A potential new candidate for President has many people a buzz in Republican circles. His name is Fred Thompson. Most people will not recognize his name but those same people will recognize his face because he is a moderately successful actor. He is a former senator from Tennessee and has starred in such movies as Hunt for Red October and In the Line of Fire. He now plays the D.A. on Law and Order.
The reason people are talking about him is that he is a conservative with experience in Washington politics but isn't necessarily a Washington insider type. He is charismatic, well spoken and would be attractive with southern swing voters. And of course he reminds people of the last actor to run for President who turned out to be a pretty good one.
If Thompson jumps in, I think he immediately replaces Romney or Gingrich as the conservative alternative. Because of his acting career he carries a sort of star quality that none of the other conservative candidates in the race possess. It remains to be seen if he could score enough conservative votes to challenge either McCain or Giuliani.
Despite the hype surrounding his candidacy a couple of things don't fit. First of all he and John McCain are close friends. Thompson was one of the few senators to endorse McCain in the 2000 campaign. I find it hard to believe that he would challenge his good friend for President. Second, he faces an enormous organizational disadvantage. Most of the top talent in the key primary states has already been hired by the other candidates. Third and most importantly he has younger children and is not seen by many to have the energy or commitment to run for President. He likes raising his family and a campaign would definitely cut into that.
Here is what I think is really happening; The McCain camp encouraged Thompson to throw his name out there to change the story away from Giuliani's rise in the polls and hopefully halt Giuliani's momentum. Thompson agreed because they are friends and he probably enjoys the favorable reaction he is getting but I doubt he is entirely serious about running. It is possible that Thompson could begin to coalesce conservatives around him without even running similar to Gingrich. Or he could run for a couple months then drop out and endorse McCain and hope that his conservative support follows over to McCain.
While we can hope that Thompson does run, my guess is that he is just acting.
The reason people are talking about him is that he is a conservative with experience in Washington politics but isn't necessarily a Washington insider type. He is charismatic, well spoken and would be attractive with southern swing voters. And of course he reminds people of the last actor to run for President who turned out to be a pretty good one.
If Thompson jumps in, I think he immediately replaces Romney or Gingrich as the conservative alternative. Because of his acting career he carries a sort of star quality that none of the other conservative candidates in the race possess. It remains to be seen if he could score enough conservative votes to challenge either McCain or Giuliani.
Despite the hype surrounding his candidacy a couple of things don't fit. First of all he and John McCain are close friends. Thompson was one of the few senators to endorse McCain in the 2000 campaign. I find it hard to believe that he would challenge his good friend for President. Second, he faces an enormous organizational disadvantage. Most of the top talent in the key primary states has already been hired by the other candidates. Third and most importantly he has younger children and is not seen by many to have the energy or commitment to run for President. He likes raising his family and a campaign would definitely cut into that.
Here is what I think is really happening; The McCain camp encouraged Thompson to throw his name out there to change the story away from Giuliani's rise in the polls and hopefully halt Giuliani's momentum. Thompson agreed because they are friends and he probably enjoys the favorable reaction he is getting but I doubt he is entirely serious about running. It is possible that Thompson could begin to coalesce conservatives around him without even running similar to Gingrich. Or he could run for a couple months then drop out and endorse McCain and hope that his conservative support follows over to McCain.
While we can hope that Thompson does run, my guess is that he is just acting.
3 comments:
I hope he goes for it, otherwise I'm going to have to write someone in. I can't vote for someone that will betray the First two Amendments of the Constitution... It makes me wonder what else they are willing to sell down the river.
PS I nominated you for a Thinking Person Award. More details at Dakotaranger.
Interesting.
I actually liked him the best in Days of Thunder where he is the head of Nascar, and he threatens to tear apart Tom Cruises car. He was also good in Die Hard 2 (Not that anyone saw that movie!)
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