Posted on 10/25/2007 9:10:48 PM PDT by Doofer
CELEBRATION, Fla., Oct. 25, 2007 —
At Water Tower Florists in Celebration, Fla., former Tennessee Sen. Fred Dalton Thompson has come to woo women voters.
Thompson needs to win the support of Florida Republican women in order to win this Southern state that is key to his strategy. The setting conjures memories of his nearly 20-year bachelorhood between his two marriages when he had a reputation as a ladies man.
His smooth ways were on display at Water Tower Florists the dapper dress, the low, reassuring slow-jams voice full of homespun common sense.
In contrast to some of his more aggressive and energetic competitors for the Republican presidential nomination, Thompson has a style that is decidedly low key. He is also, perhaps unfairly, competing with the commanding presence he has projected on the big and small screens for decades as an actor in "Die Hard 2," "In the Line of Fire" and on "Law & Order." And as Ronald Reagan learned before him, reality is a far cry from the tightly scripted drama of his movies and TV shows.
His relaxed manner coupled with his relatively late entry into the race, his modest fundraising and his less-than-frenetic schedule have some observers wondering whether he's lazy or even worse ambivalent about being president. Thompson says that's all nonsense.
"I'm kind of a laid-back guy. & If people think I'm too laid back or not ambitious enough, that's their prerogative. I'm gonna be me, and that's what they get," Thompson told the gathering at the flower shop.
Thompson Defines His Own Terms
ABC News joined Thompson, sometimes behind the scenes, for his recent swing through Florida. He brushed off suggestions that the roughly two public events he did a day was evidence he wasn't fully engaged.
Thompson explained to this reporter that his campaign has a certain rhythm and reason to it. "A campaign is a long process and it involves many things. I've even done a couple of fundraisers you weren't invited to. I don't want to hurt your feelings," he said with a smile.
Thompson says the chattering classes are missing what the voters will ultimately see that not being consumed with winning empowers him to be a better politician.
"If I can't tell the truth, then it's not worth running for president," he told the dozen women at Water Tower Florists. "It's a risk, but it's a risk I'm willing to take, because I have the freedom. And if the people aren't ready for that, they can tell me. But I think they are. I think the people are better than the politicians give them credit for," he said.
That's the key to his pitch he's doing this on his own terms - and whether the press buys it or not, he's clearly hoping it resonates with voters.
"I do things my way. I don't feel like I have to come out and explain to the national media every time I make a decision as to how, when, where I want to campaign," he told ABC News.
Family Tragedy and a New Political Vision This determination to run on his own terms seems to stem from a family crisis five years ago after the January 2002 death of his 38-year-old daughter, Betsy.
Within two years of Betsy's death, the lawyer-turned-actor-turned-senator retired from the Senate, married a woman 24 years his junior and started a new family.
One year after that, he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, which is currently in remission. The 65-year-old begins his day in his hotel suite with a briefing on the news and the day's schedule, a chewed-on cigar and half-eaten breakfast sitting nearby. He is trying to be healthier, but old habits die hard.
He tours the Port of Tampa and wants to talk about homeland security, but the conversation turns instead to the Terri Schiavo controversy. Thompson gets surprisingly personal, discussing for the first time details of his daughter Betsy's death after an accidental overdose of prescription drugs.
He talked about the painful decisions he and his family made. "I had to make those decisions with the rest of my family. And I will assure you one thing: No matter which decision you make, you will never know whether or not you made exactly the right decision. Making this into a political football is something that I don't welcome, and this will probably be the last time I ever address it. It should be decided by the family. The federal government and the state government too, except for the court system should stay out of these matters, as far as I'm concerned."
The last few years have clearly changed Thompson's perspective on a lot of issues.
"You can't live as much life as I have lived, not just in length but in quality and in terms of things that I have seen, and remain exactly the same person," he told ABC News. "I've had the worst thing that can happen to a father and the best thing that can happen to a father. It gives you a sense of perspective and it frees you up in some ways," he said.
