Fredipedia: The Definitive Fred Thompson Reference
WARNING: If you wish to join, be aware that this ping list is EXTREMELY active.
Posted on 10/30/2007 8:07:19 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Influential Des Moines Register columnist David Yepsen trashes Fred Thompson today and hails the underfunded, Chip Saltsman-managed campaign of Mike Huckabee. Yepsen says Thompson "has fallen flat."
"After Thompson's late start, he's lighting no fires in Iowa," Yepsen writes. "His speech at the big Reagan Dinner Saturday night was a boilerplate thing he could have given anywhere. Romney didn't show. Huckabee got the only standing ovation."
The Wall Street Journal today reports on Thompson's risky Southern strategy and points out that he's all but bypassing Iowa and New Hampshire. Yesterday, he made only his second appearance in New Hampshire since announcing his candidacy. " ... [H]e faced pointed questioning from the local media, which hasn't seen him in six weeks, asking how he expected to win if he wasn't going to campaign there."
B T T T
Hey, both Mitt and Fred are rolling the dice, Mitt betting on IA and NH victories to carry him to glory, and Fred betting on the south. We will soon see how it all pans out.
soon is a year away.
Add Michigan, South Carolina, and Nevada to Romney’s early target list. He’s working his plan with painstaking precision and with more energy than any other candidate—especially Fred.
It is long past time for the little backward state of Iowa to stop trying to elect the president for the whole country, I really could care less what Yepper says.
Though in some races New Hampshire and Iowa might set the tempo for the presidential primaries, doing some smart strategy sessions behind closed doors and getting support from around the country makes more sense than playing up to minor league reporters in Des Moines or those in New Hampshire...
Fred Thompson has shown that he can set his own pace and style in running his race -- from announcing his run from a late night Television shoe to other things that only Fred Thompson can do...
I think Fred Thompson is a candidate that has savvy for this race, he might just outfox the other two frontrunners on the Republican side (Romney/Guiliani) and be prepared to take it to the Democrat frontrunner once he has the nomination.
Fred has the name recognition that the other candidates (excepting 9-11 Rudy Guiliani) do not have...
Running a Smart Race seems to be the Thompson Race.
Maybe there will be Thompson Machine Gun of Victories in primaries -- just rattling off the wins like the Thompson Machine Gun rattled off bullets...
[2nd Amendment folks will like that analogy]
“Though in some races New Hampshire and Iowa might set the tempo for the presidential primaries, doing some smart strategy sessions behind closed doors and getting support from around the country makes more sense than playing up to minor league reporters in Des Moines or those in New Hampshire...”
Uh huh ... and which Presidential campaign have you steered to victory on this idiosyncratic ‘strategy’? Fact is, we havent seen *any* GOP nominee who didnt win one or two of the key early states - IA, NH and SC.
And you dont notice that while Romney just picked up a big NH endorsement, and endorsemnets in SC, Romney and Rudy are also in Florida, Michigan and other states.
This so-called ‘strategy’ is an excuse for the fact that Fred’s slow and late campaigning pace has impaired his ability to effectively compete in these early states of IA, and NH. So they say look south. Yet even in SC, Romney and Rudy have been there more and done more. Fred promises to make a stand in NH in another article, so that debunks the ‘southern strategy’.
Sounds like the bravado of die-hard baseball fans saying ‘wait til next year’, except its “Wait ‘til next state.”
I was hoping Fred T would kill Rudy in Florida but polls as of now dont show that. Rudy leads.
Fredipedia: The Definitive Fred Thompson Reference
WARNING: If you wish to join, be aware that this ping list is EXTREMELY active.
No, soon is February 08. I was referring to the GOP nod. True, the convention is not until next summer, but likely we will know who the candidate will be Feb 08.
Is that you Ed Sullivan?
Does anyone think Yepsen is a republican sympathizer, much less a conservative?
I agree with you, and I live in Iowa.
No comment on the ideology of either.
Yet based on your tagline...who do you support? Can’t be Rudy.
He’s not “way, way behind” in SC. He’s LEADING in most polls.
Fred’s not run out of steam.. He runs better coming up from behind... You gotta pace yourself through the primaries in an open GOP race. If we followed Yepper’s logic, Bush Sr would have won in 1980.... Much as the pomp and circumstance is attractive of the Hawkeye Cauccii and the Old man Primary, they are ultimately yesterday’s news... The race will be decided in the South and out west, where while he’s behind he’s also closest ideologically to the GOP base in those states, in voting record and rhetoric.....
That strategy makes sense, though, as every Republican nominee since 1968 has won one or both of those states. And, if wins both, he'll probably win South Carolina.
If Thompson gets buried in Iowa and New Hampshire, it's hard to imagine him winning South Carolina.
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.