What Fred Really Said

Courtesy Jim Geraghty, a transcript of part of Fred's exchange with Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday:

THOMPSON: This has been a constant mantra of Fox, to tell you the truth. And I saw the promo for this bill, and I think it was kind of — for this show, and it was kind of featuring the New Hampshire poll. Let’s put things in context a little bit, to start with.

WALLACE: Well, I don’t know that —- I mean, I don’t know that Fox has been going after you, and I certainly don’t think Charles Krauthammer and Fred Barnes…

THOMPSON: From day one, they said I got in too late, I couldn’t do it.

WALLACE: But there were a lot of people besides Fox who said that, sir.

THOMPSON: Well, but I’m — these are the two you used.

WALLACE: Right.

THOMPSON: All right. Well, they said I got in too late, couldn’t do it…

WALLACE: Right.

THOMPSON: … wouldn’t raise enough money, and that sort of thing. And that’s their opinion. They’re entitled to their opinion. But that doesn’t seem to be shared by the cross-section of American people. If you look at the national polls, you’ll see that I’m running second and have been running second for a long time. I’m running ahead of a guy who spent probably $50 million more than I have and been running for a year longer. If you look in South Carolina, I’ve either been leading or tied for the lead for a long, long time. I moved from fourth to third in Iowa, ahead of Rudy Giuliani, incidentally.

So you know, they’re entitled to their opinion, but for you to highlight nothing but the negative in terms of these polls, and then put on your own guys, who have been predicting for four months, really, that I couldn’t do it, you know, kind of skews things a little bit.

And there ya have it. Don't believe the spin, believe what he really said.