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The editors of the Tennessean, a somewhat left leaning but the widest circulating paper in the state, on Fred Thompson and why, here in his home state, he still is our favorite son:
Fred Thompson
Tennessee likes Fred the way he is
Posted Sunday, December 30, 2007
PERSPECTIVEThere was a time when if Fred Thompson wanted to run for, say, governor of Tennessee, he basically could have raised his hand and said, “Uh, I’d like to be governor,” and that would be it. He could have won handily.
Thompson has a strong comfort level with voters here. He’s essentially just had to be Fred, which is how he’s known.
Fred built his reputation on the strength of his personality, which is playing out in his presidential campaign. When he can work from his own script and use his folksy, no-nonsense statements about world events, his personality is his greatest strength. It’s only when he’s caught off-guard, when someone asks a difficult question, or when he has to fit into someone else’s forum that the luster is diminished.
The rap on Fred is that he’s lazy. That’s the wrong word. It’s more like he’s restless, or bored.
When former Sen. Howard Baker talked up Fred’s candidacy, Tennesseeans knew this was serious. Baker is to Republicans in Tennessee what Ronald Reagan is to Republicans nationally. Fred is a protégé of Baker.
Fred won his U.S. Senate seat in 1994 by going around the state in a red pickup truck. That’s how he pulled up for a visit with the Tennessean’s editorial board. He ambled in alone, wearing a casual shirt and jeans. The board endorsed his opponent. Fred clobbered him.
Fred is a student of the media. It’s fascinating to hear Fred talk about how the Kennedy-Nixon debates were such compelling television. But he’s also good at describing the monotony of a movie set, where he is asked to slam a car door over and over.
If that means he’s lazy, a lot of people could be called lazy. Fred’s not lazy. He’s just being Fred.
The national press can beat up on him all they want, but to Tennesseans, he is still “our Fred.”
It’s been decades since we’ve had a politician that is as highly thought of as Fred. We’ve had national leaders come and go over the last fifteen years. Lamar Alexander ran a strong race in 1996, and returned to public office in 2002. Although Bill Frist suffered in the national spotlight, he still remains popular in Tennessee. However, none will ever be as popular as Thompson here.
Thompson, to Tennesseans, is different from the rest of our recent politicians. He came from working folks, and rose to prominence from a very modest background. He was married at seventeen, but still worked his way through Vanderbilt law school. Fred will always be one of us, and the favorite son.
Here in Tennessee, football is king, and the state lives and dies every saturday when the Volunteers take the field. It was only fitting that when the university produced a historical retrospective celebrating the Vols dominance during the 1990’s, it was Fred Thompson that provided the voiceover.
Thompson’s was considered one of the early favorites for the presidency was in 1996 and in 2000. He was considered the true rising star of the Republican party in 1996. However, he chose not to run when Alexander declared to run both times. After Alexander withdrew in 2000, he backed John McCain.
Bob Dole said earlier this year that Thompson would make a great nominee. We still believe it. Fred might not be the best candidate to win the nomination in a large field that doesn’t give him the chance for a one on one race which is what a candidate like Fred is best suited for. But we don’t doubt that out of the group, he could make the best nominee, and has the potential to be the best president.
Thompson is a man who doesn’t waver, and hopefully, that still means something to voters. There are no juicy scandals. Even though he spent many years as a batchelor after his divorce, none of his former girlfriends have anything negative to say about him. He is truly the only candidate in the field that one can be sure that what you see is what you get. Thompson never pretended to be something he wasn’t.
From his speech last Friday that the press misquoted and tried to bury him on:
If people really want in their president super type-a personality, someone who has gotten up every morning and gone to bed every night and been thinking about for years how they win the presidency of the united states, someone who can look you straight in the eye and say they enjoy every minute of campaigning, I ain’t that guy. So I hope I’ve discussed that and didn’t talk you out of anything. I honestly want – I can’t imagine a worse set of circumstances [than] achieving the Presidency of the United States under false pretenses. I go out of my way to be myself.