And just as Betsy's death prompted him to leave politics in 2002, Thompson cites his 4-year-old daughter, Hayden, and son Samuel, who will soon turn 1, in his decision to leave his comfortable world as an actor on "Law & Order" and return to the political arena.
"I'm more concerned about the kind of world my kids are going to grow up in, my grandkids are going to grow up in than I have about any material comforts I have at the moment. We're going to need strong leadership in these next few years. There are going to be decisions on the president's desk that will impact our future for a long time to come, matters concerning our national security, matters concerning our economy and the prosperity. It's important stuff, and I think we need someone who is not burning with longtime personal ambitions, who can afford to tell the truth about important things as you see them. And I can do that."
When told that his wife is one of the top Google searches related to his name, he smiles. "That's one of the things I'm most interested in, too," he said.
After his divorce in 1985, Thompson was one of Washington's most noted bachelors, dating country music star Lorrie Morgan among others. That ended when he married Republican operative Jeri Kehn, but much to Thompson's chagrin, some of the attention given to Jeri has been negative. There have been crude comments about her looks and whispers about her controlling the campaign.
"She refused to behave like a candidate's wife until her husband became a candidate. She was taking our little girl to preschool. She had a 6-month-old baby at the time. She had her priorities straight. She got anonymous phone calls from people telling her why we couldn't run and things like that, which of course made her resolve even stronger, and mine, too. But she refused to go out and defend herself against being a trophy wife or whatever it is they decided to call her. She just let it go. They couldn't understand that," Thompson said.
Thompson said it's not a "fair characterization" to say that she wanted him to seek the presidency. "She wanted me to do what I felt like I ought to do. She thought that I could do some things for the country and I probably ought to step forward, that I was not at my highest and best use, that I could do something for the party and that I could, more importantly, do something for the country."
A 'Law & Order' Conservative In Florida, Thompson emphasized what he would do for the country in terms of immigration, visiting with law enforcement on the front lines.
"Can I just say how much I appreciate you sheriffs and what you're doing here. Of course, I just naturally gravitate towards people that believe in law and order," Thompson said jokingly to the group.
He outlined an aggressive immigration reform program, seven points including a hard line against amnesty, attrition through the enforcement of current laws and bolstering border security .
He also used the issue to distinguish himself as more conservative than his Republican competitors Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney and Sen. John McCain.
"I was a conservative yesterday. I'm one today. And I'll be one tomorrow," he said.
Asked about his lack of executive experience that Giuliani had as a mayor or Romney had as a governor, he said, "Management's important, but leadership is more important. Managers are people who leaders hire."
Thompson says his newfound freedom lets him take politically perilous positions, such as grabbing the so-called third rail of American politics Social Security.
"I've talked about indexing benefits so that they increase with inflation and don't increase with wages, which is what we do now. Dollar for dollar, they'd get the same thing current retirees get, they just wouldn't get more than current retirees get," he said.
It's a complex concept to spell out in a campaign and an easy one for opponents to cast as an attempt to cut Social Security.
"That's why people don't bring it up, so therefore we continue on the current path and we bankrupt the system," he said.
Thompson has also taken some heat from another crucial voting bloc for the Republican Party evangelical conservatives for saying he does not often go to church.
Thompson tried to sum up his spirituality. "I think that when a man has been through the heights and depths of life, and when he's had the tragedies and the blessings of life, as I have, I think you develop an even greater sense of what's important and what's not. A person has to realize at some point in his life it's not about him. It's about higher things, and the need to be right with God. And to be right with those who love you. And if you've got that, none of the rest of it matters."
Copyright © 2007 ABC News Internet Ventures
The firm of Dewey, Cheatham, and Howe.
“(Fred) said, “Management’s important, but leadership is more important. Managers are people who leaders hire.”
LOL! Fred is neither!
>>>How many Republicans did Precious Willard help elect in MA ? List them. Start with the Governorship.<<<
How many did he help? Hundreds. How many millions of his own money did he put behind the effort?
Oh, wait. How rarely you ever talk about that.
