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McCain suffered the loss of two of his communications staff earlier this week, and today he lost Fred Davis, the campaign’s “image maker”. Davis is the guy who designed the campaign’s new logo and redesigned the Straight Talk Express bus, and told reporters today that he is “sadly leaving” the campaign.
Fred Thompson lost his fourth staffer in as many days, today saying goodbye to deputy campaign manager Tom Frechette. According to Jonathan Martin, Frechette “was said to have chafed under the heavy influence of Thompson’s wife, Jeri.”
July 27th, 2007 at 2:57 pm
It is just me, or have these types of stories dominated the McCain campaign and the Thompson non-campaign for weeks now? This drip, drip, drip of negative news can’t be good for either of them.
July 27th, 2007 at 3:03 pm
The list of ex-staffers between the two of them is large enough to start a support group.
July 27th, 2007 at 3:08 pm
[...] Hat tips to Domenico Montanaro of MSNBC’s First Read who posted it here, as well as to MattC of Race42008.com, who spotted Montanaro’s post of Shear’s post, here. [...]
July 27th, 2007 at 3:09 pm
Maybe the ex-staffers will rally around, and try to fund, yet another new candidate in the search for that ever-elusive “credible conservative alternative!”
July 27th, 2007 at 3:42 pm
Run, Fred!’s staff, run!
July 27th, 2007 at 5:21 pm
I think that, if this trend continues (and I see nothing to stop it), then Fred is done.
If that happens, I think the GOP will be done looking for a Messiah – at least for this election. We are halfway through the election, and even if a new person started running today, there is not enough time to build a serious campaign – its just too late.
I think we are starting to see the decline of Fred Thompson, and with it, the start of more stable and predictable period – that will hopefully last through the primaries. Once Thompson is either in or out, and once his record gets out (if needed), people will have all their options layed out, and will be able to start moving toward their final choices.
July 27th, 2007 at 5:31 pm
I’ll admit that I go overboard in my comments on Fred winning the nomination, and part of that is just to tease the Rombots who are so assured that their guy is going to win and pushing polls showing him at 4% in SC, 7% in Fl and 8% nationally as good news.
That said, ACT is just rediculous. The decline of Fred Thompson? Please.
He’s competitive nationally and leading in some polls. He has the South locked up except for FL and I think he’ll end up winning. Once he wins SC and FL and it becomes clear that Rudy won’t win, his support will flock to Fred who will clean up on Super Tuesday.
Decline of Fred Thompson. That’s the best I’ve heard.
July 27th, 2007 at 6:17 pm
I said: “I think we are starting to see the decline of Fred Thompson”, and I do.
Think about it, has a single good news story come out about Fred in the past two weeks? His wow factor is starting to dim, and his campaign is already hitting rough patches. I did not say he is done, but I do think that we are starting to see a decline. I just don’t see anything out there to give him a boost. If things could be any worse, stories are starting to come out questioning his staff appointments, or his past record.
When your cash levels are low, your wife is driving your staff away, you are going no where in the polls, and you still have not entered the race, that is a decline. It IS stoppable, and it is reversable, but I have yet, as I just said, to see anything that would be able to pull in more supporters. I think Thompson has peaked, you can disagree, but I think the facts say he has topped-out.
July 27th, 2007 at 7:31 pm
IMHO…BOTH Thompson and McCain are dead in the water! Wake up, and smell the coffee. Fred even LOOKS (physically) like he’s dead; sad but it’s true. The man is out of juice, and rather obviously so. Right now, that leaves only Rudy and Mitt as the two remaining candidates that are remotely capable of winning the primary. Then one of them will have to face the ever-growing mountain of bad press as it relates to Bush and the Iraq debacle, in the general election. No small feat!
July 27th, 2007 at 8:27 pm
Rudy will face the bad press much better than the slickster who had to infuse his campaign with money to stay in the race.
Sooner or later some of you are going to have the face the fact that while Fred was out drawing support from McCain and all of you were laughing at McCain tanking, Rudy has been building a campaign operation in the states that is second to none and he doesn’t do it by buying votes in straw polls.
Thompson never had an agenda, cannot raise money, looks very ill but the biggest problem came from his wife running the campaign and hiring and announcing proudly that Spencer Abraham had joined the campaign. Fred gives short speeches and never stays around to greet people and some of you never bother to wonder why or why he keeps putting off his announcement? Obviously some of you have little to no political savvy. A candidate that is serious will get in almost right away with the other candidates and mix it up. If a candidate doesn’t believe in himself and his ability to take on all comers, then why are some of you thinking he is the savior of the GOP.
GOP doesn’t need a savior, it needs a tough as nails candidate that won’t back down or waffle to get votes. Like him or hate him, you know where Rudy stands and in my part of the Country that is what voters want. An outsider from DC with a spine!
July 27th, 2007 at 8:58 pm
Yes we know who Rudy is, he is a thrice-married, abortion-supporting, NE moderate. Rudy is a good guy, and he was a good figure during 9/11, but, in my opinion, the last thing the GOP needs is a candidate who is going to leave a third of the party feeling sick after voting for him in the general.