Posted on 09/04/2007 8:40:11 PM PDT by SmithL
Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson's current political playbook - a high-profile visit to the "Tonight" show, a splashy bus tour, the efforts to take a familiar actor and reintroduce him in a new political role - contains pages that look eerily familiar to California voters.
Maybe that's because the former Tennessee senator now has at his side some of same key aides who - in nine short weeks - helped transform Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger from "The Terminator" into the chief executive of the Democratic-leaning most populous state in the nation.
Thompson plans to formally kick off his presidential bid - shaped around the themes of "security, unity and prosperity" - beginning today with a blitz that reflects his media savvy and his advantages as an actor better known to many Americans as District Attorney Arthur Branch on TV's "Law & Order."
Thompson's campaign includes two veterans of another whirlwind effort - the 2003 California recall election starring Schwarzenegger - who know first hand at least some of the challenges ahead.
They are Todd Harris, who was Schwarzenegger's campaign communications director and will hold the same title for Thompson, and veteran Republican strategist and Fox News commentator Karen Hanretty, the former press secretary for the 2003 recall effort, who will be Thompson's deputy communications director.
Adam Mendelsohn, the governor's current communicators director, said the pair provide Thompson a "a big picture thinker out of the box" - Harris - and "one of the most effective political spokeswomen in the country" - Hanretty.
Both are "seasoned in translating the benefits that someone has from working in entertainment into a political reality," he said. "For Fred Thompson, it's a very smart hire: there's not a lot of people who understand taking a national entertainment figure and translating that into political value."
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Great answer.
Nah, he's just taking his time, getting into the race in the time frame it was always done, before this year's premature electioneering. He's not smug, just confident; nothing at all conspiratorial about at.
Good grief! Just how many debates do these guys have to attend? Hardly anyone is watching them anyway. Seems like the candidates have better things to do with their time than sit up on stage and wait for some blow dried news reader to ask them all the same question, waiting for the kind of answer that could be given on each one's website for a heck of a lot less time and money!
I’m beginning to wonder about the quality of posters here.
You might be a little snippy too if the person you back has campaigned hard for over a year, has spent almost $30 million, and is still in a poor third place. His supporters brag about how he tirelessly campaigns yet, nationally, only 13% like him. This type of abject rejection can get anyone down in the dumps enough to lash out at supposed threats. Funny thing is, people decided they didn't want Mitt before Fred even announced. Bummer.
I actually saw a Steal Your Face sticker today in Nashville incorporated with a Fred ‘08 sticker
no, it was not a Cadillac...rather a Yukon XL
and the only one of the top three who ain't a baby killer chooser
I doubt he gets bored....every night must be like going to the Dairy Queen as a kid...
He was in the chips with Baine before his daddy died in 95.
I can guarantee you that daddy helped him out early on....mine sure did
and it makes a world of difference
Enough already!
I agree with your hopes and conclusions.
She’s smart, beautiful, staunch, poised and principled.
She chose wisely, too.
Last time I checked name calling and personal insults were a violation of forum guidelines. I don’t know, maybe the rules are different for some, especially Fred supporters. I’ve come to expect the behavior.
oops! Meant to respond to #109, not #110.
we’re suspect because he only changed his views on abortion around the time he decided to run for POTUS
and his wife did donate to PP back when she was 40 or so...well after she was a mom and shoulda known better.
oh....and btw....his wife joined the Massachusetts Citizens for Life after same time he had his epiphany when he decided to run for POTUS 2 years ago and AFTER he gave them 15 grand
if you can’t see why folks are skeptical of all this then dang...I’m sorry...personally there are things about Romney I like but faith in his pro-life road to damascus conversion that he and his wife had just about the time he decides to go POTUS is funky at best
and I just don’t much understand women or men who claim such conversions in their 50s...that is hardly the time to go changing views that serious they’ve held a lifetime and thru childbirths for God’s sake
and for Mormon’s(him) at that..geez....that’s like pro-infanticide Amish or Charismatics...rare
Fine then. Lie all you want.
Like a 15 dollar carpet.
Hired guns don’t make policy for candidates, and most of them don’t stick around after the election; they’re off working on some other campaign.
You can’t blame Arnold’s disastrous governorship on the guys that he hired to help get him elected, and you sure can’t blame it on Fred Thompson.
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