Posted on 08/30/2007 4:07:33 PM PDT by lesser_satan
Fred Thompson has announced his announcement date, a sentence that only makes sense in the Byzantine world of American campaign finance law. He will officially declare himself a Presidential candidate on September 6th, a move that will allow him to publicly argue for his election based on specific policy proposals, raise cash, and attend debates:
Republican Fred Thompson, whose entry into the presidential race has been long anticipated, will officially launch his candidacy Sept. 6 in a webcast on his campaign site, followed by a five-day tour of early primary states, the Associated Press has learned.
A tour of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina will quickly follow the Internet announcement, with stops in Florida as well, and a homecoming event in Lawrenceburg, Tenn. on Sept. 15.
Thompson brings to the eight-man GOP field a right-leaning Senate voting record with a few digressions from GOP orthodoxy and a healthy dose of Hollywood star power. He is hoping to attract conservatives who are lukewarm about the current crop of candidates.
Earlier this year, Thompson watched his popularity soar in polls when he acknowledged he was considering a run. Since then, he's consistently ranked among the top Republicans in national polls and surveys in key states alike.
Not surprisingy, the Senator got asked a couple of questions at the Minnesota State Fair press conference just prior to my interview. He gave a pretty extensive answer to it, which can be found in the full transcript at Heading Right. He talked of his long period of exploration and what it meant -- and what it didn't mean:
We’ve been working hard for a long time. We’ve been doing in a few months what others have taken years to do in some cases. You have to build an organization and a financial network and all that, and it’s best to go ahead and do it and not worry about the Beltway Pundits and all those people making money off the political scheme nowadays and the rules that they make up. Traditionally, you know, people announce in September, October, November and even later historically. They all changed the rules this time.
One reporter suggested that the delay allowed Thompson to get a free ride, a suggestion at which Thompson scoffed:
Well, the question is that I’ve gotten a free ride and nobody has criticized me but that might change if I announced. Have you not been reading the papers and listening to the news? They’re firing everything at me but Gatling guns and have been for months and it doesn’t seem to hurt me much but, you know, they may ratchet it up once I’m out, I don’t know but there’s been criticism of me and stories put out about my family and wife and all that for a long, long time now as if to discourage me and frankly it makes us more resolute.
People have criticized the long entry time for Thompson into the race, but it's really a reflection of his later start on even considering a candidacy. Rudy Giuliani has been putting together an organization since 2004, as has John McCain. They started their official exploratory committees in November or December, but they had made it plain that they would run in 2008 long before then. Thompson didn't consider it until this year, and it takes time and effort to put together a viable national organization for a presidential run -- and in the fifty-plus presidential cycles before now, a September launch would have been early rather than late.
Now that he's a candidate, he has the opportunity to flesh out some of his positions. His exploratory status constrained him to a certain extent, but he still tried working around it when possible through his syndicated column or website presentations. He doesn't sound like a man looking to avoid a fight, and in fact on Monday sounded like a man spoiling for one:
Q: Senator, as a follow up to that, Congress as you mentioned, has very low approval rating, so does the President. Are you worried that the next election for Republicans is going to be a referendum on President Bush?
FT: Well, if we make this a referendum on the past like the Democrats want, and we insist on doing everything the same way as we have in the past, we run the traditional king of campaign with the traditional kind of candidates and saying the traditional kind of things to the traditional kinds of people, we’ll lose , big time. This election is about the future. No question the Republicans have a ditch to get out of before we can get on equal footing. We’ve got to recognize that and do better. But that doesn’t mean wallowing in the past or mistakes that the President or anyone else has made. Goodness knows he made some, he’s human. My history books tell me that every President that we’ve ever had has done that. We’ve got to concentrate on the future and our vision of this country and our faith in this country and our beliefs and that we can be stronger and we can come out of these problems wiser than we have been in times past. If we do that compare what we have to offer or what our candidate has to offer, if we do it the right way, we’ll be just fine and ancient history won’t be the difference.
Be sure to read the whole transcript. Also, check out Jim Geraghty's take on the announcement.
Ping!
Fred bump!
Lukewarm?! The thought of Rudy or Mitt in the White House gives me the chills.
Yeah, but it’s commentary that wasn’t posted elsewhere.
Duncan Hunter 2008!
Those people are clueless if they think Fred is a Conservative!
Really? More of a Rino than Ruity and McLame?
Fred is The RINO-est of all the (R)’s in the race for PotUS 2008!
Really? More of a Rino than Ruity and McLame?
Oh yeah, by a wide margin!!!
You forgot your </sarcasm> tags. I have a few to spare if you'd like to borrow them...multi-color!
</sarcasm> </sarcasm> </sarcasm> </sarcasm>
Most of the other candidates didn’t get much coverage until they announced. Fred has been heavily scrutinized at every stage. I don’t remember the Eisenhower draft movement so there is nothing in my memory to compare this to.
It is probably a good thing that Fred is getting this much attention, everything like that helps. At least there is a lot of interest. And as he said, the criticism just makes them more resolute.
You’re not looking for a friendly audience posting words like that on this thread. You’re clueless. Or perhaps you have nothing better to do with your life than be useless.
Show me the LIB-side of Fred.
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