|
2007.06.08-10 "Forty Four!" Roundup (Updated and bumped)
Friends and neighbors, I'm still runnin' way behind, tryin' hard to catch up but not havin' all that much luck. The original timestamp on this post was 2007.06.08.14:26 but I didn't get much done with it on the 8th. Depending on how much I do or don't find to add to it I may run it through Sunday or even longer. I'm with Fred!, all the way. The Zero-to-60 Thompson Run
Fred gears up for 2008.
by Stephen F. Hayes
In early March, only a handful of Fred Thompson's good friends knew that he was even thinking about a bid for president. Three months later, according to several polls, Thompson is in second place nationally, trailing frontrunner Rudy Giuliani. He spends his days raising money and assembling an increasingly sophisticated campaign operation. His advisers hold daily conference calls to discuss issues and to craft a schedule that includes visits to states with early caucuses and primaries. Rival campaigns are adjusting their strategies to account for his inevitable entry into the race.
Ask people closest to Thompson how this happened and they often give you the same story: The former senator was simply minding his business when out of nowhere there arose a powerful Draft Fred movement, the likes of which have rarely been seen in American politics. "The groundswell for Fred is the closest thing to a real, genuine draft that I've seen in my 40 years of politics," Senator Lamar Alexander said recently in Chattanooga. ...
... The Draft Clark movement did lead to a campaign--which went nowhere. And this is worth bearing in mind as a worst-case scenario for Thompson. The Thompson effort feels different, though. It does have more of a real bottom-up, voter-driven aspect. But that doesn't mean Thompson and his small team--three or four close advisers--sat by passively and waited for a groundswell.
On November 29, 2006, Tennessee senator Bill Frist said that he would not be running for president. The same day, the Wall Street Journal noted that the announcement "leaves a Republican void in the South, and underscores the absence of any major center-to-right Southern figure in the Republican Party's presidential field thus far."
Others saw the same void. ...
Ed Morrissey has a good post discussing the Hayes article here.
Below the fold:
- Silver Lining in GOP's Dark Cloud
See also:
I know Jack didn't really write this about Fred! in particular but beauty's in the eye of the beholder, as they say, so I'll excerpt the parts I find most beautiful and you can go read the rest of it if you want to: Silver Lining in GOP's Dark Cloud
Jack Kelly
President Bush has cast a huge, dark cloud over the Republican party. But in that cloud's very size there may be a silver lining for the GOP. ...
Unless something truly remarkable happens between now and then, it's safe to assume that 99 percent of those who go to the polls in November of next year will want to vote for someone who is very different from George W. Bush. Democrats will try to hang the president like an albatross around Republican necks. Under normal circumstances, they would succeed.
But in Mr. Bush's uncanny ability to alienate Republicans nearly as much as he does Democrats may lie the GOP's salvation. Since so many of the president's heretofore loyal supporters are now furious with him, the Republicans vying to succeed him are free to join in the criticism, as all ten did in their debate in New Hampshire Tuesday night. ...
While voters will want an un-Bush in 2008, it's by no means clear they'll want a Democrat. The challenge for the GOP nominee will be to extend the dissatisfaction voters feel with President Bush to dissatisfaction with business as usual in Washington, a task that may be made easier now that Congress' job approval has fallen back to where it was just before the 2006 elections. ...
The front-loading of the primaries makes it more likely the GOP will nominate the least Bush-like of its serious candidates. Because of his pro-choice stance on abortion, I doubt former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani could win a head to head match-up with either former Sen. Fred Thompson or former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney....
Mr. Giuliani and Mr. Romney turned in stellar performances in the debate Tuesday night, as did undeclared candidate Thompson in a lengthy interview with Fox News. Where were these guys in 2000? ...
|
