. 2, 2008

(Videotape)

SEN. THOMPSON:  (From Web ad) We've always been able to accommodate constructive change without turning our back on our first principles.  We must do it again.  However, that does not include staking everything upon the eloquence and inexperience of one who has toed the extreme liberal and partisan line his entire political life, as much as he tries to blur that fact now.

(End videotape)

MR. BROKAW:  Senator, you talk a lot about principles, both on the stump and in that ad, but here's a Republican Party that is now leading the way on a $700 billion bailout, buying shares of American banks, a form of nationalism. Your own candidate, John McCain, says we ought to spend another $300 billion to buy back mortgages.  They've had to invest in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. They've left the country with a $500 billion deficit.  What Republican playbook do those principles come out of?

SEN. THOMPSON:  I might say parenthetically John McCain's one of the few who tried to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac over the objections of Democratic leadership at the time.  So that wasn't done.  I think what you're seeing is a somewhat desperate reaction by both parties and leadership on both sides to what they perceive to be an absolute crisis.  You know, they were told that the world's going to come to an end unless they passed a particular package, and the stakes were too great in many minds to, to let that go without responding to it in that way.  We can argue about that.  We won't know for some time whether or not if that was the right approach.  They're already taking different approaches now.

But if you look back over a period of time, there's certainly reason to, to be concerned about some Republican activities as well as Democrat.  We spent too much.  We went along with these massive spending programs.  The president didn't veto enough.  We, we certainly can be faulted there.  But the basic principles, the ones that John McCain has stood for, for, for all of his career--a free market, the rule of law--meaning a Supreme Court that will obey the law and not make it up as they go along--trade, and an upwardly mobile society where a person doesn't have to be in a static situation, they can aspire to achieve and make something out of himself, and, and a country like that.  If you need help, you get it.  But if you can help yourself, you're expected to do so.  Those are the basic principles.  It's not the principles that are in question here.  It's our deviation from those principles that has gotten us in trouble.

MR. BROKAW:  A number of Republicans that I know, and I've been surprised by the number that have come to me, and they've raised real questions about Senator McCain choosing Sarah Palin as his running mate.  They--for them it reflected on his judgment.  You, on the other hand, have been a defender of Sarah Palin.  Here is some of what you had to say about Sarah Palin when she was first picked as governor of Alaska.

"She's a breath of fresh air, and she's going to prove herself throughout this campaign.  Nobody--at the end of the day--nobody's going to have any questions about her or her qualifications."

One of the people that Senator McCain has cited as a supporter of his is former Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger.  This is an exchange that he had when he was talking on NPR about Sarah Palin and her qualifications.

SEN. THOMPSON:  Mm-hmm.

(Audiotape, Thursday)

Unidentified Reporter:  Are you entirely comfortable with Sarah Palin as the vice president of the United States--that she would be ready to take over in, in a crisis if, if she should, terribly, be called upon to do so?

FMR. SEC'Y OF STATE LAWRENCE EAGLEBURGER:  I don't think at the moment she is prepared to take over the brains of the presidency.  I can name for you any number of other vice presidents who were not particularly up to it either.  So the question, I think, is can she learn and would she be tough enough under the present--under the circumstances if she were asked to become president? Heaven forbid that that ever takes place.  Give her some time in the office, and I think the answer would be, she will be adequate.  I can't say that she would be a genius in the job, but I think she would be enough to get us through a four-year--well, I hope not.

Reporter:  Yes.

FMR. SEC'Y EAGLEBURGER:  ...get us through whatever period of time was necessary.  And I devoutly hope that it would never be tested.

(End audiotape)

MR. BROKAW:  You have, among others, have said that she's a victim of the liberal media, that they've been unfair to her in some fashion.

SEN. THOMPSON:  Yeah.

MR. BROKAW:  What question was she asked by Charles Gibson or Katie Couric or Brian Williams, for that matter, that you thought was unfair?

SEN. THOMPSON:  I don't know, I didn't see any of the interviews.  I, I saw excerpts...

MR. BROKAW:  But you were willing to make the judgment that she was...

