Fred makes me wonder, too. Is he in or out or there to take steam out of conservative candidates so a Rudy or Romney can win.
All the attention paid to him just like Obama in the Dem party takes steam out of any challenge to the leading candidate.
I’m convinced the Clintons are using Obama to keep the left and Edwards off balance.
Is Thompson a GOP foil to keep conservative candidates from picking up steam?
I think he almost has to run now. If he doesn’t run now, incensed, will not begin to describe his supporters.
I don’t think he is a foil, at least not directly or intentionally. In the end, he may be just that, but for now, none of us can be sure.
I like the guy and I wish he had never let things get this far and for this long. His body of work has mainly been CFR and nearly symbolic overtures to Federalism. A lawyer, actor and lobbyist that seems out of place and out of gas before he has begun.
That said, I certainly don’t think there are any ulterior, sinister motives behind what he is doing. He is not a stupid man and I think he realizes he will have his hat handed to him in short order in any debate of depth and substance.
He is taking time to hone his skills, dotting the “i’s” and crossing his “t’s”, he is building the machine and hoping that will carry the day, because at the end of the day, the Emperor has no clothes. I just hope he doesn’t embarrass himself and become fodder for late-night talk shows. He deserves better than that.
I read this and I re-read it and frankly, I can't find a germ of sense in it anywhere.
It assumes:
1. Fred Thompson would let himself be used as a 'foil'-
2. There is a 'GOP' conspiracy against its own slate of candidates-
3. That the 'GOP' is capable of setting such a conspiracy into motion-
4. That there is a MOTIVE within the 'GOP' to set such a conspiracy into motion-
5. That the Thompson candidacy works against 'conservative' candidates, in view of the fact that Fred is out there every day espousing conservative principles sunrise-sunset and beyond-
Fred Thompson doesn't owe the other candidates any duty to run a campaign as dumb and ineffective as theirs have often been. He owes himself and those of us who hope for his victory to run his campaignd in the most effectve way he can. So far, I have no problem with a single strategy or tactic he has used.
I fully expect that come November 2008 Fred Thompson will be elected our next President by a comfortable margin. At that point, I hope all this 'foil' talk will be shipped.