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Wednesday, August 1, 2007
posted by jason | 7:24 AM | permalink
I just got back from Vacation a few days ago. Spent some time in California visiting my family and Southern Utah visiting my wifes family. I quickly realized that my family is in fact better. Just Kidding. But it did give my mind the much needed break from hounding the Google pages and looking for anything about 2008. No matter how hard the first couple days were.

When I came back it was hard to get myself back to blogging, because the freedom from the computer, bought with a price, was a special prize. But I am back, and ready to shove Romney down your throats.

Now on with my post...

Since I left things seem to have taken a dramatic turn for Fred. Is he done? Not even close. Is he wounded? Yes. But it's no real surprise. There are two reasons in my book why the Fred Thompson's campaign seems to be suffering right now, and frankly it will continue:

1. His supporters have made Fred the God of all things conservative2008, and he gladly accepts it.

2. His lack of an official campaign gives some credence to the laziness charge, but more importantly it has turned him into a paper tiger.

I will address the first, first.

  • 1. It is not unusual to go to Free Republican or Redstate.com and hear the constant streams of Run! Fred! Run! The constant theme from these supporters is that Fred is invincible. "He will slay the Dems with a glance of his eye." The ironic "His southern charm is a breath of fresh of air no one else can compete with." and the most precious one of all "Fred will suck all he air out of the room." It's really unfortunate, because face it, no one can live up to these expectations. When the Editor of Redstate tells everyone Fred will make all the other candidates look small and swallow up all the money, it doesn't leave much room for error in his first month Fundraising. When we are told every one will jump ship to Fred! and instead he has people leaving him, it's even worse.

    Fred hasn't helped himself. Fred likes the compliments. How do I know? Just listen to his interview on Redstate.com where he thanks Chief Editor Erick for really covering the Fred story right. In other words, he likes the shilling, he likes the flattery, his ego is happy. If he wants to say that in a private note, or conversation fine, but to do it publicly said a lot in my mind.

    Fred's multi-use metaphor of gnats swatting at a horse is really a killer: He is positioning himself as a the dark horse, or the white horse or something equestrian- candidate and everyone else as bugs. That is setting up a situation where everything now expected out of him is huge and the others can't compete. He will squash us when he wakes up.



  • 2. Fred's lack of campaigning has it's positives and his negatives. He doesn't have to debate, or earn a lot of money, or spend a lot of money but then again he cannot offer substantive specifics since he is not a candidate. And how is he going to raise money to compete with Hillary or Obama in 3 months? Every choice comes with a sacrifice, and Fred has made his sacrifice. He is not a candidate, but everyone knows he his. Therefore, the expectation of him is that of a candidate when it comes to policy, probing his past, etc. but he hides behind a lack of candidacy as an excuse for every deficit, yet trumps it for every victory. Do you think 3 million was his goal for June? It wasn't.

    It's very disingenuous for his supporters to say he's getting knocked before he is out of the gate. He is out of the gate. He has been since April. The guy has put himself all over the net, he is running a campaign and he has no other job. Is busy dealing with Boss Hog and the Duke boys? No, he's running a campaign that does/does not exist.

    Equally so, Fred supporters have a paradoxical claim when they tell people he is not lazy, but the reason for small results is because oh yeah, he's not doing anything. That's like saying I am not fat, but hey guess what I can't ride the rides at Disneyland because I am so spectacular in waist size.


  • Now, I know I am a Romney supporter, and Fred is bottom of my list, (well not bottom- a step above Brownback.) But believe me, when I say it, if Fred should win I will support him just a strongly as I have Romney. But he has got some serious problems/dichotomies in his campaign - many of which are self imposed. I am not writing him off, but part of Fred's credibility as a candidate has certainly been diminished, and only time will tell if he can rebuild it.
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    4 Comments:


    The Republicans who support Thompson are standing at the edge of a cliff trying hard to throw Fred and themselves over the edge in one fantastic gush of dribbling blindness. Fred is fast approaching the time when he will have no hope of defeating anyone in a general election. Not Obama, Not Clinton, not even Richardson. Why? Because he has developed no organization that can possibly do the work needed to overcome the prejudice that so many Americans who do not want a Bush clone in the White House have. If he is nominated, I would bet money on the democrats winning. In fact, I think there is slim chance now of Republicans winning in 2008, but if anyone is going to pull it off, it is Romney.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at August 1, 2007 at 1:20 PM  


    At the bottom? I'm a Romney guy but I could be happy about Thompson if he's the one. Giuliani is a partial birth abortion advocate and McCain thinks borders is the name of a bookstore.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at August 1, 2007 at 1:37 PM  


    Thompson is definately near the bottom of my list. The man is an empty suit w/a great southern drawl. He has accomplished little relevant to the office he seeks. Seems lazy. Looks very old (compare him to Mitt--4 years his junior). Surprisingly bad speaker (especially w/o a script).

    The Dems would wipe the floor w/him. He's much more Bob Dole than Ronald Reagan, but ideologically he isn't even on par w/Dole. Put him on the stage w/Hillary, Obama or Edwards and he will come off looking old, tired, incompetent and unknowledgeable.



    All that said, I concur w/Jason. If he is the candidate I will work very hard to get him elected. I do, in fact, think he would make a decent president -- a less driven/more pragmatic version of Bush probably. But I don't think he is at all electable in the upcomming cycle. Voting for him in the primaries will pretty much ensure a Republican loss in my opinion.




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