And how many Republicans did the state of Massachusetts put in office? Romney doesn’t determine election results. And let’s be honest, Fred Thomposon isn’t going to take Massachusetts if he’s nominated.
>>>Two years ago, Governor Mitt Romney declared his mission to rebuild the state Republican Party, starting with the Democrat-dominated Legislature. Buoyed by his win in 2002, Romney and other GOP leaders had recruited more than 100 candidates, most to take on entrenched incumbents. Romney raised money for the candidates and campaigned with them while the state party ran advertising to support them.<<<
>>>The outcome? Republicans did not unseat a single incumbent in 2004.<<<
And you wanted him to sink all of his assets into 2006 in a state that votes consistently Dem in a year where the GOP was already doomed?
Be honest, even if he’s nominated, Fred Thompson isn’t going to take Massachusetts. Nor is Giuliani.
Yes, but they're all Democrats.
"And let’s be honest, Fred Thomposon isn’t going to take Massachusetts if he’s nominated."
Thanks to RINOs like Precious Willard destroying the party. Of course, dear Precious and even Rudy wouldn't carry it, either.
"And you wanted him to sink all of his assets into 2006 in a state that votes consistently Dem in a year where the GOP was already doomed?"
So in other words, he was a complete and total failure in 2004 and he ran away in 2006. And now he wants a promotion for BURYING the MA GOP. Yeah, REAL leadership. If I were a rodent, I'd want this guy as President. He'd guarantee the Republican party couldn't seriously contest the Presidency or Congress for the next 50 years... maybe longer.
Good article, thanks for posting.
I’ll take an inexperienced leader taking us in the right direction than an experienced and integrity-challenged leader leading us down the toilet of liberalism like Rudy and Mitt will do.
He will be if he's elected President. ;o)
“Spoken by a man who has never led a day in his life.”
Unlike your boy, who has led Massachusetts into the abyss of socialist health care.
Keep denying the efforts Romney put into the GOP in 2004 in Mass. And you can name a Republican governor in 2004 who recruited as avidly as Romney did, I assume. (Yeah, right.)
Your equation with the liberal electorate of Massachusetts with the rest of the nation is flawed. And if Romney was the most liberal of governors in history as some around here seem apt to try to claim, why didn’t that liberal electorate vote in all of those he recruited?
Oh, wait...
“It’s really easy when you’ve been nothing but hired help to criticize business executives, founders, and owners as not being leaders.”
If we were electing the most successful business leader, we’d be voting for Warren Buffet or Bill Gates (Democrats). Ross Perot anyone?
I'm glad he had a successful business, but I don't agree with his views, and wouldn't want him running the country.
That is a bunch of bull-hockey. Thompson has never been a leader in his life.
Leadership Management - there’s absolutely no difference.
The starry-eyed Fredheads continue to delude themselves into thinking they have found the second coming of Ronald Reagan.
If you are trying to tout Mitt's leadership as the Governor of Mass as a reason to hire him as the leader of the Free World that is pure nonsense, especially as a Republican, and doubly as a conservative Republican.
He destroyed the Republican party in Mass, which as Governor he was responsible for leading and would also be responsible as President.
He governed as a Democrat and supported everything they did.
1. Abortion
2. Gay Rights
3. Anti 2nd Amendment
3. Socialized Medicine.
These are not the hallmarks of a good Chief Executive and if he had exhibited the same type of behavior as a CEO of any other type of company, he would be summarily shown the door.
Nope,
You have mischaracterized us.
What we have found is a man who actually has been a conservative and is still a conservative.
Something that cannot be said about Mitt or Rudy.
And furthermore, his laid-back style, the clothes he wears, his health, the fact that some of his campaign staffers have left, his young wife, the percieved lack of fire-in-his-belly or that he has not been a Governor is of little concern to us.
We want a leader who is a true-believer of conservative principles, not somebody like Mitt or Rudy whose conversion to conservative principles is suspect at best.
Also something that cannot be said about Mitt or Rudy.
I spent a bit over 20 years active duty military and believe me there's a difference between the two...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.