Posted on 11/05/2007 4:01:17 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Like most good Southern yarns, the Fred Thompson story is steeped in legend. His small-town upbringing in Lawrenceburg, Tenn., is humble and distinct on a campaign trail worn by front-runners in suits that match their polished images.
In his methodical drawl, the Republican mentions his early years at every opportunity -- from his announcement speech Sept. 7 in Des Moines, Iowa, to his Oct. 15 appearance on Fox News. The details sometimes differ, but the effect is the same.
"My story is an American story," Thompson, 65, said in Des Moines, "one that's happened many times across this great nation of ours, where a kid of modest means from a little town without a whole lot of resources or even a whole lot of ambition when he was a kid, had the opportunity to do some great things. ...
"I've seen it from a lot of different standpoints," he continued. "I've seen it from the factory floor when I was working the graveyard shift and we'd have lunch there on the change of the shifts and I'd be ankle-deep in water at the Murray Ohio bicycle plant where I was running a machine that was so loud I couldn't hear myself yell if I wanted to. And I've had the opportunity to dine with foreign leaders in foreign capitals around the world and just about everything in between."
This working-man persona, set against his experience as a lawmaker, lobbyist and Hollywood actor, is at the core of his efforts to win the White House with the help of the same blue-collar voters President Bush drew in previous elections. But the story's potency is only as good as its authenticity.
Confirming a tale from nearly 50 years ago is difficult, to say the least. The former senator's campaign officials can't provide independent verification for any of the details, saying they "don't know anything beyond the stories I've heard him tell," said Jeff Sadosky, campaign spokesman.
Interviews with more than a dozen folks in Thompson's hometown who either knew him or worked with him at the plant in 1960 indicate that his stump speech story is largely true.
Thompson was born in the Deep South town of Sheffield, Ala., just across the state line from Tennessee, where he spent his childhood. The son of a used car salesman, he hung out in the town square and played football and basketball. As a teen, he took his first job as a lifeguard at Rotary Park, according to the campaign.
"That's the way we did it in Lawrenceburg," said Jan Clifton, 66, who grew up next door to Thompson. "A lot of us, our parents thought we needed to work."
A year later, he married a local woman, Sarah Elizabeth Lindsey, who was a year older. About seven months later, Thompson became a father to his first son, Tony.
Thompson doesn't shy from these difficult beginnings. He said he feels like he has had two different lives.
"Life got my attention right as I got out of high school, and I had to go from being a boy to being a man in short order," Thompson told a group of Orlando businesswomen during an event Monday. "And I did."
The time Thompson highlights most often on the stump is his short stint on the assembly line at Murray.
The enormous -- by some estimates about 60 acres -- plant opened in 1956 and provided the backbone of the Lawrence County economy, employing nearly one in every 10 people at its heyday, said Cromer Smotherman, Murray's first employee and plant historian who published a book called The Partnership.
Few former workers can actually say they remember seeing "Freddie," as he is known in his hometown, working on the assembly line. But they recall he was one of the dozens of local boys who worked at the plant as temporary employees after school let out.
These employees would typically work the third shift (11 p.m. to 7 a.m.) that none of the full-timers on the morning shift wanted, said Bobby Alford, a 76-year-old who played basketball with Thompson and helped coached his youth league baseball team. Alford started at the factory the year it opened and worked, by his own count, 37 years, two months and 28 days.
The plant closed in 2005.
Best anyone remembers, Thompson worked there for just a few months in the summer of 1960 before starting at Florence State College in the fall. He worked days at the local post office, friend Tom Crews said.
"Back at that time Freddie was working at Murray, we would employ students who were planning to go to college. We called them seasonal or temporary employees," said Smotherman, 82, who retired as the chief operating officer, in a telephone interview from his nursing home room in Lawrenceburg.
It's pretty well remembered that Thompson worked the graveyard shift, and some of the other working conditions he describes seem accurate.
Nelda Morrow, a 48-year veteran of the factory, said the noise of the presses stamping out steel parts could be deafening. And Ronnie Perry, 63, said factory bosses didn't make employees wear earplugs back in those days.
But no one can pinpoint what Thompson is talking about when he says he worked in ankle-deep water. The factory rarely flooded, though the large flat roof would sometimes leak.
"I don't know why he said that," said Doyce Shaddix, who worked at Murray for 43 years. "It wasn't like it happened all the time."
Minor details notwithstanding, the larger theme Thompson preaches about his Everyman roots remains attractive to many voters. Clifton, his childhood friend and now major supporter, said his upbringing is his best quality.
"He's the people's candidate," she said. "I believe he can relate to people because he worked his way up."
Statement Thompson: "I've seen (life) from the factory floor when I was working the graveyard shift ... and I'd be ankle-deep in water at the Murray Ohio bicycle plant where I was running a machine that was so loud I couldn't hear myself yell if I wanted to."
Ruling
Folks at the plant remember "Freddie," but not the ankle-deep water.
I’ll ping that...
And it gets tiresome. Thompson is the only candidate I've ever heard of who cites getting a girl pregnant and marrying her at 17 as a qualification for the Presidency.
