Fred Thompson's Campaign Shake Ups
By Nicole Belle Wednesday Jul 25, 2007 12:01pm
Wow, there's a lot of stories coming out about Fred Thompson's stealth campaign for the Republican nomination. Can you imagine if he actually declared?First there was the story of his would be campaign manager being pushed aside, allegedly due to friction with Fred's wife, Jeri Kuhn, herself a GOP operative. And the next day, another staffer resigned, reportedly for his frustration (after just a week and a half) with the lack of structure for the as yet undeclared campaign. However, the good news is that Thompson appears to be wooing McCain campaigners (That's well thought out, seeing as McCain's campaign is doing so well and raising lots of funds /snark), so perhaps those positions will not remain empty too long.
Meanwhile, the New York magazine devotes an 8 page article to asking whether Thompson's home-spun folksiness and big protective daddy persona is real or just an act. I'll let you guess which side they fall down on with this passage:
Although some of his campaign staff protested the move as cheesy, they leased Thompson a red Chevy pickup and he hit the road. Cooper attempted to paint Thompson as phony, calling him a "Gucci-wearing, Lincoln-driving, Perrier-drinking, Grey Poupon-spreading millionaire Washington special-interest lobbyist." But voters loved the truck. They didn't seem to mind that the candidate often switched from a sedan to the truck just miles from his appearances. "We couldn't believe anyone was buying it," says Kopp. "We underestimated him. What we didn't get is that Fred is the country version of a street kid. He's been talking his way out of situations since he was in high school. He's a charmer. People fall for it."
and suggesting that Fred might not have been the most popular man in the Senate during his short tenure:
The greatest testament to the power of Fred Thompson's down-home likability might be that his Senate years were widely viewed as a train wreck, yet he emerged not only unscathed but also as a presidential contender.[..]Thompson spent the next two years accomplishing almost nothing of significance other than raising money for his 1996 reelection: Thompson brought back the red truck and won in a walk.
[..] Thompson was also accused of grandstanding, and his relationship with then Republican Senate leaders Trent Lott and Mitch McConnell quickly soured. Soon Thompson was warring with both sides. "[We have] presidents at fund-raisers, Lott [saying] raising money is the American Way, [and] McConnell [is the] Darth Vader of Reform," Thompson says in one of the off-the-record sessions found in his archives.
Shall we start a pool on how long it will take Thompson's campaign to crash and burn...or will he be out before he's ever in?
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Most people in the USofA have the mental acumen of an eight-year-old.
I thought the repugs were against Hollywood types being in politics.
I guess they knew there was "friction with Fred’s wife, Jeri Kuhn" from the smell of burning silicone.
He should be referred to as "Lobbyist Fred Thompson" at all times.
And did I already mention that "he's lazy"?
Never underestimate the intelligent folk who "just want to have a beer with the candidate" they'd most like to meet at a neighbor's barbecue.
The Perfect GOP candidate.
Stay the course. Decisive, tough, rugged, and manly.
Put him in a cowboy hat and boots for the elections and you got it made.
So if the guy thompson gets elected will the red pickup be on concrete blocks on the front lawn of the White House?
Do you honestly still think this guy's campaign is doomed to failure?? After imbeciles of this country voted for Bush not once but twice because he is a good beer drinking companion?? 70% of people in the USA are mostly imbeciles. Funny most still think this is the 'greatest' country in the world!!! A beacon of freedom (?!) You should stop being so naive. This is the only country where I see mainstream media actually say 'liberalism' is something negative but no one ever jumps at that assertion and proves it wrong... come on people! wake up! make us foreigners actually think that the lie of you guys being so mush you said you were was not that far from reality...
Just what America needs, another phony, lazy, hypocritic, well-connected loser. Those seem to be irresistible qualities for the lemming Right.
Thompson really doesn't have to campaign or try to raise money. And it shows. I'm betting the War Party will just hand him the Presidency. Maybe this time they won't even go through the mockery of an election.
