All about Fred's smackdown video

Interesting background, how the video a few articles below (over 1 million views!) was basically done with no script and in a single take, basically at the drop of a hat. Very impressive! (You'll have to go to the original site to read about that!)

The video response, released to the Breitbart.tv website and also linked on Drudge, was played more than 200,000 times that day. By the end of the week, that number would have more than tripled. Conservative blogs posted the video with their own commentary on Moore and Thompson, the former deemed moronic and the latter most excellent.

It wasn't just the Internet. CNN ran the Thompson video in full the next day. So did MSNBC. The Associated Press distributed a story about the confrontation on its wire. The New York Daily News highlighted the exchange and, more important, so did the Des Moines Register. That night, Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly replayed part of the video on his ratings-topping show and discussed it at length in his "Impact" segment. Said O'Reilly, "I'm giving it a win for Fred Thompson."

[The Rest of the Story]

National Journal's Hotline, the insider's guide to campaign reporting and analysis, put it this way: "Thanks to Michael Moore, Fred Thompson may have upstaged the entire GOP field without even showing up to 5/15's debate." Thompson was named the winner of the debate in an unscientific poll on Glenn Reynolds's high-traffic conservative/libertarian blog, Instapundit.com. And on it went.

When Thompson and his advisers talk about running a "different kind of campaign," this is what they mean. They believe he can use the Internet--in videos, audio files, and written commentary--to communicate directly with voters. His message will be unfiltered and therefore somewhat protected from mischaracterization by a left-leaning press corps in Washington. Campaign events will be filmed and posted so that interested parties--in this case, very interested parties--can see for themselves whether a Thompson performance was actually "lackluster" or lackluster only in the eyes of reporters. It is all part of Thompson's plan.

And Thompson is planning to run for president. His friends and advisers have moved on from the will-he-won't-he talk of just a month ago. Now, they speak of an exploratory committee. Barring some new unforeseen obstacle, he will be in by late June.

Courtesy of Stephan F. Hayes at the Weekly Standard

As with all of Mr Hayes' articles, it contains great details so be sure to sver them all at the originating site - and this give some solid some insight as to why Fred delays officially announcing - there are advantages to running a guerrilla campaign. Also be sure to read the part about pressure and threats on local politicians to fall into the Guiliani and Romney camps - I've heard about the strong-arming that has been going on here in Colorado - notably by Gov Owens and his Romney pressure tactics on our legislators, and the Guiliani people as well.