For Thompson, gender appears to be among top criteria in '08 race
URBANDALE, Iowa - Fred Thompson doesn't have a problem with a female heading a government. But he's not ready for it in this country, at least not yet.
Speaking yesterday to a small group of supporters in the last campaign rush before the Iowa caucuses next week, Thompson railed against those who opposed - and ultimately assassinated - Pakistan's former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.
"They're driven to distraction by the notion that a secular woman would be head of government," the Republican presidential hopeful said of the woman who was slain yesterday as she campaigned for her country's presidency after years in exile.
But in America, Thompson said, repeating remarks earlier in the week, no woman is up to the job just yet.
"This year, it's a man, and next year, it's going to be a man," said the actor and former US senator from Tennessee. "I can see no one else who's qualified to be president of the United States."
Most other GOP candidates have been content to warn against the specter of a Hillary Clinton presidency, but careful not to specifically mention the New York senator's gender.
SUSAN MILLIGAN
Edwards says in the ads - one titled "Choice," the other "Time for Truth" - that Iowans can start a "wave of change" by choosing him.
While the former US senator from North Carolina, who finished second in the 2004 Iowa caucuses, is third in most polls behind Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, he has been inching up in the standings and his campaign is claiming momentum.
On an eight-day, 38-county tour of Iowa leading up to next Thursday's caucuses, Edwards continued sounding his populist theme yesterday, telling voters that he's the White House hopeful who is ready to do the most to fight for the middle class.
"My belief is that we desperately need to make this government work for everybody again," he told a crowd packed tightly into a small restaurant bar in Waukon, in northeastern Iowa.
GLOBE STAFF, AP
The forum, at which the candidates will be questioned by Fox News Channel's Chris Wallace, will be held a day after ABC holds back-to-back Democratic and Republican presidential debates.
"Never underestimate New Hampshire voters' appetite for politics," said Fergus Cullen, the chairman of the state GOP.
Participating in the 90-minute forum will be Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, John McCain, Mitt Romney, and Fred Thompson.
Unlike a debate, the candidates will face questions from Wallace around a table in a studio on the campus of Saint Anselm College in Goffstown, N.H.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
The advertisements in The Des Moines Register and The New Hampshire Union Leader feature a photograph of him surrounded by several other mayors from his antigun coalition.
The ads cost $22,200 and were purchased by the nonprofit group he founded called Mayors Against Illegal Guns Inc. It is primarily funded by the billionaire mayor, according to a City Hall spokesman.
The ad aims its message at the declared presidential candidates who, unlike Bloomberg, are competing in Iowa's caucuses Thursday and in New Hampshire's Jan. 8 primary. It asks "Where do the presidential candidates stand on illegal guns?" and features excerpts from a questionnaire that the gun coalition released on Dec. 9, asking for the candidates' responses by Wednesday. None have been turned in so far.
The coalition says it won't endorse a candidate but plans to post the responses on its website.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
"I saw the picture of the firefighters putting the flag up at ground zero," the Republican candidate says in the ad. "I said these are the children or grandchildren or great-grandchildren of the greatest generation. They have the same resolve."
Giuliani has sought to avoid the appearance that he is exploiting the attacks for political gain.
ASSOCIATED PRESS 