For those of you in Iowa,

Come support Tommy Thompson for President by participating in the Iowa Straw Poll on Saturday, August 11th in Ames, Iowa. Tickets and transportation available by calling (515) 422-5100. Or e-mail dchaplick@tommy2008.com.

Thanks for your support on this very important event in the Tommy 2008 campaign!

By ROX LAIRD
REGISTER EDITORIAL WRITER
May 22, 2007



Tommy Thompson is disappointed. He's disappointed that other presidential candidates are not as serious about policy issues as he is. And he has a point.

That's frustrating for a guy like Thompson, 65, a Republican who has spent most of his career dedicated to getting things done. Like welfare reform in a state with as many uber-liberals as Wisconsin, or as secretary of Health and Human Services in George W. Bush's first term.

In a campaign where hair styles seem to take precedence over substance, Thompson stands apart if only because he wants to talk so much about substantive issues. Indeed, in a conversation with the Register's editorial-page staff last week, Thompson repeated maybe a half-dozen times that he is the only candidate talking about hard issues.

Thompson arrived in the afternoon, after an earlier stop at Des Moines University, where he talked about his favorite topic - health care. He seemed fatigued - on the campaign trail by 4 a.m. - yet he looked crisp in a dark suit, white shirt with french cuffs and a bright red paisley tie. If he was tired, he lit up when the topic turned to issues he's passionate about.

Such as health care.

"Isn't it amazing? Two debates, and not one question has been asked of any candidate on health care or on education."

He would emphasize preventive care, use of electronic medical records, and insurance pools for the uninsured, which private insurers would bid to cover, among other approaches.

Such as the looming Medicare funding crisis.

Thompson reels off the numbers in the manner of a teacher tired of repeating the same lesson to a bunch of kids eager for the recess bell. "Medicare is a much more serious problem than Social Security. The Gross National Product in America right now is about 13 trillion dollars, and the unfunded liability for Social Security over 75 years about 11.8 trillion dollars. That's huge. But what do you think the unfunded liability in Medicare will be in 75 years? Want to hazard a guess?" We didn't, so he supplied the answer: "65 trillion dollars. I mean it's just so large that people don't even want to think about it. And so you're going to have to address it."

Thompson's solution? He has some ideas - such as reducing the inflationary growth of Medicare benefits - but he was reluctant to go into detail in our meeting. "I have not gone into specifics on Medicare because that is all you would dwell on, and that will start scaring people. I don't want to scare anybody. I want people to come together and recognize we have a huge problem, and we have to come together on a bipartisan basis and deal with Medicare."

You get the feeling Thompson is serious about working in a collaborative way in Washington - not to demagogue. One reason is his record as a governor, when, he said, he would wake up at 3 a.m. with a good idea and have somebody working on it by 11. But could he get things done as president?

"When I went to Washington as secretary, I still had the ideas. But then I had to vet it through 65,000 employees, all of which thought they were smarter than the secretary, and believed that all they had to do was hunker down and he or she will be gone in a few years. And then if you did get by them, it goes over to the [Office of Management and Budget]. And if you do get OMB to buy into it, it goes over to the super intelligentsia at the White House. The super intelligentsia is a young college graduate who has never had a job but who has worked on a campaign and now has got a job in the White House and doesn't believe anything original or intelligent can come out of a [Cabinet] secretary. And if you get by that step, then it goes to the president, and if the president buys into it, it goes on to Congress, and if Congress ever does pass it, it is time to retire. That's why nothing gets done."

Still, Thompson is optimistic he could bring change.

"There needs to be much more bipartisanship," he said. "I think the American people are ready for a president who is going to cross the lines and be able to work with the other side and be able to offer suggestions, advice, cajoling, using the bully pulpit to get things done."

To all my friends in Iowa, please join me at one of these public events as I make my way through your state:

7/19/07 8:00AM Breakfast with Tommy Thompson Nederlanders Grill
Hwy 10 East
Orange City, Iowa

7/19/07 9:30AM Roundtable Discussion with Tommy Thompson
Four Brothers
1430 Two Rivers Blvd
Les Mars, Iowa

7/19/07 11:00AM Lunch with Tommy Thompson 4th Street Grill
Historic 4th St
Sioux City, Iowa

7/20/07 8:00AM Coffee & Common Sense with Tommy Thompson
Ida Grove Family Rec Center
311 Barnes St
Ida Grove, Iowa

7/20/07 9:30AM Brunch with Tommy Thompson Crossroads
Hwy 71
Early, Iowa

7/20/07 11:30AM Lunch with Tommy Thompson Danny's Sports Spot
1013 S 2nd St
Cherokee, Iowa

7/20/07 1:30AM Ice Cream Social with Tommy Thompson
Spencer Golf & Country Club
2200 W 18th St
Spencer, Iowa

