WRONG SAID FRED

Is Fred Thompson even less articulate than the current president?

Before a small crowd here in a downtown convention center, ... Mr. Thompson often appeared to ramble. When asked "what society's position should be on deviants, including homosexuality," he gave a somewhat meandering answer that included, "I think that we should not have discrimination, but that we should not set aside categories to give special set-aside treatments for, and treatments to."

Er, yeah ... right. Couldn't have said it better myself.

And sometimes his words sound coherent, but he seems to have fixated on one bizarre detail, and gotten it wrong:

Freshly minted GOP White House hopeful Fred Thompson puzzled Iowans yesterday by insisting an Al Qaeda smoking ban was one reason freedom-loving Iraqis bolted to the U.S. side.

"They said, 'You gotta quit smoking,'" Thompson explained to a questioner asking about progress in Iraq during a town hall-style meeting.

...Thompson's tale of a smokers' revolt baffled some in the audience of about 150 who came to decide whether the former Tennessee senator is ready for prime time.

"I don't know what that was about," said Jim Moran, 72, who had driven from nearby McCook Lake, S.D....

And sometimes he just plain screws up:

Former Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., has only been an official Republican presidential candidate for a day. But his comments are already drawing fire from his GOP rivals.

"Bin Laden is more symbolism than anything else," Thompson said while campaign in Iowa Friday. "I think it demonstrates to people once again that we're in a global war."

... "He's more than a symbol," McCain told ABC News when asked about Thompson's comments. "He's motivating and recruiting using the internet as we speak. He's a threat. He's a threat."

... "Osama Bin Laden is the face of evil," Romney said in a statement reacting to the bin Laden tape....

Of course, on that last one, he's channeling the current president, so he must have thought it was OK.

(Second link via the Carpetbagger Report. Cross-posted at Too Sense.)