Mitt Romney for President My Man Mitt: Romney and Thompson Talking?

Rumorville has it that Romney's big Media Consultant Alex Castellanos and Fred Thompson were spotted having dinner:

Lamar Alexander and Fred Thompson are close ... really close. If anything disqualifies Thompson from running for President, it's Lamar's soft committment to Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney's campaign. The prescence of Alexander staffers at Romney events in Tennessee before talk of Thompson entering the fray popped up signaled his soft support. So there may be something big to this tidbit that Thompson was spotted at dinner with Romney strategist Alex Castellanos. Can we say most valuable Vice Presidential candiate? (Link- bottom of page)

Now what does this mean?

1. Alex is jumping ship? I can confirm from 2 top sources that this is definitely not the case. Alex is very happy with his job and Romney. Also as a consultant, Castellanos knows that loyalty is number one in his business.

2. Two old pals having dinner? Alex worked for Fred in his Senate runs in TN. Could just be catching up?

3. Alex doing some recruiting for his boss and Thompson considering.

Alex has a lot of sway in all things political and an incredible amount with southern politics. Alex worked for Strom Thurmond and in case you missed it, yesterday Thurmond's son Paul joined Romney's South Carolina grassroots leadership team. Is this the work of Alex?

Thompson looking to for a top spot with Team Mitt (Future AG???) could easily be the case when you consider that as popular as Thompson is at the moment, he is not fond of politics in general and knows building a credible ground game at the moment is a momentous task with the most of the big players going to McCain, Giuliani and Romney already.


	5 Comments: Is it a possibility that Fred Thompson could become Mitt's running mate? If not, do we have any idea who is being considered as a running mate? By Unknown, at March 29, 2007 at 12:52 PM Is it a possibility that Fred Thompson could become Mitt's running mate? If not, do we have any idea who is being considered as a running mate? By Unknown, at March 29, 2007 at 12:52 PM Romney dropped some VP Names today that consisted of several conservative possibilities. I tihnk this is more of Romney talking about people he respects in the potential VP field. While I think Thompson would make a great VP, he is not exactly a ticket balancer for Mitt's conservatism. Having said that, anything can happen. By Anonymous, at March 29, 2007 at 3:24 PM Well, the reality is that Mitt needs a Southern or a Superstar to overcome some of the institutional bias towards him in the South. Sorry guys, that is the biggest obstacle and it explains the wild fluctations in his polling (Whenever a national polling comes out and shows him below 5%, it is because they polled heavily in the South. Likewise, when the national polling hits other regions, he jumps up in the polls near or above double digits). Now with Fred Thompson (or Condoleeza Rice!), he would get both. A Southern and a Star, literally! At any rate, this is early in the game but given Mitt's unique situation may call for an usual manuveur. I would suggest to Mitt, to combine your religion speech with a promise of sorts to pick a like-minded Southern. It will be even more forceful if he said that Fred or Jeb or Condi will be his nominee. --nowandlater--- By Anonymous, at March 29, 2007 at 9:49 PM You make a good point and one that I hadn't really considered, which is that Mitt needs a conservative southerner to strengthen his position. I have taken it for granted, for the most part, that southern conservatives would ultimately recognize Romney as one of their own when it comes to the issues and would set aside any bias or misgivings they may otherwise have about him. I could be miscalculating. Normally, I would say it is a bad idea to indicate something too concrete about who your running mate will be before the nomination. It may come across as counting your chickens early. In addition, I think a fresh assesment of strengths and weaknesses following the secural of the nomination before deciding is appropriate. Normally, the VP choice is geared toward winning the general election. You are sugeesting Romney may want to gear it toward winning both the primary and general election. I think that may be possible. Good comment. By Anonymous, at March 30, 2007 at 3:04 PM Post a Comment