Who torpedoed Fred Thompson in Iowa?

Vanity | 27 August 2009 | Question

[Pan_Yan]

The problem is that the primary dates are set by the individual states, even though the parties do not have to seat the delgates, see the dem debacle with Michigan and Florida. Trying to get 50 state legislatures to work together seems almost impossible. And I can’t imagine that anything coming out of D.C. would be less than a nightmare, ignoring the fact that they don’t constitutionally have the right.

Like the old saying goes: None of us is as dumb as all of us.

[andy58-in-nh]

In the final analysis, Fred Thompson ended his own campaign by way of disinterest: for whatever reason, he just didn't want it. I think most of us can sympathize with that decision, made by a good man with a good heart, who perhaps did not wish to subject himself to the degradation that has become part and parcel of our Presidential campaigns.

For what it's worth: the smartest, most well-connected old-school newspaperman in Washington was Robert Novak, and he had reason to believe that Mitt Romney's people were, at the time purposely trying to create a wedge between Mr. Thompson and John McCain.

He published his thoughts on the matter in his column of 1/5/08, and having read his work for over 30 years, I inferred between the lines that he had a good source informing his suspicion. He almost always did.

[EDINVA]

Not likely McCain. In withdrawing, Thompson threw his support behind McCain. They’d been colleagues in the Senate. Whatever can be said of him, backstabbing isn’t his style ... he’ll attack frontally. THO, he had some pretty nasty staffers, ask Gov Palin.

[Paperdoll]

ut aLL WORKED OUT JUST AS THE BIG $ BOYS WANTED IT TO WORK OUT, NO MATTER HOW MUCH WE SQUABBLE HERE ON FR.

[McGruff]

If you remember some states threatened to move their primary dates ahead of Iowa. Maybe that’s the only way to get the RNC’s attention.

[Nuc1]

Absurd. Fred Thompson was the only real conservative among the five serious candidates: McCain, Romney, Rudy, Huckster, and Fred. There were no conservative candidates besides Fred who could have beaten McCain. That is why conservatives begged Fred to run.

Except for the absurd part I agree 100% with you. Fred could have easily beaten McCain. Recall, Fred was also a great friend of McCain. Fred's campaign efforts were beyond lack luster. They were awful. He finally "hit his stride" a short time before McCain locked up the nomination. Far too late to be effective. If Fred had campaigned hard from the git go he would have won the nomination and I believe the White House. H@ll, I would have voted for him. We were taken for a ride, simple as that.

[iowamark]

Refuse to see what? Why don’t you enlighten us blind folks?

[Paperdoll]

Mission impossible! :)

[oneamericanvoice]

The only viciousness is coming from you. Who were you supporting? I was for Fred until he left. Romney is far from “power-mad” as you assert. Back it up with facts, rvoitier.

[perfect_rovian_storm]

The funny thing about that conventional ‘wisdom’ is that it is completely laughable on it’s face. Why would a man leave a high paying job and a nice life to go farting around on busses for 6 months if he didn’t want the job? Say he ran a crappy campaign. That, I’ll buy. But this ‘didn’t want the job’ bunk is ridiculous. Almost as ridiculous as the idea of leaving the cushy position of being Paul Harvey’s replacement AND a high paying TV gig to go screw around and get SOMEONE ELSE the damn nomination. The idea that supposedly intelligent people believe this stuff is an indictment of our public education system.

[oneamericanvoice]

We are in a battle for the future of this country, and you want to rehash old facts? I wanted Fred too, but this is a waste of time. Let go and move forward.

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

Post an image, or prove yourself to be a liar.

[andy58-in-nh]

I think at some level Fred did want the job. Perhaps he just looked at the tasks before him and weighed the risks and probabilities and decided it wasn’t going to happen. He’s a smart man. But he knew that he didn’t have the support of the big “early money” guys and the “prestige” advisers he would need. Maybe he didn’t want to put his wife through the kind of crap that less thoughtful people with bigger egos don’t care about. And I do believe that he was sabotaged, because I’ve worked on campaigns, and I’ve seen it up close and ugly.

[Pan_Yan]

I assume eventually some state will move their primary to the first Wednesday after the first Monday in November on years that are evenly divisible by four.

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

Maybe he didn’t want to put his wife through the kind of crap that less thoughtful people with bigger egos don’t care about.

This does not go very well with the theory that Fred was only running because his ambitious wife MADE him do it.

[nonliberal]

Here in Iowa, we heard several rumors as to who started it. Nothing was able to be substantiated by any sources I trust.

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

NOW I remember you from 2007. In 2011 I am going to see if you are supporting someone for President, so I can do anything I can do to defeat that candidate. Your judgment is so warped, and your nature is so vicious that anyone you support is ipso facto dead meat. To be sure I don't forget I am bookmarking this thread!

[andy58-in-nh]

I don’t believe for a second that a man of Fred’s character would run because his wife made him do it.

[perfect_rovian_storm]

I think he definitely was sabotaged and I think he had an idea that if he was going to do this, he was going to do it ‘his way’ and either we’d go with him or we wouldn’t. I think he was doomed no matter what he did, because there were too many knives out for him on our own side. The Fox News people were brutal to him.

It’s all water under the bridge now. But I detest the Romney people to this day.

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

I agree that when the conservative contributors, ACU, National Review, and the religious right all withheld support, it was not encouraging. The religious right went with Huckabee, and NRO and the ACU followed the money to Romney.