What’s up, Fred? Update: Red State says he’s in
Update II: Jay Leno???
Update: Red State breaks out the sirens.
The Politico reports that the Fred Thompson’s not-yet-campaign is holding a 4pm Eastern phone conference “to brief them on plans for the former Tennessee senator’s presidential announcement next week.”
Yeah, the non-announcement of a pending announcement of an announcement about an announcement is getting old.
Posted in: Fred Thompson
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Categories: Fred Thompson
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I don’t dislike Fred. And in alot of ways I agree that this campaign season started WAAAAAAAY too early and ‘what’s the rush?’
But until he actually declares, I’m not wasting my time.
I would have advised Fred to make the ‘testing the waters’ comments in July, not March or April whenever it was. He squandered almost all of his momentum, except for the diehards.
Given that these primaries keep moving up, he might be too late. Before we know it that a state will annouce that it’s primary will be next week. Then, in order to keep their state relevant, Iowa and New Hampshire will announce that the primary had already happened. FYI, Hillary will claim she one.
The fires that once burned for Fred! and now merely burning embers. As they say on “Survivor”, “As long as you have fire you have life. The tribe has spoken, bring me your torch”
Fred who?
Funny as hell!!!!
?Que pasa Fredrico
Fred is not the issue. The issue is who is going to be able to keep the white house.
I have to say I know very little about the guy and less is not more in this case. What is the wow factor?
Yes, and it’s going to be pretty ugly if it’s Hillary.
I am completely underwhelmed by the republican candidates.
If she takes the “woman” vote, then she’ll swing it. If women take a close look at what Hillary is about, then she’s done for.
I pray daily for her thorough and total defeat as I do for the Muslim menace on this planet.
Both must end- once and for all.
I’ll drink to that!
I like Fred, but this is getting to be too much like the never-ending “Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead” SNL gag of the 70s.
Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead
If he had declared around the 4th of July, he would have had a much bigger impact.
As it is, he has waited too long and will get very little bump from his announcement.
I hope he sticks it out for a while. I just can’t believe our choices are going to be between Romney and Giuliani - two guys with almost as many problems with the electorate as Hillary.
Redstate is saying Fred is formally announcing today. Glad to see he is finally throwing his hat in the ring and we can start getting some answers to some very important questions.
I dunno Rick, it’ll be after Labor Day, the end of summer, people settlin’ in.
After endless meaninless debates with the same ol’ usual D & R suspects it could be a good time (1st week of Sept) to get in.
I don’t know that outside of poltical junkies you see the bulk of avg joe people getting into things this early anyway.
I still haven’t seen what’s go great about Fred.
I finally heard an explanation for his non-announcements that makes a lot more sense than the explanations he’s been giving us…ie “Traditionaly, candidates announce during the fall”
It’s something about no one from “Law & Order” being able to receive royalties from last season if Fred announced before the fall when the new season begins. I don’t know if campaign finance has anything to do with it or not…or if any of this is even true, but it makes more sense than the “testing the waters phase” jive that we’ve been getting.
Fred has paddled around testing the waters long enough he lost me to Romney.
I like what Fred says but I don’t know if in this day and age I want a President that takes this long to make up his mind. We need better leadership than that.
I hope his announcement addresses some of the reasons for waiting. And I would like some immediate dialog towards the issues facing the survival of our nation. We have enough name calling and double speak from the current candidates.
Without that, I’m lost and undecided until the final moment before I cast my ballot.
This is the most pathetic bunch of candidates in the past 50 years (prior to that I wasn’t born yet so my klnowledge is limited).
Not a good way to start a campaign. In addition to losing the momentum he had on his initial indications of a run, the delays are a symptom of a lack of decisiveness, which is not a good thing in a potential President.
I wonder if we can get Michelle to put up a poll to see who all of her readers are currently supporting…inquiring minds want to know!
Walter, I believe much of it has to do with fundraising. Once a candidate announces s/he has to observe different, more limiting laws.
Not that you could tell that by Hillary.
explain to me how an announcement annoucing you’re going to run for president is not your annoucement that your running for president (ouch)
Well, I’m single, but some folks here support pretty big families.
N’yuk, N’yuk.
: )
Maybe for political junkies, and pundits. I think the message is going to be what’s important for most voters.
Unless you’re suggesting that a September start-date is going to hurt his fundraising. That may be true. I don’t know much about fundraising. But a September announcement has never figured in to the contributions I make.
IMO, campaigns start so early that people are burnt out way before the election even gets here. I think Thompson was smart to wait this long. He has more than enough time to fund raise and more than enough time to get his points of view out to the voters.
I am not thrilled by any of the current candidates and certainly have not made up my mind who I am going to support. I think there are more like me in this respect than not.
Fred’s expiration date has been exceeded, but we really need someone who can defeat the threat of “she-who-must-not-be-named.” I am not really excited about any of the Candidates running on the RINO side of the house with the exception of Hunter or Tancredo, but they just don’t seem to have the name recognition or the support of their party. I don’t know if I can stomach holding my noise and voting for the RINO they shove down our throats, but it beats the alternative if a Democrat wins (their mascot says all you need to know about the surrender monkey party).