7/20/07 6:00PM Town Hall Meeting with Tommy Thompson
Arrowwood Resort & Minervas
Hwy 71 S
Okoboji, Iowa

7/20/07 7:30PM Dinner with Tommy Thompson Mother Nature's
Hwy 9
Estherville, Iowa

7/21/07 8:00AM Breakfast with Tommy Thompson Wild Rose Golf Club
14 N Lawler ST
Emmetsburg, Iowa

7/21/07 9:30AM Coffee & Rolls with Tommy Thompson
Chrome Country Inn
Corner of Hwy 18 & Hwy 169
Algona, Iowa

7/21/07 11:00AM Roundtable Discussion with Tommy Thompson
Humboldt Country Golf Club
2308 River Rd
Humboldt, Iowa

7/21/07 1:00PM Lunch with Tommy Thompson American Espresso Coffee Café
260 State St
Garner, Iowa

7/21/07 3:00PM Meet & Greet with Tommy Thompson
Country Inn & Suites
711 Diamond Jo Lane
Northwood, Iowa

7/21/07 5:00PM Town Hall Meeting with Tommy Thompson
American Legion
W 4th St
St Ansgar, Iowa

7/21/07 7:00PM House Party with Governor Tommy Thompson
Home of Krmpotich's
114 N Shore Drive
Clear Lake, Iowa

7/22/07 2:00PM Topics and Toppings with Tommy Thompson
Inger Park
Strawberry Point, Iowa

7/22/07 4:30PM I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Tommy
Phelps Park
Decorah, Iowa

7/22/07 6:00PM BBQ with Governor Thompson
Waukon Country Club
308 1st St SE
Waukon, Iowa

Thompson Responds to Sicko's Michael Moore


Hampton, Iowa – Tuesday night on Larry King Live, Michael Moore attacked Dr. Sanjay Gupta's statistics saying they were tainted because they came from Dr. Paul Keckley, a medical statistics researcher who is the executive director of the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions. Moore also said they were tainted because former Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson is the independent chairman for the center.

"Paul Keckley is one of the most forthright and capable researchers in America today. His background is second to none and his research methods are impeccable. For Michael Moore to tear down research conducted by this man is shameful," said Thompson.

Paul Keckley previously served as a Senior Fellow in the Vanderbilt Center for Better Health where he conducted research on market trends in the healthcare industry with a special interest in healthcare consumerism, medical informatics, and evidence-based medicine.
He received a BA from Lipscomb University and his MA and PhD from Ohio State University.
Dr. Keckley is the author of two books The Handbook of Healthcare Market Research and 99 Questions You Should Ask Your Doctor and Why and numerous articles in professional journals. He has been the keynote speaker at major industry meetings including the AMA House of Delegates, National Quality Forum, The Medical group Management Association and American Association of Health Plans and has been featured in ABC's 20/20, CBS 60 Minutes, The Wall Street Journal and Los Angeles Times.
Thompson's campaign has put health care reform at the front of its campaign, calling for the eradication of breast cancer by 2015.

"Actually, I thank Michael Moore for bringing health care to the forefront. Having said that, I would gladly debate him on the merits of turning our health care system over to an impersonal federal government. My plan for health care addresses the issues that Michael Moore is concerned about without destroying the delivery system," said Thompson.

Thompson Pledges End to Breast Cancer
During His Presidency

For immediate release.
Contact Rennick Remley 202-609-9814

Shellrock, Iowa – Former Secretary of Health and Human Services, Tommy Thompson, pledged today on his Iowa barnstorming campaign tour to end breast cancer by 2015 and outlined a plan to accomplish this goal.

"Three women in my family have been afflicted with cancer, including my daughter and my wife. A healthy family starts with a healthy woman. I am committed to deploying the vast resources of the United States toward the goal of ending breast cancer by 2015 just like President Kennedy committed our nation to the moon," said Thompson.

"We'll start with breast cancer and then attack every major cancer one after the other. There's no candidate in either party more prepared and more motivated to lead this effort than me," said Thompson.

Thompson's plan calls on a public-private approach that utilizes resources from the federal government, private drug companies, University research centers and hospitals.

The key points to the plan include:

1) Recruit a successful corporate executive to lead a team of doctors, researchers, nurses and breast cancer victims who will be charged with setting benchmark goals and making recommendations for research funding.
2) Establish Fifteen $10 million prizes for corporations, Universities or research centers that solve benchmark problems related to curing breast cancer.
3) Double the budget of the National Institute of Health to $56 billion from its current level of $28 billion. Direct the additional funding to worthy public and private research projects.
4) Travel to key countries in the world recruiting their governments and research universities to join the effort. Tommy Thompson will re-establish America's leadership role and do it with medical and health care breakthroughs.
5) Create an open source research community on the Internet where research can be organized and discussions can be conducted with experts. This online community will be a centralized repository for research where all of the worlds people can contribute their time, money or expertise toward helping with this global fight.

