If for no other reason than this:
We need someone espousing and articulating the entire spectrum of Conservatism and Federalism, calling the others to task and forcing them towards conservatism in areas they come up short.
And also, Fred takes from Huckabee, whom I despise, so thats a VERY good thing.
If only Fred would lay into McCain on Immigration, I'd be much happier.
So Fred, if you're listening, your duty is not finished.
Stay IN, and be our conservative voice amongst the non-conservatives that are left
Showing posts with label Campaign. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Campaign. Show all posts
Saturday, January 19, 2008
The case for staying in...
What happens after SC?
I don't know. But it is not looking good. Weak 3rd or even a 4th placebehind a non-campaigning Romney in SC is not a good thing From Powerline:
Fred Thompson just spoke to his supporters in South Carolina, where he appears headed for a weak third or fourth place finish. Thompson thanked everyone and then spoke about America and conservatism's contribution to it. He did not talk about Florida or being in the race to stay.
Word is that Thompson will return to Tennessee to visit his mother in the hospital. While he's there, presumably, he'll consider his options. Frankly, and I say this with regret, it's difficult to see the case for him remaining in the race.
Courtesy of Powerline
Thursday, January 17, 2008
This is it. Get to Fred 08 NOW. Call SC for Fred!
If for some reason you have waited, now is the last chance. Get on the Fred08 site and make some calls for Fred in South Carolina. If you dont want McCain & his Amnesty, or Huckabee and his Clinton/Carter act, then get on the phone and call as if the nation depended on it. It does. This is our best chance to force Fred onto the MSM radar, and get the true conservative views heard.
p.s. I've been calling every other day for the past week - and I have been getting great responses and only a few grumpy ones. There is something to be said for Southern Hospitality, especially when your guy is a Soutnerner and a Conservative. If you've never done it before, git it a spin, especially if you have some unused minutes to spare on your cell phone.
Skip 9news for a night and give some potential "Flip For Fred" people a call between 6 and 7 mountain time tonight and tomorrow.
Saturday, January 5, 2008
Romney takes Wyoming. Where is the Thompson Campaign?
This is an official rant. If you are offended, then ignore it.
I've been at this off and on, here on the web and behind the scenes since March. And the one consistent thing I have run into is that the Thompson Campaign folks NEVER seem to follow through and seem utterly uninterested in harnessing grass roots volunteers - indeed they seem to discard them as useless.
I guess the Fred Folks didnt need the names and leaders and so on that we tried to give them this summer for Colorado and Wyoming. They ignored us and now Romney walks away with a big win and Fred gets crumbs in Wyoming. We had peopel months ago lined up to gather groups, to pish their local legislators for endorsements of Fred, to rally and spread the word. But the Thompson campaign staff never called them. They never responded. Same thing goes for Colorado.
Crap like this makes me despair that Thompson will run any campaign much less a good one. We tried to organize Wyoming back in May and June, and the "official" people ***NEVER*** got back to us. So all the excitement died down and the people went away due to not having any official people to turn to.
And Feb 5 are the caucuses here - and we STILL dont have any official contact or organization here in Colorado.
Fred, wake the hell up - your people are NOT doing their jobs, and you are going to LOSE if you keep it up like this. And if you lose, then we lose the last conpletely conservative candidate, and are stuck with liberal Giuliani, open-border big government McCain or the faux-con Romney (or God Forbid, "Gomer" Huckabee).
Friday, January 4, 2008
Iowa? Full of...
Idiots apprently, who would vote the superficialities of their Evangelical beleifs without bothering to look at the acctual effects and history of the candidate and policies. The empty headed populist rhetoric along with the constant "I am the Jesus Candidate" of Huckbee apparently fooled a lot of people in Iowa. And Huckabee lied - he ran the attack ad even after he said he was not going to. The state that gave large numbers to Pat Robertson and Buchanan strikes again with Huckabee (and Ron paul in double digits). Fools!
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Tancredo out - Pushes to Romney. Tom, ya let us down.