SEN. THOMPSON:  I saw, I, I saw excerpts from it.  from, and I've, I've read accounts of, of all of them.  I don't think it's a matter of particular questions.  I think the question that, you know, she was asked about the Bush doctrine, she seemed to know more about it than the questioner did.  But that's a, that's a separate story.  I don't think there is one single Bush doctrine.

But set the media aside for a second.  I mean, it, it can be no question that, I think, that she has had a double standard applied to her, and there was a vicious assault on her that is unprecedented probably in American politics at this level.  I think that, you know, they build folks up to take them down, and if they're not involved on the buildup, the takedown's even more drastic, and I think we've seen that.  The point is, is the one that Larry goes to--a man who I respect a lot.  She got off to a rocky start, there's no question about that.  I don't hold anything against any member of the press for asking tough questions.  And she got off to a bad start.  She is now doing very, very well.  She's open, she's accessible, she is touching something within the American people, and, and a lot of people around this country that hasn't been touched, I think, in a long time.  The turnouts are tremendous, the outpouring is tremendous among just average people.  Certainly no one inside this beltway feels that way yet, but she's more accessible than either Barack Obama or Joe Biden on the campaign trail now, and you haven't read anything about her or anything she's said recently because she, she hasn't made any, any missteps.

MR. BROKAW:  So you're sure that she's qualified to be president of the United States, should that moment come?

SEN. THOMPSON:  Yeah.  When I compare her with other people who've been nominated for president, when I compare her with Joe Biden, who, quite frankly, you know, in that debate stood up there and got about a dozen things flat wrong.  And he wasn't called on it.  I think...

MR. BROKAW:  You just said Sarah Palin, not Joe Biden.

SEN. THOMPSON:  Yeah, Joe Biden got, got, got a dozen things wrong.  He wasn't called on it.  She, I think, did extremely well in that debate.  And when I consider the people that I know she'll surround herself with and the policies she will promote, promote, I'd rather have her in that position than the alternative.

MR. BROKAW:  Final question:  What's the better bet, that John McCain will win the presidency or that the Titans will win the Super Bowl?

SEN. THOMPSON:  Well, I--you know, I'm going to--I'm going to hold out for both of them.  I, I, I, I really think--I, I've known John for a long time. I've traveled the world with him.  I've seen him with foreign leaders.  I've seen how foreign leaders treat him and respect him.  I've sat next to him on the floor of the United States Senate when he has been pretty unpopular because of his independence and because of his courage and because of his, really, his personal honor.  And when I see him, you know, be maligned or when I see people denigrate him, you know, it concerns me greatly because I think this is a man uniquely prepared to be president of the United States.

On the other hand, the American people have got to decide.  If they want to turn to a, a, an eloquent young man who is totally untested, totally untried, who has never stood up to authority, who has never stood up to power, who has never bucked the party leadership, who has avoided trying to take positions on tough votes his entire career.  And when he had to take them he took the most liberal position that was available to him under the circumstances and followed the party leadership.  Barney Frank wants to cut the military 25 percent.  He and Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, if they get the numbers that they want, will take this country down a road toward, toward a, a liberal welfare state, European-style policy like we've never seen before or accepted in this country.

MR. BROKAW:  Well, we'll get a chance to ask your former colleague Senator John Kerry about that in just a moment.  Senator Fred Thompson, thanks very much for being with us today.

SEN. THOMPSON:  Thank you very much.  Appreciate it.

MR. BROKAW:  And we'll check those Titans and John McCain.

SEN. THOMPSON:  Well, I'm, I'm holding out for both.

MR. BROKAW:  All right.

Coming up next, the Obama camp's closing arguments from Senator John Kerry, and then our political roundtable.  That's all coming up, only on MEET THE PRESS.

(Announcements)

MR. BROKAW:  The view from the Obama campaign with Senator John Kerry after this brief station break.

(Announcements)

MR. BROKAW:  We're back with MEET THE PRESS.  And representing the Obama campaign, Senator John Kerry.

Welcome back to MEET THE PRESS.

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