Ernie Els Scoffs at democrat liberal Losers Idiocy

Permits Use of Advanced Gaydar

Just days after asserting that there are no homosexuals in Iran, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad today invited United Nations inspectors into his country to search for homosexuals.

“We have nothing to hide,” Mr. Ahmadinejad said in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly. “You can search the entire country – even the airport bathrooms.”

While some senior U.S. diplomats expressed skepticism about the Iranian president’s offer to allow U.N. inspectors to search his country for homosexuals, Mr. Ahmadinejad attempted to silence the skeptics by permitting the use of “advanced gaydar technology” as part of the proposed inspections.

“In Iran we have the most advanced gaydar in the world and we are prepared to share it with you,” he said.

In the immediate aftermath of Mr. Ahmadinejad’s speech, it was unclear as to who would lead the U.N.’s inspection efforts, but most diplomats assumed that the task would fall to Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

At a press conference at the United Nations, Mr. ElBaradei acknowledged that he had no previous experience searching for homosexuals, but said that if chosen to lead the inspection effort he would make sure that the inspections were “rigorous and thorough.”

“The possibility that Iran may possess homosexuals is a serious matter to the world community,” Mr. ElBaradei said. “There has been evidence for some time that Iran may be attempting to build a Broadway musical.”

 The following is a copy of an article written by Spanish writer Sebastian Vilar Rodrigez and published in a Spanish newspaper on 5-22-07. It doesn't take much imagination to extrapolate the message to the rest of Europe - and possibly to the rest of the world.


=====================================================

REMEMBER AS YOU READ -- IT WAS IN A SPANISH PAPER
Date: Tue, 22 May 2007 14:30:20 -0500

SPANISH NEWSPAPER ARTICLE. KEEP IT FOREMOST IN YOUR THINKING THAT THIS WAS WRITTEN BY A SPANISH WRITER ABOUT SPAIN AND EUROPE.

ALL EUROPEAN LIFE DIED IN AUSCHWITZ
By Sebastian Vilar Rodrigez(*)

I walked down the street in Barcelona, and suddenly discovered a terrible truth - Europe died in Auschwitz. We killed six million Jews and replaced them with 20 million Muslims. In Auschwitz we burned a culture, thought, creativity, talent. We destroyed the chosen people, truly chosen, because they produced great and wonderful people who changed the world.

The contribution of this people is felt in all areas of life: science, art, international trade, and above all, as the conscience of the world. These are the people we burned.

And under the pretense of tolerance, and because we wanted to prove to ourselves that we were cured of the disease of racism, we opened our gates to 20 million Muslims, who brought us stupidity and ignorance, religious extremism and lack of tolerance, crime and poverty, due to an unwillingness to work and support their families with pride.

They have turned our beautiful Spanish cities into the third world, drowning in filth and crime

Shut up in the apartments they receive free from the government, they plan the murder and destruction of their naive hosts.

And thus, in our misery, we have exchanged culture for fanatical hatred, creative skill for destructive skill, intelligence for backwardness and superstition.

We have exchanged the pursuit of peace of the Jews of  Europe and their talent for hoping for a better future for their children, their determined clinging to life because life is holy, for those who pursue death, for people consumed by the desire for death for themselves and others, for our children and theirs.

What a terrible mistake was made by miserable Europe.
************************************

This is a translation of an article from a Spanish newspaper. Please send this article to as many people as possible, with a request to forward it on.

A lot of Americans have become so insulated from reality that they imagine America can suffer defeat without any inconvenience to themselves.



Absolutely No Profiling?? Pause a moment, reflect back, and take the
following multiple choice test.


These events are actual events from history. They really happened!
Do you remember?


1. 1968 Bobby Kennedy was shot and killed by
a. Superman
b. Jay Leno
c. Harry Potter
d.. a Muslim male extremist between the ages of 17 and 40


2. In 1972 at the Munich Olympics, athletes were kidnapped and
massacred by
a. Olga Corbett
b. Sitting Bull
c. Arnold Schwarzenegger
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40


3. In 1979, the US embassy in Iran was taken over by:
a. Lost Norwegians
b. Elvis
c. A tour bus full of 80-year-old women
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40


4. During the 1980's a number of Americans were kidnapped in  Lebanon
by:
a. John Dillinger
b. The King of Sweden
c. The Boy Scouts
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40


5. In 1983, the US Marine barracks in Beirut was blown up by:
a. A pizza delivery boy
b. Pee Wee Her man
c. Geraldo Rivera
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40


