Fred Thompson Joins GOP Mob for Nomination

Former senator and sometime actor Fred Thompson of Tennessee was on “The Tonight Show” on Wednesday where he announced to Jay Leno and the studio audience that he was joining the race for the Republican nomination for president. With four months to go before the caucus and primary season begins, some say he left it too late. They are entirely wrong.

Senator Thompson may not be the GOP’s nominee a year from now but not because of a late start. He has name recognition that others facing him (Ron Paul, Mike Huckabee, Duncan Hunter) haven’t been able to achieve through months of campaigning. And people cannot vote for a candidate whose name they do not know. In celebrity-mad America, this gives entertainers a huge advantage, but surely Washington has enough lawyers – having some actors, musicians or even writers (pop fiction only please) elected can only help.

He also has less need of money than the other candidates as a result. The generic campaign plan this time around was announce early and build up such a big war chest that others couldn’t compete. That hasn’t worked out. Instead, a lot of money has been raised and then spent on . . . raising money. The media have made the whole process a “money primary” solely because that’s easier than reporting on policies and voting records (which would require brains and research). Since Senator Thompson is well-known in America, he doesn’t need to spend money to raise his profile, so what difference does it make if he hasn’t raised any money until now?

Moreover, by delaying and teasing the disgruntled rightists in the Republican Party, he has allowed them to grow disaffected with their current leading choices of Mayor Giuliani, Governor Romney and Senator McCain. Since no one has heard of Tom Tancredo outside of the Tancredo family in Colorado, Senator Thompson becomes the immediate “savior” of the right. “Now, we’ve got a real conservative with a real chance to win” the party activists are saying.

And it is there that the Thompson campaign could come a cropper. Expectations are rather high, and everyone knows what happens when candidates don’t live up to voters’ expectations. Senator McCain ran into trouble over expectations this spring, and it has hurt him. However, he had time to make some changes and stabilize the situation. With four months to go, one doubts whether Senator Thompson has the flexibility and the reserves of time needed to recover from a serious error should he make one.

© Copyright 2007 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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