Posted on 07/26/2007 7:21:34 AM PDT by hardback
Many Republican faithful, from the grass roots to the Capitol, have concluded that Fred Thompson, the preternaturally avuncular actor and former Senator from Tennessee, is the cure-all for their party's ills.
Thompson has yet to enter the presidential race, and yet Thompson already shares front-runner status with former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani in some national polls of gop voters.
Thompson will spend the rest of the summer raising money, which he was scheduled to do conspicuously at a donor event in Washington on July 28. Another advantage to waiting: the longer he remains an unofficial candidate, the longer NBC can air reruns of Law & Order featuring Thompson as Manhattan DA Arthur Branch without running afoul of the equal-time provision of federal campaign law.
"His timing has been brilliant so far," insists Tennessee Congressman Zach Wamp, who led the effort to convince Thompson he should run. "While he's been waiting, some candidates have been falling and the others haven't been moving. Frankly, there's been a lot of advantages to [it]. He's probably gotten more attention not being a candidate than he would have being a candidate."
While Thompson's undeclared campaign , raises money and figures out how to live up to the hype surrounding his candidacy, his potential opponents are busy adjusting to the new dynamics of the race.
The problem for Giuliani—and the rest of the field—is that Thompson has the same strategy, and the Tennessean's Southern drawl and conservative voting record are likely to play well in South Carolina.
If Thompson can keep enthusiasm high until he enters the race in the fall, he might be able to turn what was supposed to be a marathon race for the nomination into a relatively brief, four-month sprint.
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
Years ago there was another Republican presidential candidate who was supposed to sweep to victory: his name was George W. Romney, liberal governor of Michigan. He did not last until the NH primary. LeBoutillier said he thinks Thompson will be a big disappointment to those looking Thompson’s way.
Also one of the biggest Thompson advisors of the RINO persuasion is former Senator Howard Baker.
Begin Serious mode...
I can appreciate your position, wanting to wait and see, however go ahead and dig into Fred, the good the bad and the ugly. Yes there are things you may not like (ie the Clinton thing), but I have to give the man credit, most of his stances are well reasoned, which is rare.
As far as weakness in locking into a candidate/non candidate, etc. I dispute that in general, though there are those who are like that. I just like Fred. In a world where everything is 50 percent substance and 50% appearance, he has a good mix, and i personally have been looking for him to reenter the fray anyways. He is a good guy, despite everything we have heard and said on these boards.
Do I dismiss some of the others. Well except for Ron Paul, who I can’t get comfortable with, I think Hunter and the rest are pretty good ole’ guys. Hunter in particular I can support if he gains traction, which I just can’t see right now even with all the history of come back kids.
Now back to the fun...
End serious mode...
How much of the 4 percent at the bottom does your guy have? Huh? Neener neener neener...
When we see these Republican primary voters early next year just rubberstamping what the RNC, GWB, and conventional media tell them, then we will know for sure that HRC will prevail.
I didn’t know Abraham was also an Islamic sympathizer. If so, I will likely look elsewhere.
read my post # 93
folks, don't swallow everything you read of FR, just because it is FR...people have their own agendas.
Check and verify
Also, Abraham is not a candidate, good grief - as a politician, he may be a looser - but may be good at organization?
He is not running for anything.
and followed with a 100% pro-life voting record.
Like I said....crashed and burned as in BFD!
Dubya's fan..
Not sure if you saw, but someone found the pdfs of the actual billing records.. They did bill for 20 hours but it was 15 minutes here and there sitting in on meetings and conference calls.. no actual lobbying was listed.. the dates were also very spread out.. basically, much ado about nothing..
I'll try to find you the link, you'll get a good laugh..
I would say according to the polls the late governors son is more likely to suffer that fate.
From VA Delegate Chris Saxman via email
Friends,
The results of the first round of my most recent straw poll are in
The votes have been tabulated for Round 1 of my Republican Presidential Straw Poll and here are the results.
Fred Thompson, finishing in first place, has a large lead over his closest competitor Rudy Giuliani despite not having officially announced his candidacy.
Mike Huckabee had a surprisingly strong showing, making the cut for Round 2 and finishing ahead of John McCain.