Look at how a questioner is mistreated at a Fred Thompsons press conference http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvMWGNX7HlI&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fhouston911t...
And how ithe incident is misreported on CNN http://www.rawstory.com/showarticle.php?src=http%3A%2F%2Fpoliticalticker...
Well, I hope the cranky old man sticks with his original campaign slogan:
Hey you kids - GET OFF MY LAWN!
People fall for --it. Not again fercrissakes, we can't be that stupid again can we? Whasitgonnatake...he's not even shiney!
Daniel @ 9:
I think he has a real shot. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up being the GOP Front runner.
Fred Thompson's presumed candidacy has the same MSM-generated hype that the Obama candidacy has. Like Obama, I think Thompson peaks out in the 20-30 percentile range. With the scrutiny that comes with an extended campaign, too many people begin to see through the baloney before they make the mistake of voting for either of these two..
Yellow Elephant Safari @ 8:
And Uncle Sam will be sitting on the front porch, sippin a mint julep and watching the nation go up in smoke.
How's about V.P. Mitch McConnel to seal the deal? Cut my fingers off, this nightmare writes itself.
He's NOT a politician but he plays one on TeeVee.
Well, John Solomon and the Wash Post aren't going to let this happen to the Thompson campaign:
My dead grandmother stands a better chance or reaching the White House than Ole Bassett Hound Face.
His manner of campaigning tells you everything you need to know about what kind of president he would be.
Dammit, if you want to be POTUS, declare yourself and start discussing the issues!!! Oh, wait. I forgot that "the base" doesn't give a rat's ass about "issues".
L.A. Confidential @ 7:
....yet something is conspicuously absent from this laughable campaign ad tribute http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNCfsPEElug You guessed it, military service! What do you get when you cross a chickenhawk with a basset hound? Fred Thompson!
Staff shake ups won't help. Fred Flintstone excuse me, Fred Thompson still has the same odius policies.
Old Deputy Dawg Thompson.Looks and talks just like him. I don't understand why playing a AG on TV makes you a tough guy. I guess playing TV roles sure does help the republicans tho. Since they so lack in character, class and real life actions their role playing makes people connect them to the role.
I am barely able to stand looking at Bush's face or hear his voice. If Fred takes office, I will have to avoid all images and video of him to avoid getting physically ill...anybody ever see clockwork orange? yeah, I don't want this guy for presidant.
He's hanging out in limbo as the great white hope for the GOP. Once the real scrutiny starts where can he go but down?
Don't kid yourself. If he runs, and doesn't have some crazy-huge macaca moment, this guy is the next President of the United States. He's not my choice, mind you. I'm a yellow-dog democrat and try to stay somewhat informed.
But ol' Fred is on the tee-vee in people's homes, every night of the week, acting as a tough, but benevolent, no-nonsense crime-fighter. That's who millions of people think he really is. And by golly, that's the kind of man they want in the white house. Even if he's not really that person.
Yellow Elephant Safari @ 8:
This is funny. Really Funny. Bitch you almost made me laugh...."What's a nubian?"
V V
I still cant believe these mouth-breathing half-wits still fall for this "one of you" country boy shticks. Why doesnt he pretend he lives with Mr Haney? Hell, you dont even need to buy a ranch, just pretend you have one. They dont give a fuck about the truth, they just want you dressed up like a character from wrestling and toss off one-liners.
Drunken shakes?
Why don't McDonalds have those?
If you want to know were this repugnant individual stands watch law and order this is NO act with this guy nor is it a script he is useing his political and hollywood personna to advance the RACIST NAZI COMMITTEE (RNC) agenda into something that is palatable but offers plausible deniablity. He is a traitor he is not to be trusted.
screw this tool-bag. No more corporate handouts.
L.A. Confidential @ 15:
So you're saying he wont attract the beer drinking voter, but the Red Eyes?
So what's the selling point for Freddy -- Same old shit, but in a less attractive package?
No wonder he's afraid to launch his campaign.