“I honestly want – I can’t imagine a worse set of circumstances [than] achieving the Presidency of the United States under false pretenses.”
That right there is all I ever needed to know about Thompson. In that quote, he summed up why to this voter, he is not only the best philosophy wise, but the best candidate we’ve had. In this vein, he is the anti-candidate. The man who refuses to play games with people to make them like him. He is who he is… and NO ONE can take that away from him, and no one can accuse him of being something he’s not.
Thompson was faced with expectations that nobody could possibly live up to, but in reality, to those of us who really believed in him, he met those expectations. If he doesn’t win, it’s not our loss, but the Republican party’s loss.
Articles are being published today about Thompson’s video address to Iowa’s voters refering to it as “Reaganesque” and “GREAT,” but possibly too late. It’s not Reaganesque, it’s Fred Thompson being himself. In terms of presentation, it’s the best speech I’ve seen all year, along with Romney’s religious speech and Huckabee’s speech at the Values Voters Summit. If the party does splinter in 2008 like some are predicting, it will be a sad sign of what could’ve been.
It’s possible that this might not be his year, and his time has already passed, but to Tennesseans, he will always be the most popular state figure of this generation. He was one of original members of the Republican resurgence in the state. He has joined the ranks of our larger than life figures from the 20th century. Al Gore Sr., Howard Baker, Ned McWhorter, and Fred Thompson.
Win or lose, he has earned it. Fred, if things don’t fall in our favor, some may have been dissapointed, but not the folks back home. You’ve made us proud, and we are in your corner, win, lose, or draw.
But… It ain’t over yet.
NOTE:
I will have a lot more to say, and some interesting inside info about another campaign in the next day or so, when I finally finish a long piece I’ve been working on. I will probably get it up tomorrow after the Tennessee game and before the Sugar Bowl.
Happy new year…
January 1st, 2008 at 4:50 am
Tommy,
Wait…I thought getting an endorsement from a newspaper made you a RINO. At least that’s what the Romney supporters here have been telling me the past couple of weeks.
January 1st, 2008 at 5:09 am
It is over.
Has been for months.
Fred will endorse J/Mac I think. The question is whether it will be before or after NH??
January 1st, 2008 at 6:43 am
Interesting article!
http://fayettecountyrepublicanpartyiowa.blogspot.com/
January 1st, 2008 at 7:57 am
I like Fred, but if he can’t bust through in Iowa or New Hampshire, he’s toast.
I hope his supporters will come home to Rudy Giuliani. His supporters are essentially Economic Conservatives who are also Law & Order types (no pun intended). Rudy’s the best fit for them.
Libertarians for Giuliani at http://www.mainstreamlibertarian.com
January 1st, 2008 at 8:17 am
Does that mean the Tennessean will start releasing polls with Fred surging in Iowa? Unfortunately I don’t think the Tennessean can compete with the McCain newspapers and their polls.
January 1st, 2008 at 8:59 am
By the way, a new poll shows Romney leading among dentists:
Mitt Romney 31%
Rudy Giuliani 21%
Mike Huckabee 17%
John McCain 11%
Fred Thompson 11%
Ron Paul 11%
http://prweb.com/releases/2008/1/prweb595681.htm
With the dentists on his corner Romney cannot be stopped. People will go do their dental checkup and as they sit back breathing N2O they’ll start hearing how Huck is a jerk and McCain is too old. The New York Times doesn’t know what it’s up against.
January 1st, 2008 at 9:01 am
[...] artikel postad på race42008.com. Om Fred klarar sig första veckan efter Iowa kan han bli farlig; hans politikerstil passar bäst i [...]
January 1st, 2008 at 9:02 am
"Though this poll only surveyed dentists, the implications reach beyond the profession of dentistry. Dentists see over 30 million Americans each month, allowing them to both hear and influence people’s opinions on a wide range of topics."