6. In 1985 the cruise ship Achille Lauro was hijacked and a 70 year
old American passenger was murdered and thrown overboard in his
wheelchair by:
a. The Smurfs
b. Davey Jones
c. The Little Mermaid
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40


7. In 1985 TWA flight 847 was hijacked at Athens, and a US Navy diver
trying to rescue
passengers was murdered by:
a. Captain Kidd
b. Charles Lindberg
c. Mother Teresa
d Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40


8. In 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 was bombed by:
a. Scooby Doo
b. The Tooth Fairy and The Sundance Kid
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40


9. In 1993 the World Trade Center was bombed the first time by:
a. Richard Simmons
b. Grandma Moses
c. Michael Jordan
d. Muslim male extremists mos tly between the ages of 17 and 40


10. In 1998, the US embassies in  Kenya and Tanzania were bombed by:
a. Mr. Rogers
b. Hillary Clinton, to distract attention from Wild Bill's women
problems
c. The World Wrestling Federation
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40


11. On 9/11/01, four airliners were hijacked; two were used as
missiles to take out the World Trade Centers and of the remaining
two, one crashed into the US Pentagon and the other was diverted and
crashed by the passengers. Thousands of people were killed by:
a. Bugs Bunny, Wiley E. Coyote, Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd
b. The Supreme Court of Florida
c. Mr. Bean
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40


12. In 2002 the United States fought a war in Afghanistan against:
a. Enron
b. The Lutheran Church
c. The NFL
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40


13. In 2002 reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and murdered by:
a. Bonnie and Clyde
b. Captain Kangaroo
c. Billy Graham
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

Naw, I really don't see a pattern here to justify profiling, do you?

So, to ensure we Americans never offend anyone, particularly fanatics intent on killing us, airport security screeners will no longer be allowed to profile certain people. They must conduct random searches of 80-year-old women, little kids, airline pilots with proper identification, secret agents who are members of the President's security detail, 85-year old Congressmen with metal hips, and Medal of Honor winning and former Governor Joe Foss, but leave Muslim Males between the ages 17 and 40 alone lest they be guilty of profiling. Let's send this to as many people as we can so that the Gloria Aldreds, ACLU's and other dunder-headed attorneys along with Federal Justices that want to thwart common sense, feel ashamed of themselves -- if they have any such sense.

Congress signaled its disapproval of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with a vote Tuesday to tighten sanctions against his government and a call to designate his Revolutionary Guard a terrorist group.

The swift rebuke was a rare display of bipartisan cooperation in a Congress bitterly divided on the Iraq war. It reflected lawmakers' long-standing nervousness about Tehran's intentions in the region, particularly toward Israel—a sentiment fueled by the pro-Israeli lobby whose influence reaches across party lines in Congress.

"Iran faces a choice between a very big carrot and a very sharp stick," said Rep. Tom Lantos, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. "It is my hope that they will take the carrot. But today, we are putting the stick in place."

The House passed, by a 397-16 vote, a proposal by Lantos, D-Calif., aimed at blocking foreign investment in Iran, in particular its lucrative energy sector. The bill would specifically bar the president from waiving U.S. sanctions.

Vilified as a Holocaust denier, a supporter of terrorism and a backer of Iraqi insurgents, the president of Iran was actually able to make New Yorkers burst into laughter -- but not at a joke.

"In Iran we don't have homosexuals like in your country," Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said at Columbia University on Monday in response to a question about the recent execution of two gay men there.  Insiders say that Ahmadinejad himself is a gay homophobic in denial.

"In Iran we do not have this phenomenon," he continued. "I do not know who has told you we have it, I keep my gay friends all to myself in the palace dungeon." 

Loud laughs and boos broke from the audience of about 700 people, mostly students at the Ivy League school whose garb included "Stop Ahmadinejad's Evil" T-shirts.

Everyone from presidential candidates to September 11 families had expressed outrage that Ahmadinejad would speak there.

After his assertions that Israel persecutes Palestinians and that Iran's nuclear program is for energy not weapons, the Iranian leader's comment on gays broke the tension.

But it spurred strong reaction too.

"This is a sick joke," said Scott Long of Human Rights Watch, saying Iran tortures gays under a penal code that punishes homosexuality between men with the death penalty.

When Ahmadinejad, speaking in Farsi, actually tried to crack a joke, it drew no laughter, although maybe the nuance was lost in translation.

