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The W - Current Events & Politics - Novak on Fred Thompson
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RYDER FAKIN
Six Degrees of Me








Since: 21.2.02
From: ORLANDO

Since last post: 1431 days
Last activity: 1214 days
#1 Posted on | Instant Rating: 7.09
I think the GOP may have found a winner, if he goes for it. Most people who have been looking for a viable candidate to run against Hillary seem to be looking at for a wild card. And these days, they don't get much wilder. Not counting McCain, who is crazy and senile

I've thought for years that Thompson is enough of a bullet-proof wise ass, and maybe "red state*" enough to get a bunch of votes, but never thought he would care...maybe it's his chance. He was smart enough to stay out if Bush's way - much like Obama should be with Hillary.

(*) remember when Red used to be Communist?

He'll be too old in 12 to be taken seriously. This may be a good chance to throw shit against the wall and make Hillary take enough wrong positions to not be an incumbant. A long shot, but I'm liking the Thompson bandwagon better than anything else at the moment

Here is Bob Novak's column. He's usually ahead of the curve in specualtion

* * * * *

Why Fred Thompson?

Fred Thompson sat at the end of a long table in The Monocle restaurant on Capitol Hill Tuesday night for dinner with some 20 fellow conservatives, mostly journalists. He sent two signals. First, he sounded like a man who has decided to run for president. Second, his candidacy will be something different from other Republicans, in both substance and style.

This was one of the irregular sessions of the Saturday Evening Club, which is not a club and never meets on Saturday. The name was purloined from H.L. Mencken's Baltimore discussion club by R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr., editor-in-chief of The American Spectator.

Tyrrell arranges and presides over these events, always featuring a guest newsmaker -- usually a Republican presidential hopeful over the past two years. Former Sen. Thompson was the most intriguing of them because he has become a leading prospect for president even though he has not announced his candidacy and has no real campaign.

Thompson's performance Tuesday night, with his remarks off the record, helped show why many Republican insiders are ready to support him. Thompson is winning straw polls at Republican conferences and running well in polls mainly because of dissatisfaction, for varying reasons, with the three leading GOP candidates -- Rudy Giuliani, John McCain and Mitt Romney. But Thompson at the dinner table confirmed the widespread perception inside the party of his potential to be an extraordinary candidate.

Thompson disappointed in his first speech as a prospective candidate, addressing the Lincoln Club of Orange County, Calif., on May 4. Discarding a speech he had written himself, Thompson ad-libbed from handwritten notes, a performance that placed him in the usual run of Republican after-dinner speakers. This was not the second coming of Reagan that Californians envisioned. Was all the excitement about Thompson merely engendered by his television role as the formidable Manhattan district attorney on "Law and Order"?

He stuck to his prepared cards for his second speech, at a Republican state party function in Stamford, Conn., last week, and it was a considerable improvement. It sounded more like an off-the-record conversation he had with me in Orange County, Calif., before his speech there, and his Saturday Evening Club conversation.

The Connecticut Republicans, down to one seat in Congress after 2006 election losses, cheered when Thompson told them: "I think the biggest problem we have today is what I believe is the disconnect between Washington, D.C., and the people of the United States. People are looking around at the pork barrel spending and the petty politics, the backbiting. The fighting over all things, large or small, is creating a cynicism among our people." That cynicism, Thompson contends, mandates a different kind of campaign for 2008.

Thompson implied at Stamford that Republicans, along with Democrats, are responsible for making Americans cynical. While so far not spelling this out publicly, he deplores ethical abuses, profligate spending and incompetent management of the Iraq war. He becomes incandescent when considering abysmal CIA and Justice Department performance under the Bush administration. He is enraged by Justice's actions in decisions leading to Scooter Libby's prison sentence.

In his Senate voting record and his public utterances, Thompson is more conservative than Giuliani, McCain or Romney. He takes a hard line on the war against terror (referring in Connecticut to the danger of "suicidal maniacs" crossing open borders) and worries about immigration policy creating a permanent American underclass. His one deviation from the conservative line has been support for the McCain-Feingold campaign reform, much of which he now considers overtaken by current fundraising practices and perhaps irrelevant. Overall, his tone, in a soft Tennessee drawl, is less harsh than that of other Republican candidates -- a real-life version of the avuncular fictional D.A. he plays on TV.

