I was in Raleigh last night on business and could not watch the debate. With me was a bigwig in the NC state Democratic party machine. I asked him which Republican he wanted most & least to get the nomination. He said that Huckabee and McCain would be the easiest to beat, Rudy and Mitt would make a tight race, but that Fred simply looked like the POTUS. He said that their G2 was that folks immediately associate Fred with L&O and other roles where he played the POTUS and the trust and believability meters go off the charts. He said that Fred’s campaigning style was too unknown to them to precisely evaluate, but, he did not think the Democrats had a candidate who could beat him in the general election.
FWIW
In my discussions with people about electability, it seems that the more informed and steeped in politics the person is, the more likely they are to over-analyze minutiae. They impute to an uninformed electorate the same level of interest and understanding of the issues as they have. They compare candidates in terms of their degrees of conservatism in each tiny aspect--concluding that we need a centrist like Giulani in order to take Ohio and put NY and CA in play.
The big flaw in this thinking, imho, is the assumption that the needed electorate actually knows and understands and analyzes and weighs the details of a candidate's position on each of the issues. The truth is probably much closer to what your D friend expressed. The vast majority of voters go on impressions and emotion, not facts.
Can I pass your comment on to some of my e-mail friends?
I hope your demo bigwig is right. I don’t see anyone the dems are offering measuring up to Fred. JMO.
NO2
Holy Moly! Great post.
Bump for your post.... Anyone can say anything on the internet, but I believe you. This is why they are so desperate to take him out of the contest. I do not agree with the reason he gave you about why people trust and believe Fred, because this reaction is common among those who never watched Law and Order or who don't even know who he is. People trust him because he's real and because he has a record to back up what he says.
If we do not make Fred Thompson our nominee, the Dems will celebrate all the way to the White House.
Thank you for your post!
I can totally believe that what you state is the case.
Thanks, that's worth a lot! Made my day.....
A bigwig with ACU was on one of the talk-radio shows Thursday night, and he was pitching Romney. Said Fred had "imploded" but Mitt was a uniter. Spin, spin, spin.......he was straight enough to say that he was speaking for himself only, not for ACU.