"Let me tell a joke here," Ahmadinejad said. "I think the politicians who are after atomic bombs, or testing them, making them, politically they are backward, retarded."

The crowd seemed uncertain how to react. Some applauded that pacifist sentiment, others seemed befuddled by the insensitive use of the word retarded.

DELUGE OF OBJECTIONS

Ahmadinejad's visit here was preceded by a deluge of objections when it became apparent he wanted to lay a wreath at Ground Zero and that he would speak at Columbia.

Presidential candidates from both major U.S political parties took swipes at the president of a country President George W. Bush calls part of "the axis of evil." They said he denied the Holocaust, supported terrorism and armed Iraqi insurgents.

U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner of New York had a different way of capturing all that.

"Sometimes we have snakes slithering through the streets of New York," Weiner told protesters outside the United Nations, where Ahmadinejad will speak on Tuesday.

And in a city known for its blunt manners, the Iranian president's reception was bound to be frosty. The New York Daily News had the front page headline, "The Evil Has Landed."

At Columbia, university President Lee Bollinger pulled no punches. He called him a "petty and cruel dictator" and said his Holocaust denials suggested he was either "brazenly provocative or astonishingly uneducated."

"I feel the weight of the modern civilized world yearning to express the revulsion at what you stand for," Bollinger said to loud applause.

Facing ten felony counts after his ill-fated attempt to acquire sports memorabilia, O.J. Simpson announced today that he would attempt to reassemble the jury that found him not guilty in his 1995 murder trial.

Speaking to reporters in Las Vegas, the former football star said he would “spare no offense” to find the twelve jurors who set him free twelve years ago.

“This current case is a very complicated once – maybe even trickier than my murder trial,” Mr. Simpson told reporters. “It’s important that we have a jury that really knows what they’re doing.”

Mr. Simpson acknowledged that it might be difficult to locate all twelve of the jurors who found him innocent in 1995, but indicated that “all the time and the effort in the world” was worth it.

“Look, I’ve spent the last twelve years looking for my wife’s real killers,” he said. “I can use some of that energy to look for those jurors.”

Mr. Simpson said that in his new trial he would attempt to rekindle nostalgic feelings among the jurors by wearing the same suit he wore during the 1995 proceedings, adding, “If the suit does fit, they must acquit.”

When asked what he plans to do if it proves impossible to reconstitute his 1995 jury, he said, “I’ll settle for Phil Spector’s.”

As for his current scrape with the law, Mr. Simpson told reporters that he had already learned a valuable lesson: “Next time I want sports memorabilia, I’m going on eBay.”

"WHAT THE HELL AM I DOING?"

Bavaria's most glamorous politician -- a flame-haired motorcyclist -- has shocked the Catholic state in Germany by suggesting marriage should last just 7 years.

Gabriele Pauli, who poses on her web site in motorcycle leathers, is standing for the leadership of Bavaria's Christian Social Union (CSU) -- sister party of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) -- in a vote next week.

She told reporters at the launch of her campaign manifesto Wednesday she wanted marriage to expire after seven years and accused the CSU, which promotes traditional family values, of nurturing ideals of marriage which are wide of the mark.

"The basic approach is wrong ... many marriages last just because people believe they are safe," she told reporters. "My suggestion is that marriages expire after seven years."

After that time, couples should either agree to extend their marriage or it should be automatically dissolved, she said.

Fifty-year-old Pauli, twice divorced, is a maverick intent on shaking up her male-dominated and mainly Catholic party which has dominated Bavarian politics since World War Two.

JASON WERTH SMACKS HUGE 14TH INNING TRIPLE

METS LOOKING IN THE REARVIEW MIRROR AND CRYING

BASEBALL'S MOST ENIGMATIC TEAM

You are one sad sarcastic bitch.

New Book Explores Hypothetical Armed Robbery

Just days after being arrested for armed robbery of sports memorabilia, former football great O.J. Simpson announced today that he was the author of a new book entitled, “If I Robbed Them.”

Speaking at a press conference in Las Vegas, Mr. Simpson described his latest literary venture, which he called “an attempt to get inside the mind of someone who would commit armed robbery of sports memorabilia.”

“Personally, participating in armed robbery of sports memorabilia is something that I would never do,” Mr. Simpson said. “That’s what made writing this book such a challenge, imagination-wise.”

