Posted on 12/21/2007 5:44:36 PM PST by devere
DAVENPORT, Iowa — Fred Thompson’s plan is simple: Get on a bus and haul around to some 50 Iowa towns and cities between now and Jan. 3.
It’s the only option he has.
Thompson has little money left in bank and has had to slash his television presence here to a level well below that of Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee. His cash crunch is so severe that he’s even had to freeze his direct mail plan.
So now, for the next two weeks before the caucuses, he'll be largely living off the land.
Thompson fell in the polls as Mike Huckabee rose — in seeming direct correlation to one another. One network pulled their embedded reporter from the Thompson beat and another network divided their embed between the two candidates.
But a different Fred Thompson showed up at the GOP debate last week outside Des Moines. The funny, commanding performance turned some heads, perhaps not the least of which that of conservative Iowa congressman Steve King, who threw his support to Thompson in a press conference Monday.
King’s support, and Thompson’s debate showing, also caught the eye of veteran Des Moines Register columnist David Yepsen, who made the case this week that Thompson should not be counted out.
The confluence of events has combined to give Thompson aides at least the appearance of optimism.
“The important thing for Thompson was to get into the mix in this final fortnight,” said senior adviser Rich Galen. “He needed to be part of the conversation. And that has happened.”
So now they’re trying to capitalize.
Thompson’s bus tour is aimed less at retail, one-on-one politicking than at earning media attention to compensate for his lack of ads and direct mail.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
Poor Fred...he just started way to late. He doesn’t have the type of an organization set up one needs when running for president. That cost lots of $$$’s. And it’s just way too late now.
It’s really too bad Fred does not listen to his detractors that seem to only offer communists, socialist, and wack jobs.
We are electing a CEO to a corporation that runs one third of an equal branch of our government. A balanced, thinking man, not the leader of the free world as we have little/no say in how they run their countries.
When you look at the board room, who do you want making those decisions and discussing issues with our other two equal branches of government? Huck, nope, Paul, nope, Rudy, nope, Einstein once said “you cannot get out of a problem with the same mindset that got you into it in the first place so he’s out since he is actually part of the problem, McCain - one of the most corrupt senators in our history, nope, Hunter, maybe but little exposure to the American people and doubt he could win the state. San Diego is heavy military so he gets elected there. Mitt, I like, don’t care about religion, never met a bad Mormon so he could work, would prefer Fred as Pres and Mitt as VP, Fred do one term and Mitt run for two..
Maybe the author is right, the only option for America is for Fred to win. The real question however is that Iowa has not selected a President in a long time so who really cares.
I don’t know if Fred has to come in first in Iowa, but he needs to have a respectable showing. If the Republicans in Iowa wise up to Huckabee soon enough, Fred could be the beneficiary—if people haven’t just written him off and concluded they must choose between the other “top tier” candidates.
Let’s keep in mind that Politico has a strong liberal bias.
Somewhere along the line conservatives seem to have lost their confidence and lost their nerve. No longer do we support a nominee who is across-the-board conservative.
Instead, too many support the half-liberal, half-conservative hermaphrodite candidates, Rudy, McCain and the Huckster.
All Fred has to do is make a couple of good youtube videos like the one he did on Michael Moore and BOOM he’ll turn it around. As for that witch sHillary, the only way she’s gettin’ back in the White House in on a tour.
(In Pat Buttram's voice as Napoleon) "Wait a minute - I'm the Leader - I'll say when it's over.......it's over...."
“Politico has a strong liberal bias”
I don’t see the bias in the article.
He says Fred’s shortage of cash is constraining his campaign options.
He says Fred gave a commanding debate performance.
He says, in so many words, that while the odds are still against him, Fred has a chance to win Iowa.
May all biased Liberals be so accurate.
Go Fred!
honestly does Iowa or NH even matter?
I think Iowa and NH are useful to clear out dead weight tancredo and hunter. I would include kookpaul but soros is funding him too well.
Sorry but no. Fred needs strong third or weak second place finish to move on. Enough over-the top histrionics.
Why is he paying attention to this stupid caucus? He should have skipped it and NH (The Romney Buyout) entirely and focused on South Carolina and Michigan.
Agree.
I made my most recent contribution the day before yesterday. It won’t be the last.
Doom and gloom is not warranted. The news out of Iowa for Fred has been great. Fred supporters who have not tossed him a few bucks...now is the time. Anything you can spare will help.
Is Fred too late? Or is he too smart for his opposition. I say he’s too smart for them all. He enters the race at the normal time saving all of us who are sick of the other candidates already. And saving his campaign and its donors from wasting precious dollars needed to win in November 2008. Yes that’s almost a whole year away. Sounds like plenty of time to me. I appreciate someone who is unwilling to waste my precious donation. And besides all of that how long could it really take someone of Fred’s stature to show up Hillary and the rest of the second rate amatuers running on the left.
Oh, good grief... not this argument again. Look, all politics is relative. Everyone announced before him... by months. He instead decided to deliberately skip a debate in New Hampshire and announce on Leno, in September, when everyone else had announced in March or earlier. He skipped Ames entirely... and guess who's far and away leading in the Iowa polls? The two remaining candidates who were top 2 in the Ames poll: Huckabee and Romney. Beyond letting his rivals get a six month head start, he's snubbing everyone to whom he should be reaching out, and now he wants their votes? He was doing better out of the race than he was in...
Sorry, but I don't see it that way. If Fred finished a "strong third or weak second", or better, in Iowa and placed first or second in NH, then he would still be alive. However, as it stands now, he is going off a cliff in NH. And in order to turn that around and do well in NH, Fred would need to win Iowa
I wish it were not so. But wishful thinking will not do it.
In 1992, Clinton lost both Iowa and NH, as well as Maryland, Connecticut, Arizona, Washington, and Utah. He won everything else after that.
This may be exactly what Fred Thompson should have to do, to demonstrate he’s able to serve and lead a whole country full of people.
Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, etc., have been putting themselves to it (us) for quite awhile now.
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