Posted on 08/31/2007 5:41:48 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
What you read was a letter that a Freeper wrote, saying that is the letter that Fred SHOULD have written in order to be included in the Sept. 5th debate. Then, the announcement at 4:30 yesterday was going to be what his intentions were. Fred's camp didn't say that he was going to ANNOUNCE then, though there was wild speculation here on FR and other places, to that effect.
Most of what folks are complaining about Fred not doing what he 'said' he was going to do, is based on speculation from the media, or some of his supporters who just wanted to get him in the race. I figured he'd announce when he deemed the time was right for him. Looks like he thinks Sept 6th is that date.
Well, when you ignore how campaigns have been run in the last two cycles and bring up JFK's campaign of nearly a half-century ago, I'd agree with LS. With TV prevalent, newspapers declining in readership and influence, the Internet, the geographic distribution of party strongholds entirely swapped about, the primaries 3 months sooner and front loaded, the union's power a shadow of what it was, and the fact that JFK didn't win it in the primaries, but in a brokered convention, I'd say it's somewhat different today.
Other than that, I guess Fred is as well positioned as JFK was against Adlai Stevenson. But, then again, he isn't running against Stevenson.
This is 100% incorrect -- Thompson voted to table, i.e., kill, an amendment by Kerrey, Boxer, Feingold, Daschle, Kennedy and Biden that would have eliminated language that prohibited the president from cutting nuclear weapons below START levels.
It's convoluted, but that's no excuse for On the Issues to get it so wrong. Here's a link to the vote:
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=106&session=1&vote=00149
I have seen more cars with Thompson stickers than even Hillary stickers here in Memphis. It took a lot longer for the Bush ones to show up and he announced at the same time as others.
Consider that Clinton revolutionized how you do a "political" presidency by running a constant, NEVER-ENDING "campaign," starting immediately after he got elected in 1992. The Republicans never got this. Apparently, some still haven't. We are finished with the days when a candidate can come in relatively late, with no organization, and hope to do well. Now, CURRENT EVENTS could cause an upheaval in one direction or another, but barring that, it's LATE in the game.
Didn’t work for Howard Dean. The fact is, you still need personal contact of some sort, if for no other reason to find out WHO to target with your campaign efforts. For example, if you rely on people responding to cyber messages, well, 95% of the people don’t respond. So does that mean your campaign must target 95% of the people? Pretty silly, especially in a PRIMARY, where you are only going after the “uber Republicans” who always vote.
A primary IS the time to support YOUR choice in candidate - polls be damned. You have every right - no, every duty to be true to your purpose.
Also, posters should study the difference between spirited criticism of the substance of a post and a personal attack on the poster. The latter gains one nothing.
I don't know how anyone can apply history---and I'm a professional historian---when, by moving the primaries up a good six months, it renders null and void old methods of doing things.
Howard Dean is a great example: he relied on all flash and not substance. He got headlines by touting his internet campaign of "young people," but they don't vote, and they ESPECIALLY DON'T VOTE in primaries. Beleive it or not, it is the blue hairs who vote in the primaries: the party activists that go to all the BBQs, call-a-thons, lit drops, and dinners. They run the party organizations, the wards, the precincts; they staff all the offices and phones; they conduct all the statistical analysis; and they know all the gossip of why one candidate appeals to people and another doesn't. This is stuff you absolutely have to be on the ground to judge.
This article is from “Politico”.
Isn’t that the same source of the “July 4th” rumor?
The recipe for this particular article wouldn’t in part, perhaps include some measure of sour grapes?
“He hasn’t done it. What should I infer?”
That the man is NOT yet ready for prime time. His own campaign announced the reason is because they need more time to prepare Thompson and get their sh*t together. And most of it was probably spent convincing him to run.
Who wants to elect a man who isn’t even sure he wants to BE president?
“What is your point? You obviously disagree with me, yet you make no statements of your own. You simply (attempt to) insult me. If you contradict anything that I have said please at least let me know why.”
S.O.P. with the Fredheads.
It is a different campaign, Fred is on the ground shaking hands, answering questions, doing the things a candidate does, BUT he re-enforces that with his almost daily blog on the net.
I said it in April, this is going to be a very different kind of campaigning. This is going to be a YouTube campaign.
These are just some fo Fred's 'visits' in the last few months. He does have 'boots on the ground'.
These early visits, coupled with his messages posted on the Imwithfred website portray all his views on a variety of subjects. Look at the other candidates. are they as prolific? Hardly. As a historian, you of all people, should be looking back on how things were done compared to the use of the advances in technology and how Fred utilizes them now.
Didn't JFK do the same with the Giancana mob in Chicago - use them. Some observers say it was Sam Giancana's help in fixing ballots in Chicago that got Kennedy elected, and in exchange a Kennedy justice department was to be hands off the mob. Of course, John Kennedy got his brother Bobby appointed to head Justice, and the rest is history as Bobby went after the mob anyway. I wonder if this is true?
When people distort and lie about Fred Thompson's record, that isn't Fred Thompson's misdeed. That's quite rightly blamed on the person doing the distorting and lying. Nobody bothers to distort or lie about Duncan Hunter's record, because he's so inconsequential that nobody needs to bother.
You know, I don’t think you are a very nice person, talking as you do about a fine man like Rep. Hunter. Rep. Hunter has no enemies on either side of the aisle, in or out of politics, because he is a completely honorable man and high respected by his colleagues and friends.
Well, I KNOW from your past postings and persistent moonbattery that you aren't a very nice person. (And that's putting it mildly.) Calling his campaign efforts a failure isn't calling Duncan Hunter names: It's stating a fact. Mentioning that Duncan Hunter doesn't bother to show up for work much isn't an insult, it's a fact. Pointing out Duncan Hunter's outrageous pork barrel spending isn't an attack, it's the truth.
It just so happens that I'm a very nice person. I just don't take kindly to paranoid, delusional, fantasies masquerading as reality.
No one calls FDT disrespectful names. They just state his record.
LOLOLOL!!!!! That's funny! You missed your calling as a comedy writer.
Excellent post. 100% of it.
“I believe no one should donate a penny more until the moment of his actual announcement. Then, lay it on fat and thick.
That’s my plan.”
Ditto
John Leland 1789 wrote: “I really don’t understand the gripe about Mr. Thompson’s timing and announcements and all that. He is not late, when you look at the history of political campaigns. Just because others jumped in early doesn’t men (sic) Fred Thompson is late.”
John, there’s always a lot of peer pressure to go with the pack, even when the pack is running full speed off a cliff.
I see my hands wrote: “Who are we supposed to unify with?”
A good start would be for conservatives of various stripes, independents and Reagan Democrats to unify. The traitorus American Left has already unified with the Islamofacists, international socialists and communists. It’s us against them. Lock and load.
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