Tommy thinks the voters want someone who will unequivocally be on both sides of an issue. Discrimination against gays, for example.
Tommy says he's a fiscal hawk who cut taxes by $16-billion as governor, which would be news to people in Wisconsin.
The New Republic says his claim to be fiscally conservative is hogwash, as they say in Iowa:
Tommy Thompson sees an opening. As the national debt nears the $9 trillion mark, Democrats and Republicans may be sympathetic to a presidential aspirant who will actually do something to rein in spending, rather than just pay lip service to the idea of a balanced budget. And so Thompson, the former Republican governor of Wisconsin and secretary of Health and Human Services, officially threw his hat into the ring this month as a deficit hawk who will bring "Midwestern values" to the White House. "People feel the Republicans lost their way in Washington," Thompson told George Stephanopoulos on ABC's "This Week" as he announced his candidacy. "They believe that they're trying to spend as much money as the Democrats."
There's just one problem: As governor, Thompson racked up a reckless spending record and left residents with a $3.5 billion deficit as a going-away gift. Although his new campaign website claims that he "repeatedly cut taxes while holding the line on state spending," the truth is just the opposite: Thompson has always been a shopaholic.