Just my opinion but… I don’t think Hunter nor Tancredo are RINOs.
Don’t hold your nose and vote for a RINO; that’s what got us the current nest of vipers who damn near gave our country away to Mexico. Do you want four more years of that BS? Make them feel like their going to die unless they put a real conservative forward. even those dolts get the picture when millions of conservatives are screaming in their faces.
I think he hasn’t announced yet because of the Law & Order thing. I read that because the show is in re-runs until Sept. he would have to allow his role in the show as part of the “equal” time on TV part of the campaign reform rules.
Who knows….
Anyways, I hope he does announce and I hope he kicks butt at the debates. His last speech about how America is in dire straits really had me scratching my head on that one. Huh?? Not what we need to hear now….
So, I hope he comes out fighting. He needs to. He is losing supporters daily. I am still hanging in there, but by a string.
Not one Republican candidate inspires me at all.
What this ridiculous two-year-long campaign cycle is resulting in is a mess in which the year before an election year is spent with countless joint press conferences portrayed as “debates” and then the first 6 weeks of the election year proper are spent choosing candidates without proper testing, followed by 10 months of partisan bashing.
The Founders would be so proud.
I don’t forget to vote in the 2012 primary tomorrow
Fred Thompson’s announcement “strategy” - if it can be called that - is strongly reminiscent of Bill Gates’ “Real soon now” response to questions about when the Windows 95 operating system was supposed to be released. After months of that kind of non-reply reply, people got tired of asking, they over-hyping of the product got tedious, and the final release didn’t live up to the expectations.
Aside from being too-coy-by-half, Thompson’s non-campaign campaign thus far has given me no reason for faith in him if/when he decides to commit. His campaign team seems to be in disarray, he has over-promised and under-delivered in his fundraising, and he seems entirely too laid-back in his approach to the seriousness of the situation.
Hillary’s team will be well-organized, well-financed, and in equal measure vicious and relentless. They’re going to go for the jugular from the word “go” and won’t stop until the day after the election (if then). By contrast, Thompson’s la-de-da attitude thus far inspires no confidence at all.
He needs to either get in with both feet mucho pronto, or stop jerking everyone around with the political equivalent of VaporWare.
I think his waiting is a good idea, even if his announcement of an announcement of an announcement is not.
He’s had ample opportunity to look at the field, the other candidates - especially the Democrats - and find the chinks in their armor, so to speak.
I won’t vote for Guilani - his support of abortion and gun control is a no-go for me.
Thompson is my man.
Ha! I LOL’ed…
Lookout now!! Go Fred Go! Go Fred Go! YOU CAN DOOOO IT!!!
What’ the point?
It’s pretty common knowledge if she includes Ron Paul a ron swarm will invalidate the results, if his name is not included then she’ll get abusive emails.
Why invite all that?
lol old guy. Ron Paul…
So Fred is announcing on the 6th? Or today?
We received a call from Fred’s “exploratory” project yesterday and, frankly, I was not impressed. They played us a tape Fred made that was pretty much all general bluster and no real substance as far as I could tell. When the tape was over, I talked to real human being who said “Fred” wanted my input. The first question was a dissappointing cliche, something to the effect of, “Do you think it’s time for the people America to take back their government from the politicians?” Geez, if only, but talk about old empty standard rhetoric. When I said that to the guy on the phone, expressed that I would like substance from Fred rather than fluff, he acted incensed, as if maybe he thought Fred’s fluff should be good enough for little ‘ol silly me-whether I liked it or not. I really don’t know if there is any Republican I can truly 100% support for president.
I’ll believe it when Fred’s blog-guy drops a hint. Or until I see video of Fred saying “I will seen my party’s nomination”…
Michael and Sean (I know the latter guy) must still be celebrating, but they do have the Fred Announcement Tour up on the main site. That begins on Thursday, September 6.
Clearly the most important thing to Republicans is how a candidate announces and runs his campaign, as opposed to if he would be a great president. Should be an easy win for Hilary!
Fred’s got some baggage, and we will learn about it soon enough.
I just wanna know if he has the juevos rancheros to pull the trigger on Iran, Syria, Hezbollah, and Hamas.
That will separate sh*t from shinola for me and put the crosshairs firmly on Wahabbiville Saudi Arabia.
Isn’t the end of Summer an historically “normal” time to announce a run for the presidency?
How would it have been adventageous for Fred! to have announced when everyone else did?
About 10 days ago we received a fund-raising letter asking for $$$$ to help Fred make up his mind whether or not he should run. He needed to know in advance if he could count on us to give financial support now and then again should he make a decision to do so. My scrawled response was returned in the postage-paid envelope: You’ve got to be kidding!
lol gramma, only people getting my dollars are the Girl Scouts nowadays and I get Cookies!
I just got an email from I’m With Fred saying he will be announcing on Sept. 6th.
29 Victor:
You’re right. Fred can’t match Rudy and Mitt in raising 100 million so he was forced to carry out this internet campaign that sort of fizzled out the last 3 or 4 weeks.
