Posted on 12/13/2007 9:39:09 AM PST by Ol' Sparky
Johnston, Iowa — Fred Thompson’s performance at the Des Moines Register Republican debate here in Iowa Wednesday left some supporters — the kind who were enthusiastic early on but who have grown skeptical as his campaign has stumbled — wondering to themselves: Could he still be the best guy, after all that’s happened? As the debate unfolded, there were moments when some of those loyalists began to think the answer might be yes — in spite of everything.
Something has happened to Thompson in recent weeks. Yes, his schedule is still astonishingly light for a presidential candidate. And yes, he sometimes still underwhelms audiences. But in the last month or so Thompson has acted like a man who has been liberated from something. And that is what voters saw on stage Wednesday: a presidential candidate who has declared himself fully free of the stupid stuff one has to do to become president of the United States.
If you’re going to ask Fred Thompson to participate in a grade-school show of hands, or demand that he sign a pledge, or insist that he speak emotionally and at length about how much his religious faith means to him, well, you can just forget it. He’s not gonna do it.
The moment of final liberation came when Des Moines Register editor Carolyn Washburn, the schoolmarmish moderator whom commentator Fred Barnes would later refer to as “Nurse Ratched,” asked the candidates to raise their hands if they believed that “global climate change is a serious threat and caused by human activity.” Before anyone could say anything, Thompson interrupted.
“I’m not doing hand shows today,” he said. “No hand shows.”
“Is that yes or no for you?” Washburn asked. “Do you believe that global climate change is — “
“Well, do you want to give me a minute?” Thompson responded.
“No.”
“Then I’m not going to answer it.”
“How about thirty seconds?”
“No. You know — you want a show of hands. I’m not giving it to you.”
The audience loved it. Thompson, and Thompson alone, had stood up to the silliness that can characterize even self-styled serious-minded debates like the one conducted by the Register. Thompson scored again when he made effective points about entitlement reform, about the role of the National Education Association in blocking education reform, and about presidential leadership. His performance was so good that it underscored what has been, until recently, one particularly strange irony of this campaign. The showbiz guy is one of the best candidates when it comes to substance. He just had trouble selling the product.
Not on Wednesday. After the debate, Thompson’s strategists were elated. But the question remains: If Thompson has arrived, if he has indeed raised his game, is it too late for it to do any good?
“It shows that there is a reason why candidates sometimes get in early, because you need to do some warm-up practice,” advisor Rich Galen told me. “But I think now, he’s in mid-season form. And if you’re going to do it, this is exactly the right time to do it. If you’re going to get into mid-season form, it’s good to do it when everybody’s paying attention.”
Well, advisors are paid to put things in the best possible light. But it is true that Thompson has gotten better — at the last possible minute — and he might benefit by his new concentration on Iowa. Most polls here show him in third place — far behind Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney — but not without hope. After the debate, his team was putting out the word that a third-place finish might be just fine, provided Huckabee and Romney hurt each other in the process. “We have to provide a clear choice for this third position,” another Thompson adviser, Mary Matalin, told me. “A solid third, not just an accidental third.”
“Remember, we don’t have to win,” Galen told me. “We don’t even have to come in second.” But say Thompson comes in third. What comes after that? It’s being generous to say the way is not clear. But strange things can happen.
One problem some voters in Iowa have had with Mitt Romney, until recently the front-runner here, is that the former Massachusetts governor seems quite visibly to want the prize too badly and is too willing to do whatever it takes to win it. Voters have a way of denying things to candidates like that. Thompson, on the other hand, is the anti-Mitt. He wants to win, but not at any cost. There’s a lot of appeal in that, but in the end it may turn out that Iowans want their candidates to do the stuff that Thompson won’t do; they might be in no mood to elect an anti-candidate candidate. That’s the gamble Thompson has taken by being himself.