Tom, the only one out there other than Hunter, that supports your view of securing the border as a matter of national defese, is Fred. You were bamboozled by worrying too much about opposing Huckabee instead of doing the right thing. Forget 2010 here in Colorado, you backed a fake who was an amnesty open-border guy in 2005-6. Tom, how could you?
Rep Tancredo leaving the presidential race
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Fred woke up - and I did too
Well, it looks like Fred has decided to campaign after all. So Im blogging again as best I can. It may take a few days for me to get all the stale links updated here, so for those of you looking here, bear with me. I'll be back to the old volume quite soon.
So I will try to get back in the saddle here. If you get the chance, go sign up for a phone bank and donate to get Fred the money to get the word out in Iowa. The truth about Huckabee being suspect on crime, immigration, taxes, government, terror, and corrutption seems to be coming out. SO come on over to Fred. the only CONSISTENT CONSERVATIVE in the race, HANDS DOWN.
Friday, September 7, 2007
Looks like waiting did not hurt Fred's donations
Check out the first 12 hours.
Enroute to another campaign stop in Iowa, Team Thompson provided an update on how former Tennessee senator and now presidential candidate Fred Thompson’s “Tonight Show” and Internet video launch has been received.
Since midnight, some 13,195 people have registered at Thompson’s Web site, and he’s raked in more than $300,000 in online donations. The site has received 126,000 unique visitors and Thompson’s 15-minute announcement video was seen 110,000 times, Thompson aides report.
Courtesy of The Wall Street Journal "Washington Wire"
I bolded what stands out to me - 13,000 volunteers and over $300,000 in donations in less that 12 hours, in the middle of the night! And all that without a concurrent telemarketing or mailing campaign to support the website launch, just word of mouth and an appearance on Leno. Thats all grass roots!
Was the wait a mistake for Fred Thompson?
Did waiting hurt Fred?
Whatever happens next, Thompson at least gave commentators something new to talk about. Was it a mistake to go on Leno instead of the debate, they wondered? And, did he sign on too late, they speculated? Is he a team player?
Thompson must have chuckled all the way to Iowa. Too late for what? Most Americans still don't know who's running and don't share the punditry's obsession with quantifying who's up and who's down every 24-hour cycle. If they're watching television, they're more likely watching Leno, who averaged 5.9 million viewers in 2006, instead of the presidential debates, which tend to draw between 1 million and 2 million viewers, according to Variety.
By setting himself apart from the gaggle and having a one-on-one chat with 6 million Americans, Thompson messed up the political ecosystem. In a single well-timed appearance, he made up for a late start and got exposure and buzz. And it didn't cost him a dime.
Some mistake.
Courtesy of Kathleen Parker at RCP
I was opposed to waiting so long, but in the end, it looks like Fred was right, and I was, wrrrr. wrrrr. wrrrrrrr. umm, "not in alignment with reality". Yeah, that'll do.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Fred Thompson Fundraising Report for June
Pretty good numbers for a single first month - and no organized drive, just a website and a couple of fundraisers.
- Time covered: June 1-30
- Total Raised: $3,462,355.05
- Total expenses: $625,745.97
- Net: $2,836,609.08
- Biggest Single Expense: Web hardware $66,750
- Payroll total (including taxes): $106,852
- Burn rate: 18.0%
- Fundraising events included: 2
- Number of donors: 9,167
- Avg. contribution: $369.87
- Number of online donors: 7,534
- Total online donations: $771,783
- Number of donors under $200 (small donors): 6,888
- 75% (6,888) of the contributors gave less than $200.
