Posted on 06/23/2007 5:07:58 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
SPRINGFIELD He hasnt announced if hes running for the presidency yet but that isnt stopping a group of Illinois Republicans from backing former U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson for the job.
Members of Illinois Citizens to Draft Fred Thompson gathered in the Capitol on Friday said they expect the deep-voiced Tennessean to announce for the presidency soon and when he does they want the campaign off to a quick start.
To help their cause they have begun urging Illinoisans to go online and register as a Thompson supporter at the groups website.
Former head of the Illinois Republican Party, Donald Doc Adams compared Thompson to Ronald Reagan and said, Thompsons early poll numbers are encouraging.
It may not be a groundswell yet for Fred but I sure sense a nice tide rolling in, he said.
Most polls show Thompson running third amongst Republicans, behind former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Arizona Senator John McCain. Some analysts are saying Thompson is entering the race late given the tens of millions of dollars hell need to raise for his bid.
A former prosecutor, Thompson is also an accomplished film and television actor. His first role was as himself in the 1985 film Marie. He is most famous for his role as District Attorney Arthur Branch on the television program Law & Order.
Group co-chair Mark Sheldon, who is also a Champaign County clerk, said there are plenty of campaign funding dollars not spoken for by the current field of Republican contenders.
We think this is the right time for him to get in, he said before noting the importance of getting support early on. When this announcement comes and, we anticipate that Sen. Thompson is going to run the grass roots supporters will have already put their names in a database and we can really hit the ground running.
When asked about how a Republican might fare in typically Democrat-friendly Illinois, draft group spokesman and former state Sen. Roger Keats, of Wilmette, said voters here might be ready for a Republican.
Someone like Fred would have a chance. It depends on how much infighting happens within the Democrats, he said. I will let you judge on your own how well the Democratic party works together sometimes.
Illinois Citizens to Draft Fred Thompson can be reached at www.imwithfred.com.
Fred bids fair to become the second Ronald Reagan (an Illinoisan by birth, by the way).
...When asked about how a Republican might fare in typically Democrat-friendly Illinois, ....
STOP right there. Is Blackwell Thomas (or is it Thomas Blackwell??) a student over at ISU. Is the Pantagraph violating child labor laws??
Illinois is not, I repeat, NOT, "typically Democrat-friendly". Chicago Democrat-friendly, you bet. Cook County, uh-huh, but the 'State' - no way. Yeah there's been the occasional hiccup and a Rat gets elected Gov, like now. But 'historically', nope - IL is Red. Heck, just look at the Red-Blue maps from '04 and 2000. It's a sea of Red.
So whomever this Blackwell mope is he certainly doesn't know historic IL politics. I prolly have socks older than him.
(An aside, IIRC all the rat govs that did get elected in my life wound up in prison. Our current rat gov, Blago, will likely go too. The feds (Patrick Fitzgerald) are after him for corruption.)
Everyone whines that Fred is just an actor being drafted to run because people want another Reagan.
This is partly true but they never stop to think... He was drafted to be an actor also!
Drafted as an actor, drafted for his Senate seat, and now drafted to run for President.
Do you think there is a reason that Fred is so often chosen as the best for the job?
Fred Ping!
LOL! We can urge our lib friends to 'support the arts.'
Fredipedia: The Definitive Fred Thompson Reference
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“Drafted as an actor, drafted for his Senate seat, and now drafted to run for President.”
bump!
You’re repeat-posting that same meme on every Fred thread.
You are free to do as you like. But quit trying to tell everybody else what they should or shouldn’t do.
Mind your own business.
True. Fred Thompson 08...Support the Arts.
But in reality he was never an actor but was hired to play himself.
Its one thing for an actor to be type cast to play certain rolls, quite another to be ask to play themselves because they couldn’t find an actor that could measure up to the man in real life.
Can anyone think of when a actor has been cast to play themselves in a film about themselves?
BUMP!
Running third??? He's fast catching up to Rudy, and McCain is dropping like a rock.
As far as being late in entering the race, a lot of people are already sick of the declared candidates. When Fred announces, the money he'll get in his first week of candidacy will be stratospheric.
He’s running first or second in most polls, IIRC. Either these are old stats or the reporter is lying. Wonder which it is? LOL
You don’t get to tell the rest of us who to support or when to support him.
Audie Murphey?
From Wikipedia: Murphy had a successful movie career, including the extremely popular To Hell and Back (1955), based on his memoir of the same name (1949).
Actually he was initially hired to play himself. Not that it matters, but his film credits are:
Marie (1985)
No Way Out (1987)
Feds (1988)
Fat Man and Little Boy (1989)
The Hunt for Red October (1990)
Days of Thunder (1990)
Die Hard 2: Die Harder (1990)
Flight of the Intruder (1991) (uncredited)
Class Action (1991)
Necessary Roughness (1991)
Curly Sue (1991)
Cape Fear (1991)
Aces: Iron Eagle III (1992)
Thunderheart (1992)
White Sands (1992) (uncredited)
Born Yesterday (1993)
In the Line of Fire (1993)
Barbarians at the Gate (1993)
Baby's Day Out (1994)
Celsius 41.11 (2004)
Racing Stripes (2005, voice)
Last Best Chance (2005)
Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World (2005)
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (2007)
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