Fred Thompson 39.1%, 114 votes
Rudy Giuliani 8.3%, 53 votes
Mitt Romney 11%, 32 votes
Newt Gingrich 10%, 29 votes
Mike Huckabee 6.9%, 20 votes
Ron Paul 4.2%, 12 votes*
Sam Brownback 3.7%, 11 votes*
John McCain 3.7%, 11 votes*
Duncan Hunter 1.7%, 5 votes*
Tom Tancredo 1.3%, 4 votes*
* Will not advance to next round
The top five candidates advance to the next round. Voting begins today and lasts through next Thursday, August 2.
Vote by replying back.
Back in February I conducted a similar straw poll. Here are the results from the first round of that poll.
Rudy Giuliani 26.5%, 70 votes
Newt Gingrich 21.9%, 58 votes
Mitt Romney 15.1%, 40 votes
John McCain 10.9%, 29 votes
Jim Gilmore 10.2%, 27 votes
Sam Brownback 6.0%, 16 votes
Mike Huckabee 4.5%, 12 votes
Duncan Hunter 3.7%, 10 votes
Anyone but Rudy.
I believe in closely examining all candidates and refuse to drink any Kool Aid.
But...but...WHERE’S Tommy Thompson, the “Only Thompson who has a chance to win.” ?
“I believe that there are many here who don’t want to have to pick between a new McCain and a new W.”
So? we go with the field we have and not the field we want.
Fred Thompson = McCain-lite w/out the immigration/gang-of-14 baggage and history of bashing conservatives.
Mitt Romney = W. (with Harvard MBA), but smarter, sharper, better-looking and actually *articulate*.
And if you don’t like them you can go for:
Hunter = Better-than-Buchanan-ever-was
Ron Paul = Out-flanks any other small govt libertarian
So, on the one hand this is depressing, but on the other hand this is liberating. We actually have a better field than in 2000 (we just didn’t know it back then).
You are awesome. Good finds.
;)
And the only objections he’s had to federal pro-life laws have been based on state sovereignty. I can go with that.
your numbers are biased so you just end up with a convoluted formula to validate your bias. to wit:
“EXPERIENCE: Guiliani 90, McCain 85, Romney 85 (gubernatorial exp. trumps Senate time) Duncan 80, Fred 75”
Huh? Duncan has been in office since 1980. Guliani has never held elected Federal office. => EXPERIENCE: Hunter 85, McCain 85, Romney 85 (gubernatorial exp. trumps Senate time) Guliani 75, Fred 75
==> TELEGENIC PRESENCE: Romney has aced every debate, debates where Guliani and McCain did poorly, and should definitely be well above Guliani and McCain... Romney 90, Fred 85, Hunter 75, McCain 70, Guliani 75”
“CONSERVATIVE RATINGS: Hunter 96, Fred 92, Romney 73, McCain 67, Guiliani 58”
??? Romney is running at least as conservative as Fred is, and governed pretty conservatively for a blue-state governor. His rating should be higher. Guliani should be lower.
ELECTABILITY: Polls show Guliani no longer much ahead of other GOP candidates like Romney. McCain is completely unelectable due to Iraq/immigration double hex. Guliani 85, Fred 85, Romney 75, Hunter 70, McCain 50.
“MONEY (est): Guiliani 20, McCain 20, Hunter 15, Romney 10, Fred 5”
Doh! you have it bakwards! Romney is on top on fund-raising - number one with over $30 million raised - and McCain is *broke*!! And Fred is doing amazing pre-announcement fundraising ...
MONEY: Guiliani 20, Romney 20, Fred 15, Hunter 10, McCain 5
So you got all your numbers wrong - result- Garbage in, garbage out ... should look more like:
375 Romney
337 Hunter
335 Fred
313 McCain
282 Guliani
‘The “savior of conservatism” doesn’t name an Islamic sympathizer to run his campaign. Next.’
An Islamic sympathizer because he didn’t want more Orwellian databases tracking people? Sounds more like a true Conservative to me.
Some ‘conservatives’ fall into the trap of thinking that throwing government dollars at security is a panacea. It isn’t, witness the BILLIONS thrown at airport security - resulting in worse security than we had before 9/11.
Fred Thompson ‘08!
I actually have a problem with him the other way -- he's a supporter of the War On (Some) Drugs, the cause of many of the worst degradations of our constitutional rights and loss of state sovereignty. But in the whole picture that's not enough for him to lose my support.
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