- Contributions came from 50 states and D.C
- Peyton Manning- Super Bowl winning Quarterback from the University of Tennessee
- John M. Dowd — a Washington, D.C., attorney and former John McCain backer — donated $2,300 (his wife Carol Dowd donate the same amount)
- Eugene Volokh — prominent UCLA law professor and libertarian blogger — donated $750
- Al D'Amato — a former New York senator who endorsed Mr. Thompson on NY1 earlier this year — donated $2,300
- Douglas J. Feith — a former undersecretary of defense and architect of the Iraq war — donated $2,300
- Kirby Wilbur — prominent conservative Washington State radio host — donated $2,300
- Fred Malek- president of Thayer Capital Partners and a huge fundraising poobah, and one of Sen. John McCain's finance chairmen, his wife, Marlene, is listed as donating $2,300 to the Thompson effort
- Mack Mattingly- former senator from Georgia who endorsed Thompson
- Johnnie Byrd- former Florida House Speaker and 2004 Senate candidate
So riding in second place in most polls, big in key states of SC and FL, sitting on 5 million, and he has barely started to do real retail fundraising and has not started to campaign. Not a bad place to be.
Friday, July 27, 2007
Mary Matalin staying put with Fred Thompson
Per the Washington Post. Glad she is sticking with Fred.
Rumors are flying about more senior level departures from the unofficial presidential campaign of former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) Mary Matalin, a former adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney and longtime Republican political operative, is staying put. Reached in Croatia, Matalin said she chats daily with the Thompson organization and remains 100 percent on board
Courtesy of Chris Cillizza at The Fix blog (Washington Post)
Is Newt Gingrich hinting about eventually supporting Fred Thompson?
This is pretty interesting stuff if you have a "Fredhead" slant to your world (as I do).
Newt Gingrich has said he won’t make up his mind whether to seek the Republican presidential nomination until after the summer, but there are signs he is warming up to Fred Thompson as his preferred GOP candidate.
"I’ve always said it was unlikely I would run,” and if Thompson runs "and does well, then I think that makes it easier for me not to run,” he said in an interview with the Associated Press last week.
But on the same day as the interview, the former Speaker of the House’s communications director Rich Galen said he had signed on as an advisor to Thompson’s not yet official campaign.
In another possibly telling sign, Gingrich and his wife had dinner with Thompson and his wife at Thompson’s home in Virginia on July 16, according to The Politico.
Gingrich has insisted that he won’t make a decision on a presidential run until after he marks the 13th anniversary of the Contract with America with an online seminar in late September.
By keeping the possibility of a White House bid open, Gingrich "does get to help frame the debate by being a potential candidate,” Galen told The Politico.
"He’s not as consumed with becoming a candidate as he is consumed with the candidates talking about the things that are on his mind.”
Courtesy of Newsmax
If Newt is seen as backing Fred then its all over on the conservative side. As a matter of opinion, I hope Newt signs on as an advisor - but has nothing to do with anything other than coming up with good ideas. Newt is great at ideas, lousy at implementation (which is why he would be a terrible president and was ultimately unsuccessful as speaker).
Another "Get" For the Fred Thompson Campaign Staff
From what the National Review writes, landing Jim Mills is a big win.
For those of us who have encountered Mills on Capitol Hill, there will be a lot of raised eyebrows. Mills is something of a local legend in the Capitol Hill press corps - very smart, tenacious but fair questioner, relentless energy. He somehow manages to have a good relationship with lawmakers while asking them how they got their hand caught in the cookie jar, pointing out that their answer contradicts what they said yesterday with a friendly smile on his face.
Courtesy of The Campaign Spot at National Review
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
More Signs of Social Conservatives Selecting Fred Thompson
This is more good news - its a solid bloc to start with, and it chokes Romney out of that part of the race.
Some of the nation's most influential social conservatives say their movement is quickly coalescing around Fred Thompson, the former senator from Tennessee, for the Republican presidential nomination, a decision that would bolster his expected campaign with money and grass-roots support
"It's almost as if the man and the moment met," said Richard Land, who speaks for more than 16 million people as head of public policy for the nation's Southern Baptists.
Land said he will not endorse a candidate in the primary, but his boosterish comments about Thompson -- like those of other conservative leaders -- leave little doubt about his excitement about the former senator. He said support for Thompson was spreading "almost like a prairie fire" and predicted that some conservative leaders would endorse the 64-year-old [Senator] actor and lawyer in coming weeks.