Now he’s got to raise at least $15 million to be competitive they say. Could be. He’s winning in S. Carolina in the polls and not too far behind Rudy in Florida. He could take 3 or 4 states on the big primary day of 2/5.
How things shake out after that should be interesting. It might only be Mitt, Rudy and Fred which means a pile of conservative money would flow his way. He’s just got to hope he’s not too far behind the frontrunner at the end of the day on 2/5.
Rick, can I pester you for your thoughts on Huckabee’s chances?
Huckabee quite simply needs lightening to strike. If he finishes second in Iowa he will still be buried in New Hampshire (it’s happened many times).
He would have to shock Romney in Iowa and be competitive in New Hampshire to have a chance. And I just don’t see it.
He is still an asterisk in S. Carolina which is where I think he and McCain will make their last stands.
Ineresting fellow. But no shot.
It’s times like these I wish Ronnie was frozen and cryonics was perfected.
Roger that. Unfortunately, I tend to agree with you. At this juncture, I think HE, not Fred, is arguably the most conservative of the bunch, if not the most genuine. He just doesn’t seem to stick with people up to this point. Can’t figure it out to be honest.
Thanks for the appraisal Rick…
C’mon Lightning!
Ya know, of the half a dozen or so presidential election cycles I’ve followed in my adult life, not a single one looked the same more than a year out as it did going into the final stretch. Not even close. These things are full of twists and turns, upsets and surprises.
Remember ‘04? Most know-it-all commentators figured Kerry had it wrapped up until some guys who’d served with him decades before and knew his sleazy character first hand spoke up. So, my prediction is that in a few months this race will have changed. How? I don’t know.
Is September to late for Fred? Of course not. The thing that will matter in the long run is does he have a vision and set of goals that fire the imaginations and hopes of plain ordinary folks. If he does, then he’ll upend the conventional wisdom and perceived ‘order of the universe’ (in BOTH parties!). If not, then no amount of organization, fund raising or advertising will really separate him from the rest of the candidates. It really is that simple.
This race needs shaking up. So, swing for the fence Fred! let’s make it interesting!
Sad to say, comment here doesn’t show much political acumen among posters.
Out of 55 comments, the majority of them (22) aren’t related pro or con to Thompson’s declaration - another half dozen are indeterminate blither. Roughly 14 are negative reactions, 8 neutral reactions - and only five are somewhat positive reactions.
Not to worry – public opinion here or elsewhere has little to do with who the GOP candidate will be. Nor really does how much money any of them has raised – at this point. Later, the amount of money being raised will become more important.
Thankfully, it will not be affiliated voters that chose who the GOP candidate is – and that is by design. Most definitely, the candidate won’t be selected by general public opinion or polling.
GOP members from the states, at the nominating convention, will choose the candidate. It matters not how the candidates poll among the public now, or at the time of the nominating convention. What matters is what kind of people represent the majority of actual elected or appointed members of the states GOP membership – and more specifically, who they send from the states to vote at the national nominating convention.
If you want a ‘temperature setting’ – or to get a feel for how delegates to the national GOP nominating convention might vote – take a look at the following two polls. The first one includes quite a number of delegates to the national convention – and as you will note, the field in the polling is quite conservative. (Be sure to hit the “View Blogosphere-wide Results” to see the entire polling, also very conservative but with many more of those in the general public voting. )
The second link takes you to polling of probably the most politically effective group in the US – and the most conservative group – with the most influence on the actual nomination process. More than half of these people are known convention delegates.
Note the lopsided Thompson lead – among these most conservative and most active involved – and while you’re at it take a look at the Daily Rasmussen polling that shows very little to no spread between Thompson and Giuliani (from the general public.)
Bottom line – MUCH will change in a short period of time after Thompson declares, and very much will depend on those who attend the nominating convention (the huge majority of which will be very conservative – with the exception of those from left-leaning GOP states – like California.) In addition, the ‘early primaries’ will have great influence, but may have less effect on the nomination convention (often) than most people realize, or understand. It is after all, the state party delegates determine the nomination, not polls, definitely not leftist-media generated public opinion, and not even the opinions of those here that consider themselves conservative or somewhat so.
Thompson hasn’t declared anything yet. and as for the rest of you’re post with the non-link links. Yawn.
Here are the three links I forgot to put in the post above…
Straw polls
NFRA
Rasmussen Daily
“Thompson hasn’t declared anything yet.” - ajmontana
Did I say he had? No, I didn’t. Go back to sleep.
Note in the Rasmussen daily polling that during the past month and a half typically only 2 to 4 points separate Giuliani and Thompson. The one day 6 point separation on the 30th mimics only three or four other such days days during the 45-day spread - all without Thompson being a declared candidate.
That again only gives you a ‘feel’ for what might happen during the nomination convention - but, it ought to tell you that in no way has the nomination been sewed up by any of the prospective candidates. It might also mean that Thompson, once declared, may easily bypass Guiliani.
That was right out of my “Friends of Fred Thompson” e-mail… So apparently he’s letting us know that he’ll soon be telling us he’s running.
Reminds me of a bit from Futurama, where Hermes gets a letter from “The Central Burocracy”, telling him that he’s about to recieve a letter from TCB…