Here's a video from this morning. A reporter gets dragged out for ask Fred why he is for the North American Union and a member of the CFR.
Mr. Blade2 @ 36:
tayinnawin @ 28:
And Pro Big Business, anti little guy, and a charter member of the CFR.
Mr. Blade2 @ 37:
Most GOP Voters still don't know who Keith Olbermann or Jon Stewart is. Other then some radical left wing loonies who's names they've heard mentioned once.
The more visibility that Fred Thompson gets, the scarier he becomes.
None of the above is the most attractive candidate to Republic voters at the moment.
Personally, I think an Animitronic Ronnie Ray-guns is the ticket for these loonies!
It's morning in America all over again (and, boy, will they have hang-overs come the day after election '08!
L.A. Confidential @ 39:
Sorry I meant Stephen Colbert. Not Olbermann.
I say... OUT!! And he can take his little red truck with him...
Fucker would be better off being all droll and curmugeon-like on L&O..... We all would be better off. At least he's not really hurting anyone with his one note acting style when he's on the telli pretending to be some kind of D.A......Verses him in D.C. pretending to be some kind of stateman/politican...Or now... wanting people to want him to pretend to be some kind of President...Ya know, there seems to be waaay to much pretending on that side of the political fence these days all the way around... And it really ain't working out very well for the country....JD
I am still shocked that this man has any support. He embodies everything that the Republicans claim that they disliked about the Democrats over the past several years. The Republican complaints about the Democrats have been that they have no plan, no positions, no policy ideas and just complain about what others are doing. Amazingly, this is about the most dead-on description of Thompson to date. I have yet to hear him do anything but criticize the other party without offering anything resembling an idea.
It is quite ironic that the great hope of the Repubicans is the exact same thing that they criticized the Democrats of doing. Aside from a really bad Boss Hog impression, Thompson does not appear to have much to offer anyone.
Jack Damage @ 43:
How the hell you think the Actor Reagan got in?
http://msnbcmedia1.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/031208/031208_reaga...
And some analyst was saying years back most GOP voters thought they were voting for Bush Sr in 2000.
tayinnawin @ 28:
The only way Fred, Rudy or Mitt wins if is the DLC is stone-dumb enough to ram Hillary down our throats.
Obama, Edwards, either one, with Richardson or Clarke as VP wins against Thompson easily.
Sure, he will get the WingNut Vote, but he's not the second coming of Ronnie Raygun, and as soon as he is actually in the campaign, Mitt especially is going to go at him like a rabid shark.
Also, he has to appeal to the most wing-nutty of the wingnuts to win the primaries, and that will toast him in the general.
Nope, we win this time, unless they let Hillary on the ticket.
Orwell's Illegitimate Son @ 1:
Agreed! Half of America would let Patrick Dempsey a.k.a. ‘Dr. McDreamey’ remove their burst appendix if given the opportunity. Shit, America voted a rabid chimp into office twice based on his ‘good ol’ boy’ personality, looking right past the fact that his IQ was lower than Derek Zoolander's.
Fooling people in Tennessee is pretty easy, but Frederick of Hollywood is going to find out that life in the big city is quite a different thing altogether.
Another joke of a republican candidate. The GOP is homeless. Prepare for a fixed election...again.
Campaign? Don't you mean production studio?
Whoa, Thompson is PERFECT for the republican party. His paper thin bullshit persona is exactly what the republicans are crying out for. Thompson will pander to the white southern Christian culture by putting on its trappings, but turn into a lobbyist the second he gets out of sight. Republicans love that. They like having leaders that abuse them and treat them as intellectually inferior beings. That is part of his "daddy" appeal.
OxyCOn @ 49:
OK i LOVE "Frederick of Hollywood! :D
According to NPR, Thompson is waiting to announce until the last scheduled rerun of Law and Order in which he plays a part will be aired in late September. Once he announces, they will not air any episodes that include him, for fear of running afoul of equal air-time rules. He is waiting until so that he doesn't lose any money from residuals. He's a GOPer..... money first, money always.