Courtesy of The Boston Globe
If Focus and Dobson join up, then Fred will be able to secure the base, and go hunting further afield. Plus it keeps Newt on the bench.
The campaign is built, Now getting the right people to run it
Beware of hyperventilating pundits who are calling it a "shakeup". Collamore and company were brought in to build this thing, not run it. Just like you get a team to design and build the race car, now you need a team to drive it and keep it in the race. The "gurus" are now stepping in, with a campaign that is apparently assembled to Fred's specifications. So now we see how well things go. I also believe this means no chance of an announcement for the next couple of weeks while they get settled in and start initial maneuvering. And with August 11 Iowa looming, they are probably going to have to wait. Still, there is always the possibility of a surprise - and that would bring Fred's announcement in on July 28 (by the 31st), for tax/funding reasons. So I'll go back and stand by my July 28 prediction.
New Leadership, as Planned, For the Fred Thompson Campaign
Better coverage than the typical MSM story "shakeup" you'll see on this.
Tom Collamore, the former Altria exec who had been running Fred Thompson's campaign, has resigned and will be replaced by Randy Enwright. Enwright is a Florida political hand with ties to former Gov. Jeb Bush. Also coming on board in a leadership capacity is Spencer Abraham, the former Michigan senator and Energy secretary.
"We’re making a number of planned changes as we move to the next phase," said Thompson communications director Linda Rozett. "We’re adding political muscle to the organization."
A Thompson aide said that Enwright would serve as the day-to-day manager while Abraham would take more of a campaign chairman capacity.
Courtesy of Johnahtan Martin at The Politico
This is good. I had my worries about Collamore and his ties to big tobacco being a vulnerability. And Spencer Abraham may bring into play Michigan (which swings the upper mid west). Well played Fred!
Sunday, July 22, 2007
More Reasons For Fred Thompson Delay
The Jacksonville (FL) Times-Union publishes some good info on why Fred might be delaying the announcement. This info is in addition to the obvious organizational issues the campaign is having (see the "Abortion Lobby: story below). If this is truly why he is holding off, then I was probably wrong on it hurting him. Declaring too soon, and coming out under-prepared would hurt him far worse.
He still has time to craft his message and tighten his speeches. He can hone his act by sparring with practice candidates in mock debates behind the scenes.
Best of all for Thompson is that he had the foresight, discipline and steely nerves to do what no other Republican presidential candidate was wise enough to do - nothing at all, and for a long time.
Now, with John McCain running on fumes, Mitt Romney having already hit up everybody possible for campaign cash and Giuliani slipping in the polls, this non-candidate candidate named Thompson could easily move from the television screen to the political arena.
There, he would appear fresh, if for no other reason than that so far he has remained offstage while the other candidates have toed the Republican line that Republican male voters are indicating they may not want to toe themselves anymore.
Of course, women voters usually decide presidential and other important political races. But Thompson is holding his own with them, too.
Courtesy of JAcksonville (FL) Times Union
Fred Thompson in 2nd in Colorado!
Doubled our amount here since March!
Colorado Republican Primary 7/19:
(March Results in Parenthesis)
- Rudy Giuliani 35% (25)
- Fred Thompson 20% (10)
- John McCain 11% (23)
- Mitt Romney 9% (9)
- Newt Gingrich 6% (8)
- Tom Tancredo 4% (7)
Sample Size: 600 completed telephone interviews among a random sample of likely Republican primary voters living in Colorado (535 Republicans and 65 unaffiliated voters).
Sample Dates: July 15-18, 2007
Margin of Error: ± 4 percentage points, 95% of the time, on questions where opinion is evenly split.
Courtesy of ARG Polls
Great news for us FredHeads, but keep your eye on the ball; We still have some catching up to do with Giuliani. I still believe his social liberal stuff will not fly with the party here once Republicans (especially Conservative ones) take a solid look at his true voting and actions record of the past 10 years, and compare that to Fred over the same time span. We've been needing to do some cleaning out of the party here and this is a good opportunity to do so.
