Craig Crawford’s 1600: Tier Jerker (Fred Thompson alert!)

CQ Weekly ^ | June 4, 2007 | Craig Crawford

[Josh Painter]

Facing a flawed field of 10 aspirants, whose top tier seems way out of ideological sync with the party’s core conservatives, many veteran Republicans are now looking to Candidate No. 11 as their possible savior in what promises to be a difficult quest to retain the White House next year...

Thompson, a lawyer who became a movie actor and then spent eight years as a Tennessee senator before returning to acting, did not even seem that interested in running a few months ago, when the buzz about him first started. He actually experienced what most politicians can only dream of — a genuine draft movement...

Giuliani’s recent decision to reassert and defend his support for abortion rights served as something of a catalyst for religious conservatives to increase pressure on Thompson to run...

McCain and Romney, while more clearly on the side of abortion foes, have other problems with conservatives. Many still don’t trust McCain, recalling his blistering attacks on televangelists Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell when he ran in 2000. Romney is getting tagged as a flip-flopper who ran as a liberal in Massachusetts, and he recently came across as an amateur panderer to gun enthusiasts when he was caught exaggerating his hunting experience.

And so the opening for Thompson came with the realization among many conservative Republicans that none of the ideologically pure hopefuls are likely to unsettle the top tier.

The challenge for Thompson is to quickly take command of the social conservatives, so that Gingrich does not have a real chance to make a play for them, and then to make sure none of the others can seriously rival him as the conservative heir...

[Josh Painter]

Fredipedia v2.37: The Definitive Fred Thompson Quick Reference

[advertising guy]

two deal killers 1. Craig Crawford.......a nasal jackass
ex Imus ass whip and 2 opening line...facing a flawed field of ten........was done readin from there.

[GovernmentIsTheProblem]

“The challenge for Thompson is to quickly take command of the social conservatives, so that Gingrich does not have a real chance to make a play for them, and then to make sure none of the others can seriously rival him as the conservative heir...”

Gingrich and social conservatives?

Yeah right.

[Ronin]

Agreed. Despite his intellect and political passion, Newt has absolutely no chance of gathering in the Conservative base.

Simply put, he’s damaged goods. And damaged by his own failure to live the kind of Conservative ethics and family values we demand from our leadership.

The Democrats can nominate horny bed-hopping weasels and no one thinks twice about it because most dems and all libs have values set in the 60s. Not our guys.

Sorry Newt. Best you can hope for is as a political adviser or paid consultant. You have zero chance to win anything on the national stage.

[DakotaRed]

I wouldn’t call it a flawed field of ten. Duncan Hunter is on par with Thompson, but without the notoriety.

[Politicalmom]

Fredipedia: The Definitive Fred Thompson Reference

Please FReepmail jellybean if you want on/off this list. WARNING: This ping list is EXTREMELY active.

[MHGinTN]

Tear = drippings from lachrymal glands

Tier = a level of a stacked structure or devised line of reasoning

[hunter112]

I wouldn’t call it a flawed field of ten. Duncan Hunter is on par with Thompson, but without the notoriety.

Wouldn't you call that his flaw? A guy who's been in the House of Representatives since 1981, who has no significant name recognition beyond conservative websites, such as this one? He's had a LONG time to get his name out there, much of it in the era of three 24/7 news channels, which are constantly looking to fill up dead space with talking heads.

He has one more chance to become a player in this game at the Tuesday debates. If he still fails to make the MSM news reports the next day (in other words, if the stories are about Rudy McRomney, Ron Paul nuttiness and Huckabee one-liners), then stick a fork in him, he's done.

[mmichaels1970]

but without the notoriety

That's his flaw. With Republicans he frequently polls at '*'. I like him, but it's a long climb up from "asterisk" territory.

[Neville72]

Hunter’s “flaw” is no name recognition hence zero electibility as are the other second tier candidates

All of the current “top three’ are IMHO, BADLY FLAWED for exactly the reasons Crawford lists. Democrats would have a field day with Romney’s flip-flops and late-life conversions as well as the weirder aspects of Mormonism.

Social conservatives that make up a large percentage will be utterly disinterested in participating if pro-abortion Giuliani is the standard bearer.

McCain? Well, the Mexican Squatter’s Invasion Bill has cooked his goose but good.

Newt the Poisonous outed himself as a hypocrite and a man of low class with his behavior towards his previous WIVES. Then he made nice with AlGore on the Gore’s global warming scam.

Stick a fork in him, Newt’s time has come and gone.

So we damn well better hope Fred’s candidancy takes off.

If not, we’re in deep doo-doo.

[LonePalm]

I thought it was a good play on words.

Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)

[Silly]

Like creating art for Fred? Come join us and post them on The Official FRed Thompson Campaign Art Gallery, and new thread for FRed!

[hoosierpearl]

Just thinking that his switch to acting was an interesting career choice for inbetween work. A lot of lawyers go to lobbying which seems ethically challenged. I like the fact that he didn’t resort to lobbying.