After his much-ballyhooed buildup, Thompson did a lot to damage his chances. And the odds are he will fail. But the Thompson who emerged in Iowa Wednesday might come out in the end as the stand-up guy of the campaign, the actor who just didn’t have the stomach for real-life show business.
Just covering their Mitt recommendation.
Problem is they did not do what millions of Americans have known and understood in times of battle.
Don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes.
Why, because I have viewed all the other candidates and found that Fred is the only one not lacking in the cajoles to be our next president.
Go Fred the checks in the mail, honestly.
Coulter called national review girly men.
The staff must like the mousse that Mitt uses in his hair. lol
“He wants to win, but not at any cost. There’s a lot of appeal in that, but in the end it may turn out that Iowans want their candidates to do the stuff that Thompson won’t do”
This “stuff that Thompson won’t do” means compromising his principles.
Thompson is principled, Romney is not.
Will Fred’s laid-back, non-nonsense style make him incapable of protecting himself against cruel Dem attacks?
Sorry, Mr. York. I will not be swayed into believing the propaganda that goes “Well, Thompson did a good thing in redirecting the moderator but he just can’t win.”
Thompson’s debate performance shows he is the one true leader among the candidates on that stage. We need Fred Thompson to lead our country.
You are so right. Once the media (liberal or conservative) latches on to something, whether true or not, they will never change their mind. Thompson’s schedule is as demanding as any of the others but this canard is repeated ad nauseum with the hopes that it will permanently damage Thompson’s campaign.
I like Mary Matalin, except for that bestiality thing she has going.
FDT is the only viable candidate. These other stooges should exit the stage. Their positions on the global warming hysteria are disgraceful. We do not need a Republican president to agree to carbon taxes, trading, and other nonsense. These feel good initiatives will sink the economy and do nothing to change global climate.
Fred stood up too late? Bull cookies. All the others stood up too soon. This campaign is already lasting longer than the Iraq war. The mediots in Iowa ignore the important questions facing our nation and then want a quick show of hands of who will oppose Pope Gore’s frickin’ slideshow so they can get a front page ‘gotcha’ photo in the Des Moines Register. We’re lucky to have at least one candidate who’ll tell the media to their face how superficial they really are.
Fred Thompson’08!
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Fred has what it takes. A perfect example is yesterday's debate.
I see headlines every day about Romney and Huckabee challenging each others faith. While that may be important to a segment of the electorate, to most I suspect it is a put off. Personally, I want to hear about issues like Iraq, GW, taxes etc. I think Romney and Huckabee are participating in one of those circular firing squads.
Same thing about getting in the race too late was said about Reagan and Bubba...both won.
Fred Thompson: The Stand-Up Guy Who Stood Up Too Late?
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20 days and Iowa begins the selection process for real. Play time is about over and the culling begins.
This primary campaign has always had a frivolous nature about it. When Republicans start giving serious consideration to liberals and moderates like Giuliani, Romney and Huckabee, as they run away from good conservatives like Thompson, Hunter and Tancredo, watch out. The GOP is about implode. Call it a horse race, soap opera or a blood bath. There is something for everyone.
It is so obvious, the media thinks that if you don’t play by the rules they have set, which is to be an media-annointed candidate that plays by their rules on their schedule, that they can decide whether or not you can be an actual candidate. They name Giuliani, McCain and Romney, hoping to make it a 3-way race. Then, when that doesn’t work out, they hype Mike “Glass Jaw” Huckabee. When they are ready, they will tear him down way faster than they built him up. He’s a hillbilly, a hick, a Christian, and Hillary isn’t really from Arkansas, so there.
They may yet succeed in foisting Romney or Giuliani on us, but if that happens, it will be our own fault for playing their game. Fred Thompson seems determined not to play their game, and he already has my vote, and there is no chance that I will change my mind.
The media seems to think they can say “too late,” and if they say it enough times, it will become true. Just like they used to say “it isn’t really sex,” “consenting adults” and “everybody does it.”
“Too late” for what? It is still 2007! Who gives two shits what the people of Iowa think anyway?
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