Yabba Dabba Doo - Fred Joins The Debate
By AzaMatteroFact Posted in Archived — Comments (6) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson doesn’t need to have a good debate performance Tuesday night. He needs to KNOCK THE COVER OFF THE BALL. He needs to beat the rest of the field BY TEN TOUCHDOWNS.
The Thompson campaign is wisely playing the expectations game.
"We think that we'll hold our own, but obviously every other candidate on the stage has been going to these debates all year long. They've already gone through their preseason. This is our first scrimmage," said Todd Harris, a Thompson spokesman. "The most important thing for us is for Fred's message and answers to connect with Republican voters and that has been our focus."
With all due respect, this is not the preseason and it is not a scrimmage. If you want to stay with sports metaphors, Thompson was a contract holdout and missed the entire training camp and pre-season. But this is the pros and it is time to put up or shut up or perhaps more appropriately, win or go home.
Thompson was going to announce in July, then August and then in time for the New Hampshire debate. He missed all those self-imposed deadlines because of campaign staff shake-ups and fundraising that while respectable, fell far short of expectations. His stump speeches and other media appearances have fallen short of expectations as well. This is Thompson’s first exposure on the national stage that isn’t scripted by writers for Law and Order.
Based on my reading of background questions from various polls, I get the sense that, to use an old political phrase, his support is a mile wide but only an inch deep. Without a great debate performance, I believe a lot of that pond is going to dry up.
”All his missteps and his laid-back style of campaigning is taking a toll on the early enthusiasm with which his candidacy was received.”
According to Dick Morris writing for The Hill that Fred is Fading, Thompson’s numbers among likely Republican voters are falling. Not precipitously but falling none the less and that is not a good sign. It is especially not a good sign when it coincides with the calendar which indicated that more and more voters are actually focusing on the race.
Thompson also needs a great debate performance to mollify hard-line conservatives over his support of McCain-Feingold. Given the vitriol aimed at Senator McCain on pro Fred blogs and other political sites over McCain-Feingold it will be interesting to see how Thompson’s full throated support will play out with his supporters. As John Gizzi writes in a recent article in Human Events…
Fred Thompson finally made clear his position on the statist campaign finance restrictions embodied in the McCain-Feingold bill. And conservatives are clearly not going to be pleased.
When the former star of TV's "Law and Order" series and newly-minted presidential candidate spoke to reporters on the porch of the Grand Hotel here, I asked Thompson whether he was proud of his role in enacting the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform legislation in '01.
"Yes," replied the former Tennessee senator without hesitation. "You will recall that the central part of the legislation was getting rid of soft money [from the political process]."
Fred Thompson either needs to win the Michigan Debate and win it big or he needs to hope that there are no rotund operatic sopranos warming up their vocal chords.
And before we do, to the rest of our readers: I'm filling him in on the vagaries of posting at RedState, not yelling at him. It's not all intuitive, you know.
OK. This is a reprint, obviously; it's also one of yours, which means that you can reprint it anywhere you can, also obviously. It's all right to note that it's been cross-posted via some sort of link; in fact, we encourage the practice. Also, we prefer that our commentators note in their articles when they are affiliated with a particular campaign, particularly when they're writing about a different one. Lastly: it is perfectly permissible to include a link to your website in your signature file.
We hope that you will enjoy your experience at RedState.
Moe
PS: A look at your blog suggests that you are involved in campaigning at the local level. We have never gotten enough of those types of blog entries, and we want them rather badly.
The Fuzzy Puppy of the VRWC. I've been usurped!
Are you the same Brad Marston that wrote:
I am a volunteer for John in NH and a member of the New Hampshire Leadership Council and want to do whatever I can to put John McCain in the Whitehouse.
?
It's pretty dishonest audacious for an avowed McCain supporter to demand that Fred Thompson defend McCain's CFR legislation in the upcoming debate.
Moe,
Thank you for filling me in about posting at RedState. I do not want to break any rules or guidelines and I appreciate your taking the time to set me straight so that my future posts will be better received and in accordance with the policies here.
I probably deserve Neil's shot as a "one minute wonder" but I would say I am closer to a forty year wonder given that the first campaign I worked on was Slade Gorton's campaign for Attorney General of Washington State back in the 1960's. I got a little more close-up view of DC when my father was appointed to the Federal Home Loan Bank Board by President Nixon and then named Chairman by President Ford.
I don't think I attacked Fred Thompson. Most of the negative things about Thompson were quotes from other sites. And yes, I do work for John McCain and should have made that clear in my post. I will do so in the future.
Moe, I do work in local politics...I work in politics wherever I can find a candidate who I believe in. I worked for Doug Obey for State Senator, a Republican running in the very Blue State of Massachusetts. I also worked for Maggie Rosa for Mayor of Gloucester, MA. I am sure Maggie is a Democrat but local elections in Massachusetts are non-partisan and she is like John McCain, a straight talker.
Again, thank you for the advice and the kind manner in which it was delivered.
Brad Marston
Visit the best political blog that nobody reads at www.azamatterofact.com
You wouldn't believe some of the stuff that people try to pull here. :)
The Fuzzy Puppy of the VRWC. I've been usurped!
That's NEVER happened before.
HTML Help Central for Red Staters