I’m not here to campaign, I’m here to discuss the issues and elections honestly with more or less like-minded people.
I’m not going to be in denial over Fred’s non-campaign for the last several months. It’s a fact. Yeah, the MSM had it out for him from the start, but he certainly made it easy for them, didn’t he? Now he’s starting to actually act like a political candidate, but it’s going to take a miracle of Biblical proportions to resurrect his dead candidacy. I hope he does, but honestly Fred is deep in deficit spending with his political currency. His campaign has been so disappointing that frankly, I am a bit angry with him. I don’t think I’m alone here, either.
The main point I have made time and time again is that Fred just has so far refused to sell himself, his credentials, his experience. People choose their party’s nominee largely on resume. Fred has a great one, but nobody knows about it. He hasn’t made a case for why he would be better on national security than Giuliani. He hasn’t made a case for why he’s the most qualified for the job in a world facing uncertainty about nuclear weapons in Iran and Pakistan. He could make these important cases, but he hasn’t. He has mostly wanted to talk about how he’s been conservative longer than the other guys.
He has failed to understand that the party is going to pick the candidate who has the most credibility on foreign policy first. The most conservative is a luxury and at best would serve as a tie breaker. All those people still putting Giuliani as the GOP front runner should be supporting Thompson. But none of them know he advised the State Department on matters of International Security and Nuclear Proliferation.
If Fred had been running an effective campaign, he would have been pounding that in almost as much as Giuliani has brought up 9/11. Instead he has never gotten past “I’m conservative.” That’s the first line in an introduction, not the whole pitch. Unfortunately, no one told Fred that. For most conservatives, when someone running for president says “I’m conservative”, the reply is “OK, so am I. But what makes you qualified to be Commander In Chief and Leader of the Free World?” So far, Fred hasn’t really made answering that question part of his stump speech.
So after all that are you going to vote for Fred or not? I agree with most of what you said even though it is a backhanded endorsement. Also remember that your opinion is an advanced, idea driven and researched one. I have confidence that Fred is going to win the Joe Sixpacks of the world over just like W did. This is something that Willard and Rooty will have a tough time accomplishing.
He references it all the time. I'll make sure to have you pinged to each and every time it shows up, if you like.
You have some excellent points. I hope the campaign is listening. I have great hopes for Fred, but I agree that he has NO HELP from the MSM to get his solid foreign policy credentials across. In some ways, his comments on the Bhutto assassination may help - how sad that it took such a tragedy to get a real good eyeful out there (if it’s even given airtime) of his knowledge and understanding of this World War we are in.
Now, if you were going to use that as evidence for people to doubt his ability to support him and join you in opting for another, "better" candidate, that would be one thing, even if I disagreed with it.
The purpose of your post accusing Thompson of "not campaigning until now" was, then, not to "discuss the issues" so as to suggest wiser alternatives that we can support, nor to recommend any actions that we can take to further our cause or try to prevent the encroachment of the opposition. Apparently, the only purpose of your post was to indulge your outrage. I can't dare to call you out on that, because I've done it myself often enough! We are both human.
Now I'll tell you the purpose of my post to you: to persuade you to rethink peoples' reasons for wanting to read Free Republic. I suppose it should go to FReepmail, but then again, maybe not -- I hope I've got company in my assessment of posts that are more about venting than sharing actionable ideas in the discussion of the issues and elections.
One of the things I'm grateful for this wonderful Christmas -- Free Republic, and that includes you, counterpunch! :^)
The makings of a true conservative are in the campaign he runs. Thompson is running a conservative campaign and has been from the start. He didn’t jump out of the box when the media said GO!. He don’t make outlandish claims at elaborate fund raising events. Fred don’t try to surround himself with Hollywood star power and glitter.
The MSM is responsible for prodding candidates to start a historically way too early campaign. Then the MSM says that a candidate without glitter is dull and has no substance. The MSM wants a candidate to be Rock Star material so they can flock around and tape every expression and every sneeze. Then they can edit the days tapes for a 30 second soundbite with their own ad libbed commentary about how popular the candidate is or what poll says what today.
Fred is a true conservative and the MSM is not only disinterested in a non rock star, they are afraid because Fred speaks responsibly about the issues. A political campaign, to the MSM is more about appearances than it is about policy. The Breck boy image, or the miss Clairol look is more appealing to the eye than Fred. That is obvious because of how many times we see Hillary or Obama or Edwards or Romney, be little acknowledgemet of the other candidates because they are not eye candy.
Perception by the MSM about the candidates is planted, subliminal voting instructions for the 30 second sound bite set, but not the thinking population.
Fred is a thinker. Thinkers are boring according to the MSM. But a thinker is our best bet for President.