Legal experts questioned the wisdom of Mr. Simpson’s decision to author this latest tome, since the publication of a book about a hypothetical incident of armed robbery of sports memorabilia could potentially make a jury suspect that Mr. Simpson himself had participated in such a crime, should his case someday go to trial.

But the former Heisman trophy winner’s new book received a vigorous defense from its publisher, Judith Regan, who said she came out of retirement to publish Mr. Simpson’s latest effort.

Sitting by Mr. Simpson’s side at the press conference, Ms. Regan said that readers of “If I Robbed Them” would recognize the “honesty and forthrightness that have become synonymous with O.J. Simpson.”

“I’ve been a publisher for a long time, and I’ve never encountered an author as truthful as O.J.,” she said. “Well, maybe James Frey.”

Basically I have so much money I play golf for fun.  It's a great life.  You have to hand it to Tiger.  What a competitor.

Tiger Woods wasn't even paying attention to his score. No one else could ignore it.

It was an incredible stretch of golf that lasted just over an hour under heavy clouds and the threat of storms, but those six holes Friday at the Tour Championship changed everything.

Woods ran off five straight birdies, including one he never saw go in from the bottom of a bunker. Then he rammed in a 70-foot eagle putt for a 28 on the front nine of defenseless East Lake, the lowest nine-hole score of his career.

It energized a lifeless gallery at East Lake with hopes of seeing a 59.

And it drained whatever drama was left in the FedEx Cup.

"I don't know if it's a zone or not," Woods said after settling for a 7-under 63 and a three-shot lead. "I just felt that the rhythm was good. The pace was good. The swing was good. I hit one bad putt that went in. I made a bomb. But I was hitting good shots through that stretch. It was nice."

Russia has tested the world's most powerful vacuum bomb, which unleashes a destructive shockwave with the power of a nuclear blast, the military said on Tuesday, dubbing it the "father of all bombs".

The bomb is the latest in a series of new Russian weapons and policy moves as President Vladimir Putin tries to reassert Moscow's role on the international stage.

"Test results of the new airborne weapon have shown that its efficiency and power is commensurate with a nuclear weapon," Alexander Rukshin, Russian deputy armed forces chief of staff, told Russia's state ORT First Channel television. The same report was later shown on the state-sponsored Vesti channel.

"You will now see it in action, the bomb which has no match in the world is being tested at a military site."

It showed a Tupolev Tu-160 strategic bomber dropping the bomb over a testing ground. A large explosion followed.

Pictures showed what looked like a flattened multi-storey block of flats surrounded by scorched soil and boulders. "The soil looks like a lunar landscape," the report said.

"The defense ministry stresses this military invention does not contradict a single international treaty. Russia is not unleashing a new arms race."

Such devices generally detonate in two stages. First a small blast disperses a main load of explosive material into a cloud, which then either spontaneously ignites in air or is set off by a second charge.

This explosion generates a pressure wave that reaches much further than that from a conventional explosive. The consumption of gases in the blast also generates a partial vacuum that can compound damage and injuries caused by the explosion itself.

"The main destruction is inflicted by an ultrasonic shockwave and an incredibly high temperature," the reports said. "All that is alive merely evaporates."

Rukshin said: "At the same time, I want to stress that the action of this weapon does not contaminate the environment, in contrast to a nuclear one."

In order to win the prize, a couple has to prove with video that they actually had sex that day.  The governor of a central Russian province urged couples to skip work Wednesday and make love instead to help boost Russia's low birth-rate.  This is an idea Fred Thompson should latch onto as a campaign issue.

And if a woman gives birth in exactly nine months time -- on Russia's national day on June 12 -- she will qualify for a prize, perhaps even winning a new home.  "It's normally something for the home -- a fridge or a television set," Yelena Yakovleva at the Ulyanovsk regional administration press office, said.

"It doesn't matter if it's a girl or a boy."

Newly-weds Karina and Anton Bukhanovsky walked hand in hand down the main street of the regional capital of Ulyanovsk. They live in St Petersburg but traveled to Ulyanovsk to soak up the atmosphere Wednesday.

"I used to live here," said Karina, aged 19.  "We plan to come back on the same day next year and try for a baby and the prize nine months later," she said.  Anton, aged 21, kissed her gently on the cheek and they strolled off arm in arm.

Regional governor Sergei Morozov told employers to contribute to a Kremlin campaign to boost the birth rate by giving couples Wednesday off to have sex. 

Demanding further intervention from the Federal Reserve to protect their endangered fortunes, thousands of the nation’s leading hedge fund managers marched on Washington today.