"That is part of his “daddy” appeal."
Yeah, and I guess to support the Daddy thing, he (second) married somone younger then his daughter?
How DOES that work for bible belting nutbars like Dobson?
Dump the first wife and the kids for the busty blondee
30 years your junior? Sound pretty Hollywood Elite to me?
Just wait till Mitt's wifey starts singing that tune about Rudy and Mitt? Make no mistake, Romney will get absolutely vicious when this heads into the primaries.
Fred is JUST perfect, a totally FAKE morals value candidate.....
I nominate “Man of the Year” Robin Williams! On the positive side, he would probably legalize cocaine.
L.A. Conf;
Yea, I know what you mean... Noone ever went broke bettin on the stupidity of the American populace where politics are concerned, especially in these times.. And the fact that at least some of us would vote for a magic sock puppet if the ad men got the marketing fixed just right.... Sad...pathetic really... but true... Not something I take any pride in copping too..JD
Jason Wolfe hit it dead on......
Prime example of "wasted skin"...
By the way, was the lil red truck a Ford? Dodge? or a Chevy....
Fuckin Nascar watchin'....bible thumpin'....wife beatin'....dog kickin' redneck republican's demand to know!
The link is correct, but the article's in New York Magazine, not The New Yorker -- different magazines.
Sucanut @ 58:
I think that race was added to the NASCAR schedule this year.
The Fuckin Nascar watchin'....bible thumpin'....wife beatin'....dog kickin' redneck 500.
eric @ 12:
That was pretty nauseating. From the MSM practically wetting its pants over Fat Fred, to him dodging the question, to the HPD throwing her out. At least on CNN a camera followed her out as long as possible to make sure she didn't "fall down" while being escorted.
WashStateBlue @ 47:
Next we'll hear that the 'Thompson Campaign Staff' has decided it has the wrong candidate, and is going to run either Tom Cruise (once they resolve the question of his position on the 'Rapture'), or Arnold (once they resolve the question of his 'English as the official language' position, and whether he's willing to learn it.
I just can't believe anyone takes this ghost seriously. He was a dufus do nothing lazy jack ass when he was in the Congress. How does anyone think he has any qualities to be Commander in Chief?? Granted, this dumb ass in the White House has none either, but I think the American voters have had enough of an embarrassment for awhile.
He is an absolute zero, and he has no answers for anything. It's like waiting for the sky to fall or the end of the world to happen. What a f*cking joke!!!!
TDEoff @ 63:
Tom Cruise the Scientologist? I can see it now; Cruise’s first presidential press conference, “Xenu spoke to me last night…”
I have the hiccups, should I run for el presidente?
Liberal AND Proud @ 60:
I understand their having the GOP convention in Dallas, Texas and it will be known as the (f)uckin Nascar watchin'....bible thumpin'....wife beatin'....dog kickin' redneck 500 convention.
a balding lobbyist cum actor is the best the repubs can do
RobertD @ 6:
Why would anyone want to have a beer with an aged psychotic?
If Dog Face Fred didn't get along with Lott and that other crook (McDoggal?) then he can't be all bad.
Hmmm... Since the MSM, the GOP's massive echo chamber and their dirty tricks managed to get Bush elected not once but twice, what makes anybody believe that they can't manage this with Thompson, who at least has some command of the english language and can mimic being "Presidential".
They will agressively paint him as the second coming of Reagan, and a large portion of the population, the ones who bother to vote AND get their votes counted, will buy it.
This guy could win if the establishment want him to and progressives underestimate him or whoever the GOP choose.
Nicole wrote:
(That’s well thought out, seeing as McCain’s campaign is doing so well and raising lots of funds /snark)
Oh, Nicole, puhleeeez. McCain's campaign was doing fine until he came down with a severe case of the most republican of disorders, "Cranio-Rectal Inversion". Then the candidate started doing completely idiotic nonsense, like being the poster boy for the war escalation and the illegal immigrant amnesty deal. That's when his numbers tanked and the contributions dried up.
