Bump!
FRED VETS, SIGN UP TODAY AT:
Posted on 09/22/2007 1:26:39 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Fred Thompson could have traveled Tennessee in an Edsel and still beaten Jim Cooper for that 1994 Senate seat.
Take it from the first reporter to ride with Thompson in the now-fabled rented red Chevy pickup.
On Aug. 5, 1994, one day after the Republican primary, I rode with Thompson. The first stop was at Joe’s Place, a diner in Woodbury, Tenn.
There, standing in front of the sign for the blue plate special, which was flanked by pictures of Jesus and Elvis, I learned of the power of Thompson to speak plainly — and something of his philosophy.
“You better get me up there before they outlaw those things,” I heard Thompson tell a woman puffing on a cigarette.
I was more impressed by Thompson’s grunt than his gimmick.
Now, as Thompson runs for president, it has become part of the standard bio that the pickup truck turned around a campaign that was 20 points behind that of Cooper, a 12-year Democratic congressman. Good script for a movie, but it’s not reality.
By the time Thompson hit the road, it was clear that Cooper was in trouble, despite his image as a brainy moderate.
It’s true that an early poll in February had Cooper up 37 percent to 16 percent for Thompson, but 47 percent were undecided. Cooper was getting national headlines over his alternative to then-first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton’s health care plan, and Thompson hadn’t even formally announced.
Then, as now, Thompson’s campaign had appeared to stumble and slumber during the summer. He fired his first two campaign managers before finding Bill Lacy, who has returned to run his presidential campaign.
But Thompson, who faced token opposition in the primary, was just lying low while the political headlines were dominated by primaries for governor and the heated race between Bill Frist and Bob Corker for the Republican nomination to oppose Democratic Sen. Jim Sasser.
Cooper’s problems were deeper.
If Democrats had been smart, Cooper already would have been a senator. But in an act of sheer cronyism, Democratic Gov. Ned McWherter chose State Treasurer Harlan Mathews to fill the middle two years of Vice President Al Gore’s Senate term, leaving Cooper to have to fight Thompson from a rural, east-to-middle-Tennessee district with no major media outlets.
Cooper’s battles had won him headlines in Washington but no friends at the White House or traditional Democratic allies. And his support for free trade angered the state AFL-CIO.
The party’s priority was saving Sasser, the incumbent who was supposed to be the next Senate majority leader, from Frist, who was pouring personal millions into the race.
Article continues at the link...
Thompson’s persona...in the heartland...easily wins over against Hillary. She can’t compete against him in a debate...nor can she handle his jokes. If you watch him enough...you can start to compare him to Jackie Gleason...who could easily gage any situation and toss one-liners left and right...using humor to correct a situation very easily. I think Thompson likely has a edge that cannot be overcome.
Fred comes across in a simple common sense manner. What is scaring everyone is he is making people think. Fred is saying don’t look to me as the “Government” to solve your problems.
I love that. He is saying I will protect you and make sure you get your mail.
The MSM will explore neither and perfunctorily minimize any strengths he has.
But that's when his one liners will absolutely baffle them. Most will have to report them but will be unable to dissect their content, brilliantly neutralizing the "sound byte" attack.
Go Fred!!
...they wouldn't be Democrats.
Joe,
You articulated my previous post better than I did.
Fred is the real deal....contributed and hoping to get on the team here in Missoura!
Bump!
FRED VETS, SIGN UP TODAY AT:
Sounds like another SoreLoserMan.
Well that may win Democrat votes but right now he's after the Rebublican nomination. Lousy advice from a Rat writer.
9
BINGO!
Fred doesn’t need a red pickup to win an election. He needs it to haul away the bodies of his challengers.
Maybe he knows that, in TN, it isn’t illegal (ok, maybe gross!) to transport human remains. No Permit required. (I found that out 2 weeks ago.)
It would be nice to see Thompson visit our desolute outpost here at the end of no where. We haven’t seen a potential presidential candidate since Gen. Tecumsah Sherman passed through on a steamboat around 1872.
...they wouldn’t be Democrats.....
I’m changing my tag line and will use your post as a platform.
Democrats at moveon are not us....they are the enemy
I've resisted that idea for so long because of my basic love for this country and it's people, but sometimes you don't need an actual house to fall on you before you wake up.
Their goal is their own nation's defeat--how else can one define "traitor" than that?
Chalk this one up to things I’d thought I’d never see.
Joe’s Diner made a story outside of the Cannon County Courier.
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