Fred Thompson, "Enter Sandman"
There is a context for it.
By Mark Kilmer Posted in 2008 — Comments (29) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
It is a curious song to reference on the front page of RedState.com, Metallica's Enter the Sandman, and I will not link the lyrics. However, to a New York Yankees fan, it's not about nasty dreams or drummer Lars Ulfsbane throwing fits at the old Napster. Rather, it usually means that Mariano Rivera has entered the game and the win is secure. It is the song they play as he walks from the bullpen to save a game.
Pitchers like Kyle Farnsworth, Mike Myers, Scott Proctor, and Luis Vizcaino are all major leaguers, capable pitchers, but they're not going to get the Yankees into the hunt for wildcard spot, let alone strike at the Boston Red Sox, if they cannot hold ballgames.
Candidates like Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, and Mitt Romney are all capable politicians and would probably make for decent national management. So would the rest, save one or two. President Reagan was that, and he was more, and the GOP needs a closer.
Mariano has not had many opportunities to save games this year, but he was lights out last night, when he ended the potential nightmare Farnsworth was creating. Mariano River is possibly the most exciting player to wear the pinstripes since Mickey Mantle.
Fred Thompson is possibly the most exciting candidate with a Republican lapel pin since Ronald Reagan.
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Because some of you find perfect bliss is Rudy, McCain, or Mitt, I will insert TCrown's newly minted and wonderfully stipulated disclaimer:
Mandatory note to the retarded among our readership: The foregoing sentence does not represent, and is not intended to represent, the views, opinions, and snark of RedState; the Directors; the Contributors; the parent company's owners, agents, employees, and officers; or indeed, of anyone. I add this simply because some people who support a guy whose name rhymes with Bomni are not alone in believing that front-page content is indicative of site positions.
That being said, it looks like what has happened to this point will become trivia. (NOTE: I could say that about any nominating contest at the beginning of the summer before the election year.) As RedState reader heath suggests: Redraw Your Maps.
My lovely wife, a Law and Order viewer, let me know this morning that that he is quitting the show with two years left on his contract to, raise money and hire a staff. On Friday, Thompson will form "Friends of Fred Thompson," to start those processes.
Count me in. I have not decided to support him at this early date, but I want Mariano Rivera to enter the game in a save situation. This is it.
"We'll go into the testing the waters phase and that will allow us to raise some money and start building a staff to get out there and make sure that what we feel like is going on is going on," Thompson said. "There's a desire for someone to come in and run a different kind of campaign and come with a different message and address some of the issues our country is facing."
I was excited at the beginning of 2007, when I began blogging Lynn Swann's campaign for Pennsylvania governor for RedState. I compare this to that not to compare the two candidates, but really because there is so much promise, so much potential. I am convinced that Fred Thompson will live up to that potential, and if I'm captured, I'll probably back him in July. Perhaps on the 4th.
Enter the Sandman? In our context, perhaps. Remember, Mo Rivera is a first-ballot hall of famer; when he retires, he will train to become a minister. He's only started. At this stage in Fred Thompson's life, it could be that he, too, has only started.
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Fred Thompson, "Enter Sandman" 29 Comments (0 topical, 29 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
http://imgsrv.wrko.com/image/wrko/UserFiles/ThompsonfredWife.jpg
No kidding. This is Mrs. Thompson.
Serious question: Will Thompson's wife be a positive, negative, or non factor in campaign? I can see the argument for all three.
She is 39 and he is 64. They married in 2002 and have two children. He also has two grown children from his first marriage which ended in an "amicable divorce" after 25 years. Apparently, his first wife has said that she will campaign for him if he should run.
Kucinich has a hot young wife too. I thought she was his daughter.
Just because you have the right, doesn't mean you should.
Isn't the song "Enter Sandman", not "Enter the Sandman"? Early Metallica was a bit before my time, but I'm pretty sure on the title of the song.
"To all those whom I have not yet offended: Please stand by, and I will work to remedy the situation as soon as possible."
Patiently waiting for a Fred Thompson / John Engler ticket.
John Sterling refers to it as "Enter the Sandman," so I went with that. Perhaps drummer Lars Ulfsbane can testify about me having mistitled their "intellectual property."
about Lars. He's a capitalist and wants his due. I'd throw a fit myself.
That aside, I agree... FRED!
Kill 'Em All, Ride the Lightning, Master of Puppets, i.e. the Cliff Burton era, is early Metallica.
As far as relief pitchers go all I have to say is "GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSE".
And I know that Lars Ulfsbane is talented and successful. I knows that Lars Ulfsbane was protecting the music he and his friends created.
I also know that I'm poking fun at him.
No, even in his prime Goose wasn't as consistently good as Mariano. True, Mariano may be on the downside of his career, but only time will tell that for sure.
even needed Gossage in '78. Going into the season, their closer was the Cy Young Award winner, Sparky Lyle.
Until I heard the above albums, I didn't really get the fuss over Metallica (the Black Album came out when I was 10, so I got into it well after the fact). Early Metallica is the Metallica. And why is posting the lyrics a problem? I don't recall any obscenity or references to sexuality.
And I agree about Fred. To come here and post an editorial about federalism, well...rocks, hard.