If McCain had simply barked the party line of "support the troops" and hammered the Bush Junta over the lies and mismanagement, and simply punted the immigration issue, he'd be the #1 leader of the Republican Pack of Wolves, pure and simple. There was a lot of good will toward McCain be even a number of centrist democrats.
McCain could have ignored the Reichwing Xian nutjobs, played to the Democratic center/right, and gobbled up the independent middle. Come election day, the Reichwing would have voted for him (as a Republican), the center/right Democrats would have voted for him, and he would have won. But, no, he had to support this completely stupid war, and then come out as a main proponent of the retarded and insulting immigration bill. PRIOR to those events, he was raising Huge Baskets of Cash. His fund raising staff didn't fail his campaign - HE failed his campaign.
I think Thompson's hiring of McCain's old crew is a very wise choice for him.
I also think Thompson is the illegitimate spawn of Beelzebub and The Wicked Witch of the West, but that doesn't mean he's stupid. I think he's going to be picking up a lot of good people from the McCain group. Hopefully, as time marches on, the fact that he is the spawn of Beelzebub will show (probably when he yawns and flies come out of his mouth...) and he'll say something equally unpopular with most everyone like "We need a draft to send more cannon fodder to Iraq" or something to piss off his reichwing base, like "I like to watch videos of gay black women in L.A.".
Then, his tent will fold, and it will be back to Guiliani the cross-dresser, Ron Paul the libertarian ideologue, or one of the Xian Freakzoids (Brownback, Tancredo, et al)
The same type of dumb fuck who voted for Reagan will vote for Thompson. Unfortunately, that's a lot of dumb fucks.
You have a typo...The story is from New York Magazine. I think you got it confused with the New Yorker.
If he gets elected, he would truly be the first "Law & Order" president!
Nyuck nyuck nyuck (insert rimshot here).
Doesn't matter who is on the Republiscum ticket in 2008 they're going down in flames.
This country is gettin more Blue by the day & for good reasons.
lol ... the campaign is already on the rocks?
The problem is not Fred Thompson, the problem is his 'campaign staff'. And their problem is the same as John McCain's 'campaign staff'.
How can two independent groups of 'experienced, dedicated, intelligent' republican political campaigners, each decide to work for, and support, such doofusses for president?
Are all republican political figures incompetent? Stupid? Or just greedy, out for the buck wherever they can find it?
Perhaps these two campaign staffs should join forces and work on DeLay's presidential campaign.
Rusty Shackleford @ 73:
Exactly. Another shitty actor.
i wounder what kind of white house would jeri thompson run, would seh have hooker and stripper at the white house? and whould thompson appoint jack bauer as secretary of defense. what kind of actor would be appointed to office?
Are you kidding? He's the dream Republican candidate. They abhor anyone actually qualified for the job; they just want someone who makes them feel good, unthreatened and unchallenged. He's perfect. And frankly, failing miserably in the senate makes him completely trustworthy. The senate is like the third level of hell to the base, not getting along there is like an eagle scout badge he gets to wear now. Seriously.
He will delcare in October, the same month Clinton chose in 1991. Just watch.
I believe, as many on here do, that this guy is dangerous. Ghouliani's goose is cooked, McCain is toast, even Mitt Romney has way too much egg on his face. These guys just don't matter and we need to let them go. Thompson is who we are going to have to contend with and we'd better start now. Reffering to him exclusively as "former lobbyist" Fred Thompson or "disgraced lobbyist" Fred Thompson should get the ball rolling
Thompson was know in Washington as being stupid and lazy.
He wants to be the Homer Simpson candidate.
...you mean the fred thompson campaign that's barely out of the starting gate? the one that's still in the garage? the one that's juuuuust beginning to crawl out of bed? the one that's just started stretching and loosening up? the one that's just started clearing its throat? that one? LOL!!!
Most people in the UK have the mental acumen of an eight-year-old.
You know it's true. You could insert any country in the blank and this would be true.
Orwell's Illegitimate Son @ 1:
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