More Fred Thompson Campaign Staff News
Looks like another key piece of the puzzle.
In a new sign that Fred Thompson is readying a full-on campaign launch, he's chosen a direct mail fundraising firm, HSP Direct, which is well wired into conservative circuits. HSP Direct -- Hogan, Schenk and Paul, Inc -- is based in Virginia.
Courtesy Of Marc Ambinder at the Atlantic Online
Hat Tip Citizens For Thompson
About the "Abortion Lobbying"
This is solid.
The way this has developed has been pretty unfortunate, apparently involving foggy memories from 15+ years ago, and let's face it some poor communications. Let me give you some background. There's been a lot of confusion and inaccurate reporting about Thompson's position - did he deny, or does he claim not to remember? Are those contradictory positions?
“For what it's worth, Thompson's denial was to the allegation the LAT made - that Thompson lobbied Sununu for this group. Period. That was what the LAT claimed they had proof of, and that was what we thought was being denied. Later, the allegation changed a bit - notice that Sununu is not in this NYT story? - and in response to that, Thompson has acknowledged that he genuinely doesn't recall whether he'd ever spoken to people from that group in '91. I believe he's been, and remains, consistent on those two points: He didn't lobby Sununu for this group, and… He doesn't recall whether he ever spoke to, consulted, offered legal or political information, etc for this client.he way this has developed has been pretty unfortunate, apparently involving foggy memories from 15+ years ago, and let's face it some poor communications. Let me give you some background. There's been a lot of confusion and inaccurate reporting about Thompson's position - did he deny, or does he claim not to remember? Are those contradictory positions?
“For what it's worth, Thompson's denial was to the allegation the LAT made - that Thompson lobbied Sununu for this group. Period. That was what the LAT claimed they had proof of, and that was what we thought was being denied. Later, the allegation changed a bit - notice that Sununu is not in this NYT story? - and in response to that, Thompson has acknowledged that he genuinely doesn't recall whether he'd ever spoken to people from that group in '91. I believe he's been, and remains, consistent on those two points: He didn't lobby Sununu for this group, and… He doesn't recall whether he ever spoke to, consulted, offered legal or political information, etc for this client.he way this has developed has been pretty unfortunate, apparently involving foggy memories from 15+ years ago, and let's face it some poor communications. Let me give you some background. There's been a lot of confusion and inaccurate reporting about Thompson's position - did he deny, or does he claim not to remember? Are those contradictory positions?
“For what it's worth, Thompson's denial was to the allegation the LAT made - that Thompson lobbied Sununu for this group. Period. That was what the LAT claimed they had proof of, and that was what we thought was being denied. Later, the allegation changed a bit - notice that Sununu is not in this NYT story? - and in response to that, Thompson has acknowledged that he genuinely doesn't recall whether he'd ever spoken to people from that group in '91. I believe he's been, and remains, consistent on those two points: He didn't lobby Sununu for this group, and… He doesn't recall whether he ever spoke to, consulted, offered legal or political information, etc for this client.
“As far as I can tell, there's nothing in these NYT records that suggests Thompson lobbied Sununu, as was alleged. It appears that Thompson was simply consulted, and asked questions of people he knew in the Bush administration. To the best of my understanding, those are the facts."
“As far as I can tell, there's nothing in these NYT records that suggests Thompson lobbied Sununu, as was alleged. It appears that Thompson was simply consulted, and asked questions of people he knew in the Bush administration. To the best of my understanding, those are the facts." “As far as I can tell, there's nothing in these NYT records that suggests Thompson lobbied Sununu, as was alleged. It appears that Thompson was simply consulted, and asked questions of people he knew in the Bush administration. To the best of my understanding, those are the facts."
Courtesy of David Brody at CBN News
Basically, it was some deliberately misleading and untrue allegations by the MSM writer, and a fumbled response by the Thompson campaign team. They have to do better than that, because the MSM has shown repeatedly it will simply spew "oppo research" without bothering to verify it, so long as it vilifies conservatives and damages Republicans (or the war effort).
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