You can denigrate the motives of Kurtz and you will probably be right. But is Kurtz also right?
Posted on 10/01/2007 12:58:37 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
The reviews are in: Fred Thompson's plunge into the presidential campaign "was right up there with Britney Spears at the MTV awards."
Well, that was liberal New York Times columnist Gail Collins. How about a committed conservative?
"More belly-flop than swan dive . . . the strangest product launch since that of New Coke in 1985," writes columnist George Will.
Okay, they're in the opinion business. But news accounts have described the fledgling Thompson venture as "a comedy of errors" (Politico.com); drawing "mediocre reviews" (Washington Post); and maintaining a "languid" schedule that on one swing "kept him on a jumbo air-conditioned bus far more often than he is actually campaigning" (New York Times).
So is the former Tennessee senator sinking like a rock? "If you only read what the national media is writing," says Todd Harris, Thompson's communications director, "you'd be surprised to learn that in three of the five early states we are either in the lead or tied for first."
Harris says elite East Coast journalists are out of touch.
"Local media cover what happens and don't get wrapped up in the expectations game," he says. "National media aren't just covering what happened but what they expected to happen. . . . The national press is far less interested in the specifics of what's going on on the ground than in looking for things to cherry-pick, to write stories that fit what they think the narrative of the campaign ought to be."
For several months, national news organizations portrayed the veteran actor as a potential Republican savior. But in the four weeks since he joined the race, Thompson has largely been panned.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Belly floppen beats flip floppen.
You can denigrate the motives of Kurtz and you will probably be right. But is Kurtz also right?
"Yeah, he was lazy, never really applied himself and didn't get good grades in school. Nobody ever thought he'd make anything of himself. Hey, do you want fries with that?"
Exactly. They are trying to do all they can to knock Thompson out.
He scares them. They are pretending he doesn’t exist, despite his high poll numbers. When that doesn’t work, they’ll be tossing as much mud as they can to see what sticks, even if it’s a bunch of lies, to turn the public away from him and create the Hillary vs Rudy match they want.
It’s so laughable (but disgusting at the same time) what media is doing; they give Ron Paul, even though he is at the bottom with 1% of support, better coverage than they do Thompson, who would probably be leading if we had an honest poll.
The people they quote are mostly folks that Fred Thompson left behind when he went on to success in law, movies, TV, politics and all that. Of course some of them will have “sour grapes” about a guy that didn’t study hard in high school but now has at least a 50% chance of being the president of the United States!
Open borders George Will.
What a jerk off...
This is typical coverage for the liberal media. If the author is blasting Fred, then he is just repeating the attacks of other idiots.
And we will have to endure this trash until Fred starts to get some primary wins under his belt.
Of course then it will be a different story line with a lot of sputtering.... “ah.. ah.. well he won because... blah. blah.. blah.. “ without giving him any credit for anything.
But that’s okay.. Fred’s a big boy and can take it.
Let me put a word in your ear about Thompson. My husband and mother-in-law (who lives with us) are salt of the earth people. It would be hard to find better souls in all of the world. They are from New York originally, although they’ve been in the South a long time. They grew up with the idea that compassion is a Democrat thing and that Republicans are uncaring, fundamentalist [insert favorite phrase here]. After living with them awhile, I realized that they are Republicans in practice and Democrats in name only. They don’t actually believe anything (whatever) the current Democrat party stands for. (Well, maybe my husband is more Libetarian than not.)
Between the last few Democrat presidents and the performance of the current congress, they are having second thoughts. Both of them have said they will vote for Fred Thompson. They like what he says.
I think the man has real potential to change the political dynamic in this country.
Fox News surely doesn’t like Fred.
The "hits" just keep on comin', and the MSM is bringing their knife to a gunfight.
FRed scares the crap out of 'em, as he connects with the public broadly, and he does not fit those who are poll-driven and softball question driven, either. He will take them to task on their bias, twisting of facts, and selective recall reporting.
Go FRed !
Exactly. When they quoted George Will as the "committed conservative" voice I about died laughing.
He is a gay baseball writer that wears silly bow ties.
LLS
I think there's a lot of that going around. That's one of the reasons we've always seen generic Democrats beating generic Republicans in polls, but when the race becomes real everything changes.
They are in the tank for rooooty.Wonder where that comes from./s
I think the thing they really dislike is that Fred’s entire life hasn’t revolved around politics. It’s important to him, but it’s not the sole driving force of his existence, as it is with virtually all other politicians and Washington insiders.
Fred appears to be more like what our Founding Fathers had in mind when they talked about citizen legislators—capable individuals who would occasionally take time off from their real lives to do some work for the country. The Beltway types denigrate that as “not having fire in the belly,” but I think it’s refreshing. I’m sick of power-mad, freedom-stealing career politicians who can barely conceal their disdain for the masses and live only for an invitation to the right cocktail party and a favorable mention on the front page of the WaPo.
Fred can take or leave these craven phonies, and that’s what drives ‘em crazy.
ONLY MAN WHO CAN BEAT HILLARY!
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