Dubbed “The Million Mercedes March,” the protest was said to be the largest chauffeur-driven demonstration in the capital’s history.

Limousines started jamming the streets of Washington at approximately ten in the morning as irate hedge fund owners converged in front of the Federal Reserve building to demand stronger action to protect their imperiled riches.

Chanting “No Rate Cut, No Peace,” the furious money managers were pepper-sprayed by police as their protest threatened to take a violent turn.

Tracy Klujian, a hedge fund manager from Greenwich, Connecticut, said that simmering anger in the hedge fund community was “a powder keg” waiting to explode.

“We have yet to see the ripple effects of this crisis,” Mr. Klujian said. “When these guys have to freeze their trophy wives’ shopping allowances, there’s going to be hell to pay.”

Mr. Klujian’s words seemed almost prophetic as a mob of angry trophy wives looted a Ralph Lauren boutique in East Hampton, New York later in the day, stripping the establishment of its entire fall collection.

If the Fed fails to intervene, Mr. Klujian warned, an ugly situation among the nation’s wealthiest money managers will only get uglier.

“A lot of these guys are mad as hell right now,” he said. “But wait until they’re down to their last billion.”

The ad features a large headline under a picture of the general that reads: "General Petraeus or General Betray Us?"  Tony Snow dismissed the ad Monday morning as a an attempt to smear the general before his testimony, and called it "boorish" and "childish."

Republican lawmakers on both sides of Capitol Hill also decried the ad as tasteless and partisan.

Sen. John Ensign, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said a failure of Democrats to denounce the ad would mean they have decided re-election is more important than "moving our country forward" or being fair to Petraeus.

"Today, ostensibly on behalf of National Democrats, Democrat front group MoveOn.org is calling a unanimously confirmed United States General a liar and betrayer of the public trust. Apparently the prospect of campaign funds is enough of an incentive for Senate Democrats to stand idly by while a respected General is maligned before he has even presented his report to Congress,said Ensign of Nevada.

Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., said: “It’s repugnant, but unfortunately not surprising, to see MoveOn.org launch this despicable ad campaign against General Petraeus."

Kyl pointed out that Petraeus, a Vietnam veteran, was confirmed as head of Multinational Forces in Iraq unanimously in the Senate earlier this year — an 81-0 vote — and called on Democrats to either take up MoveOn's war stance or support the general they voted to confirm.

moveOn.org and democrats get sex change surgery and corner the burkha market

You Republican bashers out there should look at your own democrat criminal acts, lies, malfeasance, government theft and hypocrisy.  Everyone has already scorned Senator Craig.  His screwed up life has zero to do with Republicans.  Deal with the real issues you democrat frauds out there.

NEED I GO ON?  THAT IS JUST A SPINKLING OF democrat JACKASSES

SO FUNDAMENTAL EVEN A DEAD TOWELHEAD KNOWS

Less than one week after announcing his intention to resign from office, embattled Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) changed course today, telling reporters in Washington, “I will not blow this job.”

Over the past few days, there had been whispers in Republican circles that Sen. Craig had, in the words of one of the Idaho senator’s associates, “pulled out too early,”

“At the end of the day, Larry does not want to blow this job,” the associate said. “He will do whatever it takes to win back the support of his constituents, even if it means getting down on his knees.”

Another associate of Sen. Craig’s agreed that the Idaho senator announced his intention to vacate his Senate seat too hastily: “I think Larry now feels that to leave office on September 30 would be a premature evacuation.”

Sen. Craig got a key vote of support from Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Penn), who held a press conference at the Senate today to call the charges against the Idaho senator a “bum rap.”

But even as Sen. Craig picked up the support of Sen. Specter, a source close to the Republican caucus indicated that most Republicans are “backing away” from Sen. Craig.

For his part, Sen. Craig told reporters that he would take whatever steps are necessary to find favor with his Republican colleagues: “I will absolutely bend over backwards.”

stomp the jackasses into sawdust

TECHNICALLY A "FAGGOT CARRIER" - THE MEMBERS

OF ED'S SKANK PARADE WOULD SEEM TO ALSO QUALIFY

American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source

fag·ot also fag·got       (fāg'ət)  Pronunciation Key  n.   A bundle of twigs, sticks, or branches bound together. A bundle of pieces of iron or steel to be welded or hammered into bars.

  YES, I'M A BAD AMERICAN
by: George Carlin

I Am Your Worst Nightmare. I am a BAD American. I am George Carlin.


