[Josh Painter]

Fredipedia: The Definitive Fred Thompson Quick Reference

[A CA Guy]

So what is his next rule breaking going to be, even less campaigning and debate preparation?

[sageb1]

I was just reading the following Patrick Ruffino piece at townhall.com and it would serve all of us well to pay attention to what he has to say.

Information Gaps on the Right

[JRochelle]

Good article.

[ejonesie22]

One thing always strikes me in all this. Thompson success at doing things outside conventional rule sets.

I said earlier today, he has a sniper like approach. He picks a target, say an issue or a campaign stop, hits hard and fast, one shot one kill. Like the snipper, while all the noise is going on around him, he sneaks in and you don’t realize he is there until the morning after the election when he has won by 20 points.

[sageb1]

Interesting. The article talks about Fred breaking the rules. In the Ruffino article I posted, he uses the phrase “to be fair.”

That’s one phrase you’ll never see coming from the left.

Our side has been loathe to be unfair, slow to network, and we concentrate on long-term and big picture. There’s nothing wrong with that, except that it’s not working and it’s leaving us just barely hanging on.

No matter who any of us supports, one has to admit that Fred’s late entry and lack of campaigning still has him placed in the top tier. He must doing something right.

[Grig]

I’m saddened to see how many are still at the ‘It’s all part of a master plan’ stage of denial. It’s going to be a real hard thing to bear when it dawns on them that Fred really isn’t going to put out the effort needed to win.

[Soul Seeker]

But much more importantly, I think Thompson has assessed that breaking these rules could win him support. People outside the Beltway, whose daily lives are not regimented by the news cycle, appreciate that the perpetual campaign has reached a point of asininity. Accordingly, a candidate could win supporters over in the real campaign by claiming that he ignored all of these rules, which essentially mandate twenty-two months of nonstop campaigning. This is a twist on running against Washington. It is running against the Washington press corps. A Republican candidate can do this all the more. After all, the perpetual campaign is mediated by the press, which conservatives loathe. Instead of saying that he broke the media's rules, a candidate instead can say that he broke the Drive By Media's rules. That is a great way to win conservatives over: run against the Drive By's.

I'm quoting this bit of the analysis because it amuses me. I admit I love the idea of running not just against Washington, but it's press core.

Whether it's true is only for Thompson and his closest stratagists to answer to.

I remember how much of G.W.B's term everything he did was referred to as part of some master plan. A rope-a-dope. haven't heard that so much the last couple of years. I'm sure some of it was planned, but the ratio of "rope-a-dope" vs coincidence vs stupidity I just don't know anymore.

Here we have an analyst struggling to compute why Thompson's still a player, second in most polls, when he's been trashed from the left and right. So the grand theory arises to explain it. the Theory could be true, or it could be the reincarnation of rope-a-dope. I don't really care.

It' up to his strategists to do what's working and limit what's not working. Hopefully they are up to that task. i can only speak for myself and I'm not supporting him because he's breaking the rules. I'm supporting him because he's the only one with an acceptable conservative record at the top of this race. Given i have access to the internet, I'm about as plugged in as any of these reporters or punditry on either aisle and have the ability to disregard their assessments of him provided the record is strong enough to make it worth my while. I've determined it is.

[b9]

Great article.

[Bobbisox]

I just love the fact that he refuses to bow down to the all mighty MSM. Thompson will be our candidate because he is the WE THE PEOPLE candidate.