Jim Geraghty posts the Thompson defense of their "disappointing" fundraising numbers. I, frankly, don’t know what to make of all of this, but I have two thoughts. First, people are comparing John McCain, Mitt Romney, and Rudy Giuliani’s fundraising numbers to Fred Thompson’s. Simply, these are apples and oranges. McCain Read more
I have been meaning to write about this for a while, but I hadn’t gotten my act together. Here’s my thesis: Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson represent two different models (perhaps even polarities) for where the party goes from here. Rudy Giuliani appeals to certain kinds of swing voters, for Read more
The other day, I mentioned that Fred Thompson’s name ID was lower than Mitt Romney’s. I got some push back. Rasmussen has some numbers that confirm my assertion. This has been the case for a long, long time. GOP Overall Fav Unfav Image Unknown Fav Unfav Giuliani 71 Read more
Fred Thompson popped into the College Republican National Convention for a surprise visit, again appealing to elements of the base with a sort of folksy, grassroots style. Here’s what he said: Sam Brownback also spoke. Trent Lott was a surrogate for John McCain. And Mitt Romney had a table. The Read more
All the enthusiasm was for Fred Thompson. Probably a quarter of the delegates were walking around with Thompson stickers. The news stories and the videos only partly capture the energy in the room for him. While his speech was a little bit of a let down on content the positioning Read more
Title says it all:
Update: My deepest apologies. I have had sporadic internet access and convention responsibilities. Here is the interview. Liz Mair and I interviewed Fred Thompson after his speech. The speech is coming up.
Update: Since writing this, Glen Johnson at the AP has written on the whole Romney/porn story. He quoted Tony Perkins, the head of the Family Research Council. At the very least, this puts an exclamation point on my second point below. Clearly the Focus/FRC operation has engaged for Thompson and Read more
I think that all the people who thought that Fred Thompson had suddenly become a campaign finance hater are going to be disappointed. From Marc Ambinder, reporting from South Carolina: And, addressing Monday’s Supreme Court ruling on the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform act, Thompson said that while he remained a Read more
I started out skeptical of the whole Fred Thompson thing. He could still explode in the primary. And I wonder what his general election campaign would look like. What would the themes and policies be? But the fact that we are even discussing him as we are is truly extraordinary. Read more