Posted on 08/16/2007 9:30:03 AM PDT by Plutarch
Fred Thompson's window of opportunity could hardly have been wider. His opponents were fatally flawed in the eyes of the socially conservative Republican base; he's well-known, can raise money, and speaks language that both Republicans and independents leaning right can embrace. Even thinking of entering the race put him above double digits in polls.
But, thanks to a number of missteps and opportunities his pseudo-campaign has failed to capitalize on, Thompson's window is now closed...
The Law & Order star, running a "testing the waters" committee, raised approximately $3.46 million in June after launching June 4th. The campaign's goal was $5 million raised in the same period. Missed expectations are not enough to doom a campaign, but Thompson's media team did little to dampen expectations when they released the report on the last day of July, even though they had to know for weeks that the numbers were lower than expected....
...Fred Thompson had his chance to make a splashy entrance into the race. In fact, he has had many chances to do something to impress political watchers and his fans on the right. Time and again, though, he has missed those opportunities. Instead of managing expectations and raising impressive sums, his campaign reported disappointingly low numbers. Instead of hiring a staff and sticking with it, his campaign has already been beset by turnover. Instead of serving as the conservatives' best hope, they are forced to make excuses as to why his positions are acceptable to them.
Every day he remains out of the race is another day of organizing and winning support lost. At some point, time simply runs out. Thompson has simply waited too long to take advantage of the good will, good fortune and good position that awaited him once he entered the race.
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearpolitics.com ...
It is an FEC rule called the Equal Time Rule. If Fred is given air time (Except for valid news and commentary shows), his opponents can demand an equal amount of free air time.
You may know more than I do about this matter. So I will defer.
But if this rule, reasonably interpreted, really does require "equal time" in such a situation as this, it desperately needs to be re-written.
Former US Senator Fred Thompson it the (almost) candidate--not Arthur Branch, the fictional New York DA on the NBC series, Law & Order.
Small children often have difficulty distinguishing between actors and the characters they portray. Adults--even those of marginal intelligence--should not.
So I would be genuinely surprised if there is even one registered voter, anywhere in America, who might vote for Fred Thompson in the mistaken belief that Thompson is one and the same as Arthur Branch.
“No Duncan Hunter will.”
I’d like that, as well. I just don’t think he has enough wind at his back. People who hear him wind up liking him, but he has the great disadvantage of not being known.
You certainly have every right to vote for whomever you want to, trisham. The people who vote are responsible for that vote and it’s consequences. They tend to blame he who wins, not those who put them there in the first place.
People who don’t watch Law and Order don’t know who FDT is either. I’d never heard of him before rumors of the possibliity of his running began because I don’t watch much but news or documentaries on TV. Sadly, an amazing number of people do not have cable, so they don’t know what is going on at all.
*************
Thanks so much.
I won’t vote for him simply because he’s more of the same old crap.
Reagan had already run in '75-'76. The people were already familiar with him and his years as Governor. Fred is not in that position.
Damn I knew it was Rove in some fashion behind this whole thing...
Hope to take care of that.
Aren’t you the great forecaster? LOL
The game has changed, maybe its time the players change a bit as well..
“The sky is falling... the sky is falling. Oh, No..”
That seems to be the theme. After a while you tend to know how certain people post here.
The prime reason why the election cycle has spontaneously started so early is that there is a “nobody home” vibe coming from the peoples house.
“Whatever. Fred will be POTUS in 2009.”
All depends on few things:
—His showing Florida and the south...for the primaries
—The state of Iraq and the economy.
—Ohio’s leaning in the generals...I tend to think we’ll win there.
Not too long of a list, but Iraq and the economy are the wild card. Can’t be too sure on anything, but I hope with all my heart that things turn out well for us...all of us.
You must have missed the California Gubernatorial elections recently. Lots of people thought they were voting for Conan the Barbarian or the Terminator, instead of a junior Kennedy cadet.
This is quite humorous given the recent Rasmussen poll of Ohio!
GO FRED GO!!!
See post #66 and understand we aren't talking about conceivable principles of any kind.
We are talking about standard operating procedures of the enemedia.
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