I'd hope he's more like Jonathan Papelbon, a shut-down closer on a WINNING team that actually has SAVE CHANCES in which to appear.
But that's just me being a Sox fan. :)
And I think Mikefisk above is correct.
religiousfreedom.blogspot.com
Is Joe Borowski? Lousy ERA but been mostly successful in converting save opportunities. Maybe McCain.
And I think Rudy might really flip out if he didn't get to be Rivera.
...I will start with an apology. I must admit that my postings have been overly snarky, or not very well done lately. I am just finally reaching the "I'm tired of this" point with what our Republican leadership is doing. This includes president Bush right now.
Mind you, I wasn't thrilled with the 2006 election, but I can understand how we got there. What I can't understand is why our leadership is suicidally bent on continuing down that path?
Even if things were different, I would still be enamored by a Fred Thompson candidacy. However, deep down inside, I am looking for someone who will save this political party from itself. Right now, Fred Thompson is the best hope in that role for me right now.
Until then, or else, something radically changes, we are in bad shape as a party and it is only going to get worse in my opinion, based upon what I see from where I sit.
I will remain hopeful that Fred Thompson will run. Right now, that is what we need in this party badly, in my opinion.
"Wubbies World" - MSgt, U.S. Air Force (Retired): "Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know." -Jer 33:3-
The analogy of a closer may be a tad premature.
Unless John McCain proves himself utterly incompetent in raising money, all four of the principal candidates have every reason to stay in through February 5th.
With such a compressed schedule, there's no time for a candidate to either build a lot of momentum, or to wither on the vine.
Winning a multi-candidate contest in Iowa or New Hampshire with 30% of the vote won't compel other candidates to quit the race.
The crowded field and the tight schedule might favor Giuliani, but who knows? What seems likely is that a candidate who has raised enough money through the end of 2007 will feel little pressure to exit while having millions of reasons to hang around.
Pretty much my entire experience with Enter Sandman was from an Atari Jaguar game called VidGrid. The concept was: take running music videos and rearrange them like one of those sliding puzzle games, and you have to put them back together before the video runs out.
As it turns out, Enter Sandman was at least an order of magnitude more difficult than any of the others-- way too much of the video is blackness with brief flashes of images here and there. To this day I still remember the end of the video much better than the beginning, simply because I saw that part of it scrambled, generally.
None of this has absolutely anything to do with Fred Thompson, of course. However, I think we can come up with a better campaign theme song for Fred than this, though-- not that I have any suggestions. (For reference, Bill Clinton's was _Don't Stop (Thinking About Tomorrow)_, and W's was _Won't Get Fooled Again_. Very appropriate, since for me, The Who beats Fleetwood Mac six ways from Sunday.)
---
(Formerly known as bee) / Internet member since 1987
Member of the Surreality-Based Community
It was Billy Wagner's music before it was Mariano's.
"No compromise with the main purpose, no peace till victory, no pact with unrepentant wrong." - Winston Churchill
All giddiness aside (and I'm glad to see Thompson running even though I'm still a Romney man) -- a Fred Thompson candidacy really blows this race wide open. Far from being just the "closer" the truth is that what Thompson will do if he runs is challenge all of the other front runners to work a lot harder -- and we'll have a better field of candidates for that competition.
I think he's personally a good man but don't know much about his policy positions other than the little that I've written for HinzSight. I'm not much of a TV person and because of that I'm viewing him as Fred Thompson the candidate, not the actor. I actually prefer that point of view, because I don't think my views of him will be as biased by things I've seen on television.
I'm glad he's running. He's really going to make this a contest and by all reports so far he's a very strong candidate who should help do two things:
1) Make the real front runners among the existing candidates sweat their muscles double time.
2) Thin the herd by making it into a tighter race between the viables.
I think that's super-important as we go into the next six months. We have too many candidates, and the Democrats actually have an advantage -- in terms of "face time" they have fewer people from which people have to choose, both in debates and in terms of policy positions.
So this makes me happy. I don't know whether it's "Seek and Destroy" (which is, BTW, the single best song Metallica ever did) happy, but I'm happy nevertheless. ;)
You can have Mariano and his 5.5 era/1-3 record. He was once a force, but now he's just a has been. Torre claims that Rivera's only a 3 out closer now. Ineffective and old just like the rest of the yanks.
Seems to me like the party's fate is paralleling Mariano's.
Does this mean that you're a Metallica fan?
I certainly hope so.
The song means Billy Wagner, who hasn't blown a save all year, is closing the game for the Mets.
Mariano is last decade's news.
lyric for the Fredheads. I'm already bored of The Fred Hype.
Candidates like Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, and Mitt Romney are all capable politicians and would probably make for decent national management. So would the rest, save one or two.
Seconded. Now, if only we could get everyone to agree on that...
and I could well vote for him in a primary, he will need to show me that he's in for the long haul and the tough work. I have no doubt he CAN do it, I'm just not sure how much of his schtick to this point has been posturing and delaying tactics to get to the end of the Law and Order season.
If Fred pulls a Libby Dole (who went on vacation in February 2000 in the middle of her "run") then I'll probably stick with Mitt or Mike. If he can stand up to the fire, then I may well jump that way.
Romney or Fred.