PRESIDENTIAL MATERIAL.... for sure!
Posted on 09/01/2007 9:02:40 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Fred Thompson does not want to meet the Butter Princess. Everywhere he turns at this morning's meet-and-greet at the Minnesota State Fair, he is surrounded by hundreds of star-struck onlookers, many of them "Law & Order" fans who line up three-dozen deep for a close-up with the actor who would be president. Thompson, a sometimes reluctant campaigner, is in full movie-star mode, and has his good-ole-boy charm set on high. All the women he meets are "honey" and the men "buddy." Even dressed down in khakis and a blue shirt with the sleeves rolled up, he is hard to miss. At 6 feet 6, he is head-and-shoulders taller than anyone around him. Posing for picture after picture, he reflexively stoops to fit in the frame. Some fans ask him to autograph DVDs of "The Hunt for Red October" and "In the Line of Fire," movies in which he had small but memorable parts playing powerful, world-weary men. "Run, Fred, run!" comes a shout from the crowd. Thompson lets out a long, low chuckle. All in all, he looks downright thrilled to be here.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Seeing the political vogue-ing that passes for debates, I don't blame Fred so far. There will be dozens of debates, with varying and ridiculous formats, hosted by liberal gasbags. Between now and November '08, and no one will remember any of them but the last couple.
My guess is that Fred sees no upside for him in debating a fragmented field now, when what he really needs to do is not open himself up to "gotchas" by a hostile MSM editing the tape later, but to get himself known to the American people in a way of his choosing.
There ain't no level playing field. The Cellulite Empress will have her sound-bites shaped and polished lovingly by the termites working in the MSM for the next 14 months, with all the embarrassing goofs and telling, weird moments edited out. Campaign commercials will run as news stories on the alphabet networks, in addition to Hillary's paid ads. What Fred has to do is what he has already begun: a guerrilla, new-media strategy of getting his ideas and strengths spread around the country on venues like YouTube, talking over the heads of the idiot press to the people directly, as Reagan did. Once this job is done—having publicly defined his character, rather than letting our Maoist media assassinate it for him—he can enter the remaining debates knowing he has made it hard for the biased host to trifle with him.
And he will trounce Cruella. That's my guess as of now.
I wish I had your optimism.
I have a couple of worries about Fred.
Worry number 1.
Fred (who is an articulate lawyer and a polished actor) just might be slipping a bit (I don't know that he is, but he might be), as we all do in the golden years. He might be worried about this, and is handicapping himself by avoiding early and middle distance GOP primary debates; and,
Worry number 2.
Even if Fred is as sharp a hundred tacks, he should be in every debate, as the experience would make him stronger for future debates, such as with Hillary.
Debates are quite difficult to prepare for, and very strenuous and demanding in which to participate.
If Fred thinks he can wait for the bar to raise before he takes on the rigors of a national debate, he's setting himself up for an embarrassing loss.
Fred's advisers should insist that he takes part of every possible debate from here on in. Not just for exposure, should Fred get the GOP nod, he will need the experience when he takes on Hillary and her media allies in the presidential debates.
It’s a southern thing. Being called “honey” or “sugar” here is just common. I do it myself.
Slickly produced campaign ads are just that. Over the top supporters on FR are just that.
So it’s important to me to see a panel of serious candidates in a debate. Much easier to compare them, draw my own conclusions etc. Debates are demanding and rigorous as you point out - how well those demands are met says a lot in itself.
Seaplaner wrote: “He neatly avoids the upcoming debate; and, if he’s afraid of debates, he can’t beat Hillary.”
He will be in enough debates to clean the opposition’s clocks. He was a top-notch lawyer, one listed in Naifeh and Smith’s book, “The Best Lawyers in America.”
Fred was also a highly successful real-life prosecutor as an Assistant U.S. Attorney.
He’s not afraid of debating any of his opponents. Starting the 27th of this month, you will see why.
