Perhaps like some of my readers, I had initial hopes for Fred Thompson. He has officially pulled out of the Presidential race.
Sometimes “what people have been saying” turns out to be correct. In my opinion:
1. Fred entered the race too late.
2. The application of verve and excitement to his running was primarily absent.
3. He had some good occasional soundbites; a soundbite does not a campaign make.
4. He wasn’t the extemporaneous speaker everyone expected him to be.
5. His advisors weren’t. Many thought his advisors were too linked to Bush.
6. He avoided many speaking and appearance venues. That never helps.
And finally: many of us now realize he may have been doing nothing more than “dabbling.” No matter what he says, I’m still not convinced he applied himself to the campaign.
And so goes Fred.
BZ
Eat up with LAZY… That’s my opinion anyway…
And did you see THIS??
Newsmax.com – Rush Limbaugh: May Not Support GOP Nominee, I put in my .02 worth HERE
Blo,
I agree. I wanted to see how it ended up before I voiced my opinion on him coming in late.
Looks like they were right.
Texasfred,
I heard Rush on the dittocam the other day.
I’m sorry it turned out this way, he was a disappointment to many.
He pulled out prior to primaries in conservative states. There is more to this.
My guess is he is secretly a running mate.
I don’t think his health is up to it and I suspect that he didn’t have the energy to see the battle through. Too bad, because he was the only leader in either pack.
BWH: you know, there just might be more to that statement than most of us realize.
Kris: thanks for reading, thanks for the comment, please return! I would agree; there were many underlying currents beneath the obvious news and I suspect that may be one of them.
BZ
You’d be tired to if you had a wife that looked like that and had to keep up with.
Get it, keep UP with.
Plus he has to deal with, you know, that thing that if it last up to 4 hours you need to see your Doctor..
Fred forgot ‘internet time’ where a month is nearly a year in the consciousness of netizens… thus long months of indecisiveness was long *years* to the short attention span folks.
I had personal problems with his time in the Senate, but that he could have addressed…
If you want to do the ‘slow campaign’ then do hold multi-hour town hall meetings and multi-hour seminars and such: use that to your *advantage* by drawing out complete discussions of topics amongst many people and show passion and knowledge that doesn’t go to the 10-second soundbite crowd. Those were his strengths and he did not play *to them*.
Contrary to popular belief, sitting down and talking *with* voters in long forums would show fortitude, depth of knowledge and ability to stay on one’s toes for hours… something most politicians *lack*. Just don’t take months, or years to make a decision. State your position, talk about it, defend it, demonstrate how it works to normal folks and then wind up with a restatement of it with anything you have *learned* from those citizens.
That just might sell as a ‘different form’ of politics: the forgotten form of the pre-TV era, yet fully televised.