January 1st, 2008 at 9:24 am
#6: Arg, LOL! =)
January 1st, 2008 at 9:24 am
FDT is still my #2. I really hope he doesn’t come out and support JMac.
Tommy – in all honest I thought this article was effective. I’ve given FDT the lazy moniker, myself, but after reading this article I can begin to see how one could get bored with this whole process when it is the circus that it is. I still don’t think Gov Romney should choose him as his VP but he does seem like somebody who would make a good AG, or Sec HomeSec.
January 1st, 2008 at 9:41 am
Fox News just said there is a new poll out showing Romney in the lead by 5. does anybody know what this is?
January 1st, 2008 at 9:45 am
That’s funny because FoxNews.com is touting the DMR poll from last night showing “Huckabee pulling away.”
January 1st, 2008 at 9:49 am
It was Carl Cameron that brought it up.
January 1st, 2008 at 9:55 am
Illinoisguy:
CNN/Opinion Research poll:
Mitt: 31
Mike: 28
Thompson: 13
McCain: 10
5% MOE
“Romney gained 6 points since the last CNN poll in Iowa, taken in mid December, with Huckabee dropping 5 points in the same time.”
“The CNN poll found that when it comes to the issues, the economy, illegal immigration and terrorism continue to dominate the GOP debate”
January 1st, 2008 at 9:57 am
http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN2948587520080101
Ruters/Zogby: Huck leads Mitt 29-25.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/12/31/iowa.poll/index.html
CNN : Mitt leads Huck 31-28
Reuters/Zogby: The poll of 925 likely Democratic caucus-goers and 928 likely Republican caucus-goers was taken Friday through Monday and has a margin of error of 3.3 percentage points for each party.
The CNN/Opinion Research Corp. Poll was conducted by telephone on December 26-30. There were 482 likely Democratic caucus-goers and 373 likely GOP caucus goers interviewed for the survey.
January 1st, 2008 at 9:58 am
Huck leads Mitt 29-25 in Zogby poll.
Reuters/Zogby: The poll of 925 likely Democratic caucus-goers and 928 likely Republican caucus-goers was taken Friday through Monday and has a margin of error of 3.3 percentage points for each party.
http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN2948587520080101
January 1st, 2008 at 10:02 am
I’m glad to see the huckster falling but I don’t Gov Romney’s expectations to get raised too high – i really would rather he go into the caucus down 2 or 3 points.
I have a conference call with the NH Romney leadership team on Thursday night so I will fill in fellow Rombots … i am on gmail at rbrun79 if you want NH updates.
January 1st, 2008 at 10:11 am
DMR:
Size=800,MOE=3.5, Huck leads by 6
Date: 12/27-30
Reuters/Zogby/C-SPAN : Size=928,MOE=3.3, Huck leads by 4
Date: 12/28-31
CNN:
Size=373,MOE=5, Mitt leads by 3
Date: 12-26-30
The two polls that show Huck leading has larger sample size, lower MOE and lead size > MOE. They are also more current than CNN poll.
Conclusion: Huck is clearly leading in IA.
January 1st, 2008 at 10:15 am
#17 that is fine with me. Gov Romney is right where I hoped he would be come 1/1/08.
January 1st, 2008 at 11:32 am
Tommy, I read a lot of newspapers, and truthfully, I wouldn’t put much stock in the Tennessean at all. They are among the most liberal newspapers I have read, in fact, I put them on a par with WaPo and the NYT. As far as Fred’s popularity in Tennessee, I think you could find an argument for any of the recent Republicans in Tennessee. The one thing that I have always admired about Tennessee is that you all have so many Republican icons. Fred Thompson has run an honorable campaign, and you and I both know he is neither lazy nor stupid. He has done the campaign his way, and while I haven’t always agreed with it, I have always respected Senator Thompson.
January 1st, 2008 at 12:11 pm
Good article.
The IOWA caucus is going to be a squeaker, no matter what the polls say.