Where do the Candidates Stand?

Here's an informational site that's definately worth your time to visit: On the Issues. I ran across it while doing a search for information on Fred Thompson. Speaking of which, as I've shared with my brothers, Mike and Edmund, off blog, I happened to catch just a few minutes of an interview conducted with Fred on Fox News' "Hannity and Colmes" one night a few weeks ago. Sean Hannity conducted the interview.

Truthfully, I can't recall what about Thompson's responses to Hannity's questions left me with an overall feeling of 'this guy ain't impressing me' (perhaps he was too vague in his answers, or maybe he had some 'left-leaning' ideas that I picked up on; I just don't really recall to be honest.), but that's the feeling I came away with during the short time I half-heartedly listened to the interview.

To be fair, I should make it perfectly clear, if I haven't already, that I wasn't paying real close attention to the interview with Thompson. As I said, I just happened to catch the interview somewhere in the midst of it, and as I recall I was working on something else at that moment and Thompson failed to redirect my full attention away from my other work, and toward the interview.

I also understand that short interviews like that, due to the constraints of time and so forth, make it very difficult to get a clear picture of a candidate's stance on the numerous issues that are generally touched upon within the context of the interview itself, or to get a grasp on the candidate's command of a given subject, or the lack thereof. Not to mention that the interviewer himself is constrained in what questions to ask, how general or specific he may be, and so on and so forth due to the same time constraints.

So in essence what I'm saying is that though I came away from that interview with a general feeling of disappointment in Thompson's performance in a rather friendly atmosphere, given all the hype surrounding his possible candidacy, I also recollect that my attention was a bit distracted away from the interview at the time, which probably accounts for some of disappointedness I was left feeling. That probably doesn't speak very well of me and my ability to focus my undivided attention on something that warrants it, but I'm just being honest here, and I'm willing to take the risk of seeming a little scatter-brained at times. Indeed, I own that I am once in a while.

Notwithstanding that, the site that I provided the link to at the top of the post is indeed, as I said, worth your time to visit. The positions of all the candidates ('big boys' and 'little boys' alike) on all the major issues are provided under generalized headings for each individual candidate. Each candidate has his/her own page devoted to providing a record of their votes on specific issues and pieces of legislation under more generalized headings. A short synopsis is given of the paticular issue or legislation in question, along with the vote of the candidate in question. And a more detailed explanation of the candidate's position is further expounded upon by clicking on one of the links provided under each heading.

Here's a sample randomly chosen from Fred Thompson's page:

Fred Thompson on Abortion

Click here for 6 full quotes on Abortion OR other candidates on Abortion OR background on Abortion.

• Roe v. Wade was bad law and bad science. (Jun 2007)
• Appoint strict constructionist judges. (Jun 2007)
• Has never been pro-choice despite 1994 news reports. (Jun 2007)
• Voted YES on maintaining ban on Military Base Abortions. (Jun 2000)
• Voted YES on banning partial birth abortions. (Oct 1999)
• Voted YES on banning human cloning. (Feb 1998)

Hope y'all get some good use out of the site...