Fredipedia: The Definitive Fred Thompson Reference
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Posted on 09/09/2007 12:51:10 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
MANCHESTER, N.H. - Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson left a trail of half-empty coffee cups and barely sipped Diet Pepsis on Sunday as he jumped into the kind of person-to-person political campaigning that voters here demand.
On his first swing across New Hampshire as a declared candidate, Thompson visited bars and restaurants where voters watched football and drank beer. Some asked about immigration, the economy and politics.
He even signed a magazine that featured him on the cover with the headline, "Lazy Like a Fox."
"I'm going to lose more weight on this thing. I'll never get close enough to food to eat it," the former Tennessee senator joked with the throng of reporters and photographers chasing him.
Thompson faces some obstacles in states that vote early in the presidential primary process, like New Hampshire. His rivals have spent considerable time and money building organizations here and meeting with voters as they like it — one on one and in small groups.
He pledged Sunday to play catch-up.
"This is where it's at," Thompson said. "Breaking out of the Beltway, getting past the pundits and all the experts and all the people who make their money on politics, getting out there and talking with the people is what it's all about."
He said he would leave his fate up to the people and the Lord.
"That's all I can ask," Thompson said.
He made his way through one restaurant, leaving behind half-finished orders before finally grabbing a hamburger to go. At his first stop, he left behind half a cup of coffee.
"That's pretty good coffee. I hate to leave it," he bemoaned.
He was following the day in Manchester with a late-afternoon rally at Nashua City Hall, where then-Massachusetts Sen. John Kennedy launched his New Hampshire campaign for the 1960 presidential election.
A day earlier, Thompson dropped by a Republican women's chili dinner at a farm just after a rain storm.
"If I can get out and have days like this and see people like this, you know, it makes no difference to me whether it's raining or not," Thompson, a star of NBC's "Law & Order," said Saturday.
Thompson on Sunday also rejected comparisons with Ronald Reagan, another former Republican actor-turned-politician.
"The only comparison I like with regard to Ronald Reagan — which nobody can live up to — is that he was so believable. He was such a good communicator because he believed so intensely in his principles and he stuck with them. The camera doesn't lie," Thompson said.
"When you do that, people see that. To the extent that one could compare us in that respect, I'd be honored," he continued. "Other than that, there won't be another Ronald Reagan in my lifetime."
You’re right, it looks more likely that Fred Thompson will be the nominee. And the more I think it over, the easier it is to conclude that he should be.
Fred is who I’m voting for. The rest can debate till they are as as blue in the face as they are in their hearts.
Fredipedia: The Definitive Fred Thompson Reference
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I always knew Fred wouldn't be trying to be anybody but himself. And that he would reject the comparisons to Reagan.
Fred said in an interview last week that he’d attend his “share of those debates and wait to get thrown a fish like everybody else.”
LOL!
That is what the debates are like. A seaworld show. I really have a low tolerance for people who wait for debates to find out who they want to vote for.
What...no specially catered gourmet food on the bus a la TerAYsa and Nuancyboy Kerry? No L.L. Bean barn coat? No windsurfing? No ridiculous bike shots with skin tight spandex, where he falls off the bike and curses the SS agent? Just Fred being Fred, well that’s good enough for me.
That’s a great line. And it fits.
He can deny it all he wants, but his traits are quite similar to Reagan’s in a number of ways.
If Fred is so Southern then how come he drinks Pepsi?
I missed that . I hope he will confirm he is a Coke man soon , maybe on Jay Leno .
If he can stay away from trying to be anyone else, he’ll do well. The other candidates, right and left, follow polling as their stand. Not wise.
Pepsi is republican, Coke is democrat.
Thats a great line.
I wonder what would be better though. People don’t have time to sit for more than an hour with political debates—especially early before the nominations. So what do you do? Have people send their own questions a-la youtube? Do you have them all sit around a table and discuss current events and trample all over each other? Do you do one guy at a time and have 10 1-hour sessions spread out over a couple of months? Maybe you pair them up and throw in a devil’s advocate to stir the pot.
Maybe someone should just hold a dinner and have each candidate at a table of ten and post the video on the internet of the interactions. The public wants to know something about the character of each person running. You don’t see it in 10 person debates. You could see a little of it in a dinner with interested Republicans.
Maybe I’m just jealous that San Jose, CA is too removed from the process and will not see any presidential candidate.
I wouldn't even call them debates. One-on-one back-and-forth is a debate. I still can't figure out which one I liked better: Dubya's supreme debate against Al Gore when Gore tried to play bull-moose on him, or the stunningly entertaining debate between Cheney and John Edwards where Edwards was left close to sputtering and distracted for the next two or three questions. It was great. Cheney just swabbed the deck with the guy.
You can find out a lot in those kinds of debates. But the "wait to get thrown a fish" analogy is on the money. Makes me like Fred.
San Jose is written off as blue. It’s like expecting to win Jersey. If you guys can get it to battle-ground status the candidates will be there constantly. Fifty-five electoral votes is the big prize.
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