Fredipedia: The Definitive Fred Thompson Reference
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Posted on 08/12/2007 11:20:32 AM PDT by Politicalmom
Kenneth Khachigian, who has returned to Santa Barbara to work with a law firm, has come aboard as a senior adviser for undeclared presidential hopeful Fred Thompson.
Khachigian said the former Republican senator from Tennessee, who is officially testing the waters, will declare candidacy soon, but not before vital campaign infrastructure is in place.
“It’ll be a few more weeks,” said Khachigian, who wrote speeches for presidents Nixon and Reagan and in June joined the Santa Barbara law firm Hatch & Parent. “It’s like launching an aircraft carrier. Every thing has to be ready or you won’t float.”
Asked whether there were any fundraising circumstances under which Thompson might not run, Khachigian said Thompson is confident in his coffers and has irrevocably decided to enter the race.
“I think we’ve crossed that Rubicon,” Khachigian said. “I don’t anticipate any problems raising the kind of funds needed to run an aggressive campaign. There are a lot people standing back and waiting until he declares his candidacy. People will jump in once he declares.”
Khachigian said he’s been helping Thompson “navigate” California. Khachigian has met with Thompson in California and twice flown to Washington, D.C., to recommend strategies and timing.
So far Khachigian has only collected about $1,000 in travel expenses for advising Thompson, a friend of Khachigian’s for more than 35 years. Khachigian dismissed notions that Thompson underperformed in June fundraising. In May, Thompson had asked more than 100 supporters to each raise $46,000. If successful, the effort would have totaled more than $5 million.
A July 31 filing with the Internal Revenue Service showed Thompson raised $3.46 million in June. Thompson is not required to file fundraising reports with the Federal Election Commission because he has not officially declared his intention to run for president.
National headlines reported Thompson failed to live up to expectations, but Khachigian said Thompson had never set a hard-and-fast fundraising mark. “This is one of those phantom charges or phantom allegations,” Khachigian said. “The campaign never set a standard about how much it would raise. It’s become urban legend. You can’t miss a goal if you didn’t set it.”
At $3.46 million, Thompson still managed to raise more money in his first three weeks seeking funds than did Republican contenders former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani or Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., both of whom are declared candidates. “This is quite a phenomenon, to raise this much money,” Khachigian said. “This is not a setback.”
Meanwhile, Thompson spent only $625,745 of the $3.46 million he raised in June, according to the IRS filing, and has ranked second among Republican presidential contenders in national polls.
Khachigian said his strategy for Thompson will concentrate heavily playing to the former “Law & Order” actor’s seemingly innate charisma. “[Thompson] has natural communication skills, and you don’t try to get in the way of those skills. You don’t try to change them.” At about 6 feet 5 inches, “He’s an imposing figure, personally. He has a very good voice, a very reassuring way of presenting himself. You sort of need to open the package that’s already there. It’s going to be, ‘Let Fred be Fred.’”
As for wading into the melee of a full-blown presidential campaign, Khachigian is “not as interested in being on the road as I used to be. You don’t get much sleep.”
But while he continues his work in water law with Hatch & Parent, Khachigian plans to keep his options open in case Thompson competes in the general presidential election.
“I’m not going to do anything to jeopardize my law practice. My partners have expectations of me and I plan to meet those,” Khachigian said. “If [Thompson] wins the [Republican] nomination, and they thought I could help, I’d be prepared to carve out two or three months a year from now.”
Fredipedia: The Definitive Fred Thompson Reference
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Yep! : D
He isn't a lifer politician that insists upon extending the campaign season via a desperate attempt to promote a lifelong political career.
We have a Zen and Art of Archery moment in this race.
This race will be won long befor the first primary ballot.
The democrats will have to react to Fred by dumping or pushing Hillary Clinton.
The naysayers are coming. It plays like a Monty Python skit...
They'll be saying the same thing long after he has shaken hands with his successor in 2016...
(melodically)
Oh where, oh where have the Fred bashers gone
Oh where, oh where can they beeeee
With their ears cut short and their tails cut long
Oh where, oh where can they be?
The had to go to bed early, first day of school is comming up...
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