Posted on 12/18/2007 10:46:23 AM PST by NormsRevenge
MANCHESTER, Iowa - Republican Fred Thompson says if he can be a presidential horse for conservatives to ride in the campaign, "All I've got to say is saddle me up."
Thompson was touring Iowa by bus rather than on horseback Tuesday, saying he's got the potential to come on fast in the final days before the state's Jan. 3 caucuses.
Thompson, who has occasionally been labeled a less-than-energetic campaigner, spoke with enthusiasm to about 30 people at a town hall in Manchester while his blue campaign bus, emblazoned with a huge picture of his head and shoulders, waited outside.
"We're taking it now to where it needs to be," Thompson told his audience. "This is where it starts. This is where we are. this is where we're going to be. ... We're going to make sure we meet everybody we can possibly meet."
Thompson is spending the final two weeks of the campaign in Iowa traveling the state with his wife, Jeri.
He referred to the GOP debate last week in Iowa, where he drew praise for refusing to comply when asked for a show of hands on a question about global warming.
"I said, `Nope,'" and everybody pulled their hand down and looked around," Thompson said. "I just said to my buddies up there, `How are you going to stand up to the leaders of Iran and North Korea if you can't stand up to an overbearing moderator?'"
He made his saddle-me-up comment after saying a newspaper had said he had given conservatives "a horse to ride" in the campaign.
On Tuesday, Thompson listed some of his main issues — the role of the federal government, judges, taxes, Social Security — and took questions about trade, the value of the dollar and how he would end the Iraq war and bring troops home.
"I think we have to stabilize that place so that people can get up and go to worship without fear of being blown up," he said.
He reiterated the case he made during the Iowa debate: "When our worst enemy is sitting down at the negotiating table thinking about what they can get away with, or thinking about what they might could do to the United States of America, who do you want representing us on our side of the table looking back at them?"
Thompson is battling for a third-place showing in Iowa, where former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee recently surged ahead of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in state polls. No candidate has gone on to become the nominee without placing in the top three in Iowa.
That is the very definition of an old tired cliche'.
You guys are in for it now...
http://flickr.com/photos/9313013@N04/
See CBN review of Iowa bus tour:
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/289425.aspx
Reagan was the oldest elected president but he had a vibrance, an energy. It was “Morning in America” and he Packaged that and marketed it very well.Fred doesn’t. It’s the difference in personalities.
It’s not about changing Fred’s nature. It about changing the packaging. No one at the campaign wants to do that. They think its all about the positions and policies. Voters have to feel good about whom they vote for as well as think they have the best policies. A fine steak dinner in a fancy restaurant and a MacDonalds Big Mac are both beef, vegetables, sauce and bread. Just packaged differently.
“Americans that they need to be a little less superficial”
That’s a fantasy. Successful campaigns know how to adapt to reality.
People will engage you on issues as soon as you can come up with one from your own feeble mind. This fire in the belly meme is stupid and it most assuredly is not an issue.
You don’t have to convince me. It’s the mass of American voters that have to be convinced and noone seem eager to get to work on that.
BTW, it is widely believed that Kennedy stole the 1960 election by Mayor Daly's stuffing ballot boxes in Chicago. So his boyish good looks weren't enough.
You probably haven’t read the whole thread. You probably don’t know I could be a Fred supporter based on his positions but am hesitant because I think he can’t win unless he can change his image.
As each new person has come on and attacked me for “feeble mindedness” or cliched phrases I have suggested they desist from the ad hominem attacks and deal with my question. How can the Fred campaign change things to make him more energetic, engaging and attractive to the average American voter who makes decisions based on such superficial criteria?
It is happening as we type. See Hannity and Colmes.
Neither. Kennedy was a callow,careless Senator with no accomplishments to speak of. Nixon bagged Alger Hiss as a Congressman, won his Senate seat and then almost immediately moved on to the Vice Presidency where he was a potted plant for eight years. Eisenhower famously responded to a question about Nixon’s contributions by saying that if you gave him a year he might think of some.
Kennedy didn’t win in 1960 because of a vigorous image. That is a myth. He won (barely) because he ran to Nixon’s right and because the Democrats were the country’s dominant party. The Democrat advantage outweighed the power of quasi-incumbancy. Nixon had no advantage of substance to fall back on.
If the Constitution had permitted it, Eisenhower could easily have won a third term in 1960, heart disease,old age, and a passion for playing golf notwithstanding. The moral of the story is that wisdom and judgment beat youth and vigor every time.
History give us no reason to believe that most voters are as foolish and shallow as you suppose. A candidate with intellectual depth and range will inspire confidence and gather support. Just because people like to hear about Paris, Lindsey and Britney doesn’t mean they can’t understand any other subject.
Suppose Fred wins Iowa,will you reassess your view that his style can’t work?
Your Mayor Daley comment is a possibly true but irrelevent statement. The point is appearances matter, Image matters, all camgaigns all candidates believe it but some more than others.
I saw Fred on H & C. One of the best appearances I’ve seen from him. He needs many, many more like this. And Many other things, too.
Here’s some support for Thompson.
Warning: strong language
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIjSclZCy_U
Please go read the link I supplied for you in post 73.
Seems to me that the crowds are growing and are enthusiastic.
Like most people here, I dispute your premise which you nowhere defend. As far as I can tell, you are claiming to know a priori that Fred has a problem because he seems tired. It doesn’t look that way to me, or to many others.
If you seriously want to have a conversation on this subject try starting by defending your premise. Don’t tell us that many MSM commentators agree with you. That’s not evidence. Don’t tell us that Fred’s poll numbers are bad. So are everyone else’s. Nobody is capturing the hearts and minds of the GOP voters yet so you can’t prove anything by establishing that Fred hasn’t either.
With my own eyes and ears I have seen and heard Fred speak cogently and clearly about the range of matters a President must address. Clarity and cogency are what we have been missing since Reagan. Nobody else in the field comes close. What I see and hear inspires me and I believe that, as the campaign unfolds, it will inspire many others as well.
What do you see and hear that makes you so sure Fred has an “image problem?”
A little bit of truth mixed with a lot of opinion gave us the theory of anthropogenic global warming. So has your analysis of the 1960 presidential election given us a receipe for Freds’s failure. I repeat what I said a moment ago...The point is appearances matter, Image matters, all camgaigns all candidates believe it but some more than others. If Fred is to have a chance he has to do something dramatic to change his image and right now, or he’ll be out of it after South Carolina.
Fred will not win Iowa.
Poll Date .....Huck Rom Thomp Giuli McC Paul Spread
RCP Ave
12/07 - 12/17 -32.2- 24.2- 9.8- 8.8- 6.0- 5.8 Huckabee +8.0
And will do worse in New Hampshire:
Poll Date.. Rom -McC Giuli Huck Paul Thompson Spread
RCP Average
12/09-12/13 32.0 18.5 16.5 11.0 7.0 2.8 Romney +13.5
I wish it wern’t so but....
I saw that. It is encouraging. More of that...much much more of that and other things too are needed. I don’t think it’s hopeless. Radical and immediate marketing change is needed.
Maybe he could go skydiving like President GHW Bush does on his birthdays.
That was humor BTW
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