"As Secretary, I was able to make a difference by helping seniors with prescription drugs. Now I want to make a difference for people everywhere by leading one of the most important battles our nation has ever undertaken," said Thompson. "I know that there are treatments and potential remedies that we may not be considering in the United States. Its essential that this be a global fight with the best minds from across the globe engaged in the effort."

"Here's the bottom line: The only way to expedite the cures to these diseases that end so many lives is for the President of the United States to set a goal and motivate our government and private companies to reach it. We can afford to do it and its the right thing to do," said Thompson.

Thompson's wife, Sue Ann Thompson, is a national leader in the battle against breast cancer and established the Wisconsin Women's Health Foundation. She also received an award from the Congressional Families for Cancer Awareness in 1998.

Thompson makes second stop in Carroll

By BUTCH HEMAN
Staff Writer



Tommy Thompson just might be the hardest-working presidential candidate.

The Republican former governor of Wisconsin and four-year U.S.
secretary of health and human services says he's been campaigning in
Iowa every week since December, and his second stop in Carroll on
Saturday was part of a 110-city, 20-day bus tour of all 99 counties in
the state.

Thompson was still exploring a presidential run when he hit Carroll in
March, and though he's an official candidate now, he still calls
himself the guy with the funny first name and no money in a field that
contains as many as 10 Republicans and eight Democrats.

Thompson's 30-minute talk mirrored the one he gave four months ago at
Family Table restaurant.

Same Tommy, same message.

"I don't change my views," he said.

Thompson said he's following the same strategy that got him elected to
the Wisconsin Assembly at age 23 and got him elected as a governor
who'd serve 14 years, cut spending by more than $16 bil-lion, create
800,000 jobs and reduce the welfare caseload by 93 percent.

Retail politics, he calls it.

"I'm going county by county, city by city, talking to people, laying
out my programs," he said.

Thompson says it's working. Didn't garner much statewide attention,
but he won a straw poll in Linn County a few weeks ago.

"I come to you, ladies and gentlemen, as a governor who looks at a
problem and finds a way to solve it," he said on the sixth of seven
appearances made Saturday.

Thompson spoke extensively about his hard-luck upbringing at Elroy,
Wis. His family farmed and owned a grocery store, and he left for the
University of Wisconsin with all his belongings in a paper sack.

"I didn't know I was poor," he said.

He won a scholarship and as a law student defeated a 16-year incumbent
for a seat in the assembly. Thompson spent 20 years as a state
representative before successfully running for governor in 1986.

He bought his family's Elroy, Wis., farm at a foreclosure sale and now
raises 100 head of belted Gal-loway beef cattle there. His
grandmother, father and mother-in-law died of cancer, and his wife and
daughter are cancer survivors. His daughter Kelly was a surrogate
mother for his other daughter Tommie in 2006.

The only issue Thompson addressed with any depth Saturday was the war
in Iraq. Thompson said if elected president he'd require the Iraqi
government to vote on whether U.S. troops should be there.

"If they vote yes, tell us how you're going to help pay for it and how
you're going to help us win the war," he said. "And if you don't want
us there, we should redeploy our forces outside of Iraq and to other
countries in the Middle East and Afghanistan."

Thompson said he'd also carve Iraq into 18 racially distinct territories.

"Shiites would elect Shiite leaders, Sunnis would elect Sunni leaders
and Kurds would elect Kurd leaders, and we wouldn't be having this
inner-nesting civil war that's been going on for 1,400 years," he
explained.

And he'd divvy Iraq's oil revenues among its government, territories
and citizens.

"Nobody has come up with a plan for peace or winning the war but me,"
he added. "... I'm the only candidate on either side that's laid out a
plan like that to win the peace in Iraq."

Thompson also spoke of his pro-life stance and his goals for energy
independence and improving the U.S. healthcare system. And he fielded
questions about organ donation, Social Security, Medicare,
immigration, education, the new farm bill and taxes.

Thompson placed fourth, well behind GOP heavyweights Mitt Romney, John
McCain and Rudy Giuliani, in recent Iowa polling, and it appears his
campaign is trying to hang on until the Aug. 11 Republican straw poll
at Ames.

"I don't have the money the other candidates do," Thompson said, "but
I'm doing the same thing I did when people said I couldn't win for
governor. I'm coming here to talk to you, tell you I'm an individual
with good Midwestern values, with common-sense ideals and ideology."

From the beginning, a big part of our campaign plan has included the August Straw Poll held in Ames, Iowa. We felt that it would be an opportunity for our campaign to show the strength of our support as well as an opportunity to take our message to a national audience watching on television.