Beyond ideology, Thompson envisions a 21st-century campaign, utilizing the Internet more and spending less money than his opponents. When speaking to a friendly audience or ruminating off the record, the 6-foot-7 actor-politician does not look or sound like the GOP's announced candidates for president. His challenge will be to convey that impression when he appears with opponents on the same stage in the immediate future.

* * * * *

And here's a response to Michael Moore, who asked for a debate to dicuss "what's the best way to promote a movie?"

Click Here (youtube.com)

Thompson 08 - Make it Fun!, because the alternative is going to happen

FLEA



Demonstrations are a drag. Besides, we're much too high

1ryderfakin.com
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odessasteps
Scrapple








Since: 2.1.02
From: MD, USA

Since last post: 3562 days
Last activity: 3529 days
#2 Posted on | Instant Rating: 6.75

some people are trying to draw the comparisons between Thompson and Reagan (conservative, former actor, etc).



Mark Coale
Odessa Steps Magazine
The Affirmation, Baby Blog
The Goon
Banger
Moderator








Since: 2.1.02
From: Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Since last post: 853 days
Last activity: 831 days
#3 Posted on | Instant Rating: 8.13
    Originally posted by RYDER FAKIN
    (*) remember when Red used to be Communist?


Off-topic, but here in Canada, red is the colour of the Liberal party and blue is the colour of the Conservative party. In the 2004 US election, I kept getting confused with the reference to red states/blue states.

I'm just glad we don't have "red province/blue province" discussions.
odessasteps
Scrapple








Since: 2.1.02
From: MD, USA

Since last post: 3562 days
Last activity: 3529 days
#4 Posted on | Instant Rating: 6.75

Years ago, when the TV networks would do their election night coverage, some channels would have Dem = Blue / Rep = Red and some had it reversed. Now, at least, everyone agrees on the colorrs.



Mark Coale
Odessa Steps Magazine
The Affirmation, Baby Blog
Downtown Bookie
Morcilla








Since: 7.4.02
From: USA

Since last post: 2442 days
Last activity: 2132 days
#5 Posted on | Instant Rating: 5.17
    Originally posted by Bob Novak
    Thompson is winning straw polls at Republican conferences and running well in polls mainly because of dissatisfaction, for varying reasons, with the three leading GOP candidates -- Rudy Giuliani, John McCain and Mitt Romney.
It's often said that the most popular player on a losing football team is the backup quarterback. The question is, once he gets into the game, will he still be popular, or will the fans turn on him too? A few decades ago Ted Kennedy was a popular candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination; that is, until he actually ran and tried to win it. Still, I personally am warming up to the idea of a Fred Thompson candidacy, if only for the possibility of seeing him and John Edwards standing together on stage in the 2008 Presidential debates.



http://www.americasupportsyou.mil


"You've done worse than let Haldeman slip away: you've got people feeling sorry for him. I didn't think that was possible." - Mark Felt
Eddie Famous
Andouille








Since: 11.12.01
From: Catlin IL

Since last post: 2611 days
Last activity: 2152 days
#6 Posted on | Instant Rating: 6.59

    Originally posted by Downtown Bookie
    I personally am warming up to the idea of a Fred Thompson candidacy, if only for the possibility of seeing him and John Edwards standing together on stage in the 2008 Presidential debates.



Eek! What have you got against Edwards? He was toasted by Cheney, he'd be sliced and diced by Thompson.



As of 2/28/05: 101 pounds since December 7, 2004
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Downtown Bookie
Morcilla








Since: 7.4.02
From: USA

Since last post: 2442 days
Last activity: 2132 days
#7 Posted on | Instant Rating: 5.17
    Originally posted by Eddie Famous
      Originally posted by Downtown Bookie
      I personally am warming up to the idea of a Fred Thompson candidacy, if only for the possibility of seeing him and John Edwards standing together on stage in the 2008 Presidential debates.


    Eek! What have you got against Edwards? He was toasted by Cheney, he'd be sliced and diced by Thompson.
I was thinking of the visual image of the 6' 7" Thompson posing with the significantly shorter Edwards. It struck me as funny. In fact, it still strikes me as funny. In a Mutt & Jeff sort of way.



http://www.americasupportsyou.mil


"You've done worse than let Haldeman slip away: you've got people feeling sorry for him. I didn't think that was possible." - Mark Felt
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Knotts already has a http://the-w.com/thread.php/id=28990 (thread) in Movies & TV, and this would belong there as well.
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