Until the 1930’s it was thought unpresidential to openly campaign for the White House:
A Front-Porch Campaign
Unlike Bryan, who toured the U.S. by railroad, McKinley followed the precedent of other candidates and received visitors at his home in Canton, Ohio—though his goal was hardly to maintain privacy. In the Republicans’ “front porch campaign,” multitudes of party loyalists (and some Gold Democrats who rejected Bryan and the Chicago platform) journeyed to Canton, often using free or discounted passes from friendly railroads. Addressing the crowds from his porch, McKinley promised a return to good times if Republicans took office in Washington. After the speeches, Ida McKinley often served lemonade to the thirsty crowds. The McKinley’s were not always repaid kindly: visitors ripped apart their picket fence, little by little, and took the pieces home as souvenirs.
http://projects.vassar.edu/1896/republicans.html
In American political parlance, a front porch campaign is one in which the candidate remains at home, making speeches to supporters who come to visit, but does not travel around or otherwise actively campaign. The successful presidential campaigns of James A. Garfield in 1880 and William McKinley in 1896 are perhaps the two best-known front porch campaigns. Another president that had been known for his Front Porch Campaign was Warren G. Harding during the Presidential Election of 1920. McKinley’s opposing candidate, William Jennings Bryan, gave over 600 speeches, and traveled many miles all over the United States to campaign, but McKinley overruled this by spending about two-times as much money campaigning. While McKinley was at his Canton, Ohio home supporting his “Front-Porch Campaign,” Mark Hanna was out raising millions to help with the campaign.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Front_porch_campaign
>>Fred Thompson does not want to meet the Butter Princess. <<
I wonder what he has against the Butter Princess?
He neatly avoids the upcoming debate; and, if he's afraid of debates, he can't beat Hillary.
You know I was reading an article that was posted here today about the fact that Ronald Reagan skipped out on the January 5th 1980 Iowa Debate and it didn't seem to hurt him when all was said and done.
They said Reagan was getting too old.
Fred has two little kids, the guy I am sure is up to it.
Hillary is a “flash card” or “in the box” debator. Go outside the box and she’s a blithering idiot. Any heads up guy would frost her. Right now I don’t think Fred needs to debate at this point. If you are right and he does, that is a strike against him in my book.
Fred Thompson is afraid of the Butter Princess. He thinks he can avoid facing up to the Butter Princess and instead just appear before hand-picked people who he's not afraid of. Also he's too lazy to meet the Butter Princess. It's just too much work and Fred lacks fire in his belly. Finally, Fred is just too old, and sick and weak to meet the Butter Princess. Fred died recently and he has only two weeks to live and he looks terrible. Meeting the Butter Princess would make all this too obvious by contrast.
More shuddering from the left.... Thompson seems to be the only one that has the ability to shake up the left. I wonder why? (wink)
Maybe the Butter Princess wants to ask him about his vote for “campaign finance reform”.
Maybe he’s just cutting down on his fat. :p
“Is Fred Thompson Made of Presidential Material?
I’m seriously doubting it.
He neatly avoids the upcoming debate; and, if he’s afraid of debates, he can’t beat Hillary.”
The ONLY debates that matter are the ones were he exposes Hitlery for the fraud she is.
Fred bump!
PRESIDENTIAL MATERIAL.... for sure!
>>I mean its hard not to know about his acting career, but his experience as an actual elected official, not a dog catcher function, but a US Senator, would be a good thing to start paying attention to and getting up to speed on...
It’s not hard to do. I suggest looking at his lifetime voting record at the American Conservative Union, for starters.
Select 2002 Senate in the box at the bottom.
That’s Fred’s basic appeal. He’s not a power mad, narcissistic, type A personality. You can imagine him mowing the lawn, grilling burgers and hot dogs for his family...in a rumpled shirt and jeans. Watching Buckholz pitch that no-hitter for the Red Sox last night, yelling and waving a beer. (How about that no-hitter!) We know Fred. The South, Flyover country, backwoods Maine, the Northern Kingdom, the West. He’s us. Thank God.
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