Whose Agenda?

I'm watching Tim Russert question Fred Thompson on today's ep of Meet the Press right now. They are 40 minutes in and have spent half the time talking about gun control, abortion, and now gay marriage.

Fred Thompson seems to think that more people on college campuses should be able to carry handguns (because of Va Tech). He's very federalist on abortion and gay marriage -- "states should be allowed to decide" etc.

They did talk about the situation in Pakistan and Iraq for the first half, to be fair. And obviously the talking points on guns, gays, and abortion are to burnish Thompson's "conservative" bona fides.

Even so: Are these the most pressing issues facing the U.S.? And, really, what is "conservative" about wanting to amend the U.S. constitution to undo a Supreme Court decision (about abortion) and to stop states from recognizing legal marriages from other states (because the spouses are of the same gender)?

Not a word yet about the damage done to our Constitution (by torture and the Bush-Cheney protectorate regime), to our economy (by outrageous federal spending and the ever-weakening dollar) and to our military (by endless wars and, again, the infamy of torture) in the past seven years. Or any mention of what to do about oil or the environment.

But then this is a Republican candidate, running in a Republican primary. Let's hope whoever wins the nomination runs on the same issues in the general. And watch how many states turn blue.