OTTUMWA – Tommy Thompson is in a fairly unique position among the current crop of presidential candidates.
Thompson served in President Bush’s cabinet as Health and Human Services secretary from 2001-2005. He says that experience impressed upon him the need for good people around the president. That lesson guides his views on who he would like around him in the White House.
“I would like to have people like Steve Forbes, Colin Powell, people like that that I know are the highest caliber,” Thompson said.
Thompson visited Ottumwa on Saturday. It wasn’t his first visit, as he reminded the audience. The weather was better this time around, though. A snowstorm played havoc with schedules last time. Thompson says the story explains a lot about a campaign he admits is not as well funded as many others.
It would have been easy, he explained, to cancel the December visit or reschedule. He was in San Diego, after all, and it was sunny and 84 degrees. It was two below in Iowa.
But underdog campaigns depend on being able to get out and meet as many voters as they can. Thompson said that’s why he still made the trip, and why he continued even after the airline lost his luggage. He tells the story at many campaign stops.
“I use your town in a lot of my speeches,” he said.
Thompson, like many of the candidates on the second tier financially, views the upcoming Ames straw poll as a potential breakthrough. A strong showing means more publicity and more attention nationally. That, in turn, means larger donations and a chance to run a more aggressive media campaign.
For now, Thompson spends hours in an RV, driving between stops and shaking as many hands as possible. He talks about lowering Wisconsin’s taxes by $16 billion while governor. He spends a lot of time talking about the steps Wisconsin took to reform welfare, steps he says other states imitated.
“I don’t just point out what the problems are, I come up with solutions,” Thompson said.
Iraq, Thompson says, is a problem. The war costs the U.S. $10 billion per month. The cost is borne by the U.S., and it’s a cost Iraq should share.
“I think they should be paying part of the bills,” Thompson said. “They’ve got 150,000 men in uniform. They should help defend their country.”
Thompson wants Iraq to redefine how it divides oil revenues. He wants one-third earmarked for the federal government, one-third directed to the states and one-third divided between the people themselves.
“If every man, woman and child has a stake in it, they’re going to defend their oil wells and they’re going to build schools and businesses,” he said.
Other nations require other approaches. Thompson wants the U.S. to use hospital ships as floating embassies ready to serve in seaports around the globe. He sees the ships, staffed with committed doctors, as a way to show both American strength and goodwill to the developing world.
Matt Milner can be reached at (641) 683-5359 or via e-mail at mwmilner@mchsi.com
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