It is sort of like what Mark Twain said about Benjamin Franklin:
Benjamin Franklin was always proud of telling how he entered Philadelphia, for the first time, with nothing in the world but two shillings in his pocket and four rolls of bread under his arm. But really, when you come to examine it critically, it was nothing. Anybody could have done it.
Typical Willardian twisting of the truth. How snide can you be?
So does the Romney Sleaze Machine.
“He’s the people’s candidate,” she said. “I believe he can relate to people because he worked his way up.”
Indeed he trully is potentially the people’s candidate because of his roots. However, IMHO, his “FREDERALISM” (the senator’s federalism) on issues like abortion and the homosexual agenda are severely hurting his chances of being the GOP nominee. On many to most issues being a “Frederalist” will set well, but on these two issues, it is upseting the moral/social/values base of the GOP. If that base fractures and splits it votes to Huckabee, Hunter, and even Romney....it will cause the nomination to go to Guiliani. That will spell the end to the coalition that once was the GOP. Merely standing in opposition to Clinton is not enough to hold the coalition together.
Fred Thompson has the greatest potential to reach across the entire party, but he must secure the base. He must modify his “Frederalism” to do so. That, of course, is only my opinion. I have been wrong before, on many occasions.
The only thing twisting is your panties in a bunch, Petronski. Fred was asked in the Orlando debate whether he was lazy, and Fred responded by citing his accomplishments. Prominent among the accomplishments Fred cited was procreation and matrimony at the age of 17. It isn't snide, it is the truth. How Fred having to get married at the age of 17 relates to his abilities at President at the age of 65 I don't know, but that is what Fred brings up repeatedly.
_________________________________________________________transcript:
GOLER: Senator Thompson, reporters on your campaign say your stumbles on the Terry Schiavo case and on the issue of oil drilling in the Everglades show that you don't do your homework.
The week after, though -- you took a week off after the last debate. Speech yesterday was about five minutes long. Some people say you're lazy, sir.
How do you deal with that?
(LAUGHTER)
THOMPSON: Well -- no, it's OK. Let me answer that.
I was a father at the age of 17 and a husband at the age of 17. I got started working in a factory. I borrowed and worked my way through. My folks did what they could to help. They were country folks -- came in off the farm.
I was able to be an assistant U.S. attorney when I was 28, prosecuting most of the major federal crimes in middle Tennessee -- most of the major ones.
THOMPSON: Howard Baker selected me to go to Washington and be his counsel on the Watergate Committee at the age of 30.
I came back, took on a corrupt state administration, and won against them. I went to the United States Senate, got elected twice by 20 points in a state that Bill Clinton carried twice.
Condoleezza Rice called upon me to head up an international security advisory board to advise her on international security matters. President Bush called me to help shepherd Chief Justice -- now-Chief Justice John Roberts' nomination through the Judiciary Committee.
If a man can do all that and be lazy, I recommend it to everybody.
Whether "anyone" could have done it is debatable. The point is, only Ben Franklin (like Fred Thompson) DID do it! Almost anyone can become a millionaire or celebrity in America, but how many attain that status? Thompson is a successful lawyer, film and television actor, politician, consultant, intelligence advisor, father, husband, and more! He steered Chief Justice John Roberts through his nomination process, took down a crooked governor, counseled the Watergate committee, chaired the Senate Government Affairs committee and MUCH MORE!
Fred is a good man. He’s like a cross between Ronald Reagan and Abraham Lincoln.
...cites getting a girl pregnant and marrying her at 17 as a qualification for the Presidency.
You make it sound like he said "I'm qualified to be president because I got a girl pregnant when I was 17."
His obvious point, your sneering aside, is that after she became pregnant, he manned up, married her and raised the child. It's about character.
Roll on, Romney Sleaze Machine. Roll on.
The Romney Sleaze Machine never stops.
Didn’t see the debate and don’t have a dog in the fight, but I understand what he is saying. It makes sense to me and is certainly worth pointing out. Rising from humble and hard beginnings to the status where he is now is impressive to me.
LLS
And the point is, if at age 65 he needs cite this as a qualification for the Presidency it is only because his qualifications are so weak.
Roll on, Romney Sleaze Machine. Roll on.
Sleaze? I posted a friggin' Mark Twain quote and a debate transcript. That is sleaze? If you are accusing me of posting sleaze, then tell me what is the sleaze you are referring to exactly? If you can't tell me where the sleaze is, it is just more Petronski monkey-poop throwing personal attack, which is all that you can do, apparently, beside posting spam.
What the heck is a “methodical drawl”?!?
You hate them because they remind you of dims... same ethical problems and same modus operandi.
LLS
Without a doubt, Fred’s simple common man populist patriotic image is his biggest asset. There is sort of the Perot appeal to him.
Definitely, there is going to be something sort of like a class divide between the Romney and Fred supporters. It’s like being from different parts of town I suppose.
I think Fred Thompson has the capability to bring this Party together, if not the Conservative middle.
Yeah, Mitt's from the left side of town and is trying his hand at carpetbagging over here on the right side of town.
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