Posted on 04/07/2007 1:14:03 AM PDT by Doofer
Fred Thompsons progress toward becoming a Republican presidential candidate will take a step with the return of Congress from its Easter break when he meets privately with a large group of Republican House members.
GOP House leaders had prepared last year to board George Allens campaign wagon before his defeat in Virginia for re-election to the Senate eliminated him from presidential consideration. They had been moving toward support of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, led by former Speaker Dennis Hasterts endorsement. But many have stepped back from Romney and are looking hard at Thompson. One member of the GOP leadership who had been prepared to endorse Romney is holding his fire while he considers Thompson.
A footnote: Thompson will hit the campaign trail next month in advance of any formal announcement with a May 4 speech in Orange County, Calif. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani has led GOP presidential hopefuls in lining up California support.
EASTER EGG POLITICS
(Excerpt) Read more at unionleader.com ...
This has potential!
FredHead ping! :-)
Run, Fred, Run!!!
Considering his life, I don't think Thompson has anything to prove, and unlike Al Gore or JFKerry he doesn't NEED to win the presidency to prove to himself he's a real man.
Thompson is conservative, but to paraphrase something once said of Bob Dole, he doesn't "look like he wants to evict a widow"--he's not scary, and the MSM will have a hard time portraying him as such. He can run on his record in and out of Washington, he won't take any crap from Chrissy or Olbergirl, and yet he knows how to behave in front of a camera, so the usual MSM tricks won't work on him. He's a great communicator, and he is on our side with the issues, but the moderates in the party would have no problem with him either because again he isn't "scary".
The only major roadblock is a huge one: The American people WANT to elect a woman or a black in 2008 "just because".
Looks like Rudy's ship has come in.
I don’t know if Mr. Thomspon will actually make it (when was the last time a Senator won the Presidency?) but he’d make somebody one heck of a running mate if nothing else.
Richard Nixon 1974.
Oops 1972
Nixon had also been Vice President beforehand. I like Fred, but you need somebody with executive experience. That’s why I think it may still be Rudy (he made the “Ungovernable city” liveable again) or Romney. With few exceptions, most of our Presidents over the last 100 years have been Governors.
Not fair. Nixon was a VP.
I believe that Fred Thompson is so palpably more electable than ANY other Republican candidate on the scene or near ti, that within two weeks of an announcement he will have exceeded the fundraising of all other candidates combined, and will have over 50% in the polls.
Talk about sucking the air out of the room! Thompson will make five candidacies instantly unsustainable or laughably Quixotic.
Between now and Thompson’s appearance in Orange County in early May, he will already moved to a near second to Giuliani or he may even have pulled ahead. The pressure for Thompson to declare will be unbearable and I expect that he will have to announce at that event, or withdraw.
He’ll be murdering the other candidates without even arming himself.
Forget about precedent. It doesn’t matter this time.
yitbos
“And they was kung fu fighting...them cats were fast as lightning...”
Agreed. I think Rudy and Fred can be the other's running mate.
That's not going to be an exploitable issue with swing voters unless Gore gets the nomination on the other side, which of course is a real possibility.
Everyone but Rudy and Romney was/is a Senator. This election isn’t the same as the ones in the past. Apples vs Oranges.
So far I like what he says about Illegal Immigration and how the open borders crowd actually hurt Mexicans who live in Mexico.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQLFfTd2l44
I agree.
Fred may not have the political pedigree of Reagan but he's almost as good a communicator. Fred will chew up Hillary and Obama in any debate with common sense conservative answers, the things most americans want to hear. He can get support from both the GOP base and moderates.
Rudy is way too liberal. He may appeal to moderates, however, many in the base simply will not hold their nose and vote for him. Romney will be plagued throughout the campaign with his flip-flops.
Remember the buzz Ross Perot caused just by saying stuff like "I'll roll up my sleeves, get under the hood and fix things"? He had a huge moderate following because he ran as an anti-politician. Fred can do the same thing. He'll make the rest of the pack look like a bunch of double-talking Washington insiders--something that americans hate. Given the choice between a fast talker with a resume and a straight talker with core conservative values, I'm sure most americans will vote for the straight talker.
Fred Thompson is the only chance the GOP has in '08.
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