I believe the money I make belongs to me and my family, not some mid level governmental functionary be it Democratic or Republican!

I'm in touch with my feelings and I like it that way!

I think owning a gun doesn't make you a killer, it makes you a smart American.

I think being a minority does not make you noble or victimized, and does not entitle you to anything.

I believe that if you are selling me a Big Mac, do it in English.

I believe everyone has a right to pray to his or her God when and where they want to.

My heroes are John Wayne, Babe Ruth, Roy Rogers, and whoever cancelled Jerry Springer.

I don't hate the rich. I don't pity the poor.

I know wrestling is fake and I don't waste my time watching or arguing about it.

I've never owned a slave, or was a slave, I haven't burned any witches or been persecuted by the Turks and neither have you! So, shut up already.

I believe if you don't like the way things are here, go back to where you came from and change your own country! This is AMERICA

I want to know which church is it exactly where the Reverend Jesse Jackson preaches, where he gets his money, and why he is always part of the problem and not the solution. Can I get an AMEN on that one?

I think the cops have every right to shoot your sorry rear if you're running from them..

I also think they have the right to pull you over if you're breaking the law, regardless of what color you are.

And, no, I don't mind having my face shown on my drivers license. I think it's good..... and I'm proud that "God" is written on my money.

I think if you are too stupid to know how a ballot works, I don't want you deciding who should be running the most powerful nation in the world for the next four years.

I dislike those people standing in the intersections trying to sell me stuff or trying to guilt me into making "donations" to their cause.

I believe that it doesn't take a village to raise a child, it takes two parents.

And what is going on with gas prices... again?

I believe "illegal" is illegal no matter what the lawyers think.

I believe the American flag should be the only one allowed in AMERICA!

If this makes me a BAD American, then yes, I'm a BAD American.

"No sense letting those dress wearing jackasses what is going to hit 'em"

Whe Fred Thompson was at the Minnesota State Fair, he was surrounded by hundreds of star-struck onlookers, many of them "Law & Order" fans who line up three-dozen deep for a close-up with the actor who would be president. Thompson, a sometimes reluctant campaigner, is in full movie-star mode, and has his good-ole-boy charm set on high. All the women he meets are "honey" and the men "buddy." Even dressed down in khakis and a blue shirt with the sleeves rolled up, he is hard to miss. At 6 feet 6, he is head-and-shoulders taller than anyone around him. Posing for picture after picture, he reflexively stoops to fit in the frame. Some fans ask him to autograph DVDs of "The Hunt for Red October" and "In the Line of Fire," movies in which he had small but memorable parts playing powerful, world-weary men. "Run, Fred, run!" comes a shout from the crowd. Thompson lets out a long, low chuckle. All in all, he looks downright thrilled to be here.

There's no doubt Thompson looks the part; there's a reason Hollywood directors have sought him out to play wise Washington hands in the movies. His deeply lined, gently scowling face exudes authority, and he knows how to use his LBJ-size frame to impress and intimidate. And there is that disarming rumble when he speaks, a voice so grand that John McCain jokes he would be president if only he had Thompson's vocal cords.

Like most political attacks—aimed at defining an opponent before he can define himself—the claim that Thompson has spent a lifetime skating by on his God-given talents is a little too easy, and more than a little wrong. Thompson has doubtless had his share of lucky breaks; throughout his life, he's shown an enviable knack for being in the right place at the right time. But in his long, meandering career—as a young Tennessee prosecutor who won 14 of 15 bank-robbery cases, a twice-elected senator and Washington lobbyist and an accidental actor who stars in one of the most popular shows on television—Thompson has never lost a job, or a campaign, because of a lack of effort. "If I had to pick one thing that qualifies him to be president," says Howard Baker, "it's this: he approaches things calmly, deliberately—and he doesn't shoot from the hip."

If anything, Thompson has so far used his laid-back style to his advantage. In a GOP field crowded with accomplished strivers who will seemingly do or say anything to get noticed, he has stood out for his practiced indifference to presidential gamesmanship. His reticence may strike his doubters and detractors as a weakness. But for many voters put off by the other candidates, Thompson's stately but somewhat detached approach to the campaign is reminiscent of another actor turned president. "You're the next Ronald Reagan!" a man tells Thompson at the fair. Thompson, not quite convincingly, downplays the comparison. "No, no, don't say that," he protests. "I have a lot to live up to."