This has to be the laziest possible choice to enter into a presidential campaign. Fred Thompson will not be at tonight's FOXNews GOP debate tonight, but has opted to make his presence known by purchasing commercial time on Fox during the debate. The ad:
FOXNews is clearly a little miffed at being snubbed by Frederick of Hollywood, with a fun article entitled "Fred's Follies":
Fred Thompson is set to kick off his official announcement week on the Tonight Show tonight... but it could be overshadowed by more turmoil to come in the Thompson campaign.
When Thompson appears on Jay Leno tonight it will mark the campaigns complete repudiation of a new media campaign strategy and announcement plan that the original Fredheads had designed over several months and finalized in August.
More resignations of key founding Fredheads are coming. Soon NONE of the people who got the buzz started in March may remain.
Thompson did Leno in June and numerous senior aides said at the time he would "never return to Hollywood to announce -- that's what McCain did! We won't use video, that's what Hillary did. We will let Fred be Fred. We are launching from the (Grand Ole) Opry then hitting New Hampshire and Iowa." Now they are copying both McCain and Hillary by appearing on Leno and a video.
The original Fredheads are no longer angry or frustrated; most have been fired already or given up. The remaining originals say they will quit soon.
The latest person let go by the campaign was Jim Mills, a long-time Capitol Hill producer for FOX News, who was told on Friday. A little over a month earlier, Mills was personally recruited and hired as spokesman by Fred and Jeri Thompson at their dinner table.
Oh, meow. Can you believe this came from the RNC Propaganda Wing FOXNews? Carl Cameron's blog (ick--I hate giving him hits) is quick to point out that Thompson also hasn't enchanted some key members of the base:
The influential Arlington Group, a coalition of prominent leaders of the so-called "religious right, has decided to withhold their planned support for the fledgling campaign of former Senator Fred Thompson.
Although the members of the group do not directly endorse candidates as they would risk their tax exempt status as religious organizations, many are affiliated with or control political action committees and so-called 527 groups which do endorse and support candidates
Many of the candidates have met with the group recently and there had been a plan in place for the 527s and PACs to begin working on behalf of Thompson starting tomorrow. That has now been put on hold in light of a posting on the National Review Online by Campaign Manager Bill Lacy in which he said that Thompson would oppose an amendment to the US Constitution banning gay marriage.