With the recent announcements by Senator McCain and Mayor Giuliani that they will not be participating in the straw poll, it's clear that the competitive landscape has changed.

The straw poll is an expensive exercise even for campaigns with big war chests. Dollars spent on the straw poll are dollars that cannot be spent on direct voter contact. For a campaign to decide to participate in the straw poll means that there are other important campaign activities it cannot participate in.

Nevertheless, the Iowa Straw Poll has become a recent tradition in American campaign politics. During a month with very little hard news, it provides our nation a chance to listen to the major Republican presidential candidates discuss the issues important to the future of our country. The Ames Straw Poll is the best in American politics. More than 20,000 voters from across the state will descend on a town in the middle of Iowa to support their candidate and participate in the greatest electoral system the world has ever known. This is – in every way – a good thing for our country, for Iowa and our Party.

To skip the straw poll is to show fear...fear that a campaign's lack of support will finally be revealed and fear the entire country will see that the king has no clothes.

There's no doubt the stakes are high: eight years ago, four candidates dropped out as a result of the summer straw poll. And with all of the candidates investing heavily in Iowa, candidates who finish in the bottom half of the straw poll should withdraw from the race and support the rest of the field.

I believe the voters of Iowa and voters across the country deserve the chance to hear the uncensored comments of Republicans running for President. If Mayor Giuliani and Senator McCain choose not to take advantage of this opportunity, then I think it says more about their campaigns than it does the Iowa Straw Poll.

I will participate in the Iowa Straw Poll on August 11th. We will take our campaign of conservative solutions directly to the people of Iowa and the United States and let the votes fall where they may. Regardless of the outcome on August 11th, at least it will never be said that I was afraid to put my campaign's organization up against the rest. Lets start the race.

STAY TUNED FOR MORE UPCOMING EVENTS IN IOWA OR VISIT TOMMY2008.COM

7/12/07 8:00AM Breakfast with Tommy Thompson The Sportsmen
1042 Jackson Ave.
Oelwein, Iowa

7/12/07 9:00AM Coffee with Tommy Thompson
Arieanna's Café
1008 1st St. W.
Independence, Iowa

7/12/07 11:00AM Presidential Picnic with Tommy Thompson
Home of Chuck & Jane Northrup
409 S. Grandview Ave.
Dubuque, Iowa

7/12/07 1:00PM Lunch with Tommy Thompson
Flapjacks Family Restaurant
101 McKinsey (Int. Hwy 61 & 64)
Maquoketa, Iowa

7/12/07 5:00PM Town Hall Meeting with Tommy Thompson
Best Western Frontier (Georgian Room)
2300 Lincolnway
Clinton, Iowa

7/12/07 6:00PM House Party with Governor Tommy Thompson
Home of Steve Grubbs
Davenport, Iowa

7/13/07 8:00AM Coffee & Rolls with Tommy Thompson
Betty's Café
103 S Lafeyette St.
Corydon, Iowa

7/13/07 9:30AM Coffee & Muffins with Tommy Thompson
Continental
217 N 13th St
Centerville, Iowa

7/13/07 11:30AM Roundtable Discussion with Tommy Thompson
Hotel Manning
100 Van Buren St.
Keosaqua, Iowa

7/13/07 1:00PM Cobbler & Coffee with Tommy Thompson
Kokomo's Café
2200 W Burlington
Fairfield, Iowa

7/13/07 5:30PM Town Hall Meeting with Tommy Thompson
Henry Sirloin Stockade
900 N Grand Ave.
Mt Pleasant, Iowa

7/13/07 7:00PM Town Hall Meeting with Tommy Thompson
The Drake Restaurant
106 Washington St.
Burlington, Iowa

7/14/07 9:00AM Breakfast with Tommy Thompson Papa Leo's
126 N Grand
Chariton, Iowa

7/14/07 10:30AM Breakfast with Tommy Thompson Redman's Pizza & Steak House
123 S Main Street
Osceola, Iowa

7/14/07 12:00PM Lunch with Tommy Thompson The Windrow
102 W Taylor St
Creston, Iowa

7/14/07 2:00PM Lunch with Tommy Thompson The Brick Coffee House
362 Public Square
Greenfield, Iowa

7/14/07 4:00PM Town Hall Meeting with Tommy Thompson
The Pines
1500 E 7th St
Atlantic, Iowa

7/14/07 6:00PM Town Hall Meeting with Tommy Thompson
Mosquito Creek Restaurant
1840 Madison Ave
Council Bluffs, Iowa

Any legislation that provides amnesty to the estimated 12 million
illegal aliens currently living in the United States is the wrong path
for our country.  You can call it anything you want, but this compromise
has the look and feel of amnesty.  The Senate should set this compromise
aside and start by recognizing that there will be no amnesty or benefit
to anyone who broke our laws to enter this country.