Rep Tancredo leaving the presidential race
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.
This is fairly simple. The Thompson campaign appears to have abandoned the early supporters, the grass roots and the internet. I am getting direct mails, and have notices that Fred's online presence has dwindled away to nothing other than his website.
And here is a damning post I saw on a newsboard. After he goes through the reasons he cannot support Hucakabee as a nannystater, Romney as untrustworthy flip-flop fake, Guiliani as wrong on immigration, 2nd Amendment, judges and being pro-life, and Ron Paul for being a nutter...As many of you know I was touting Thompson here in March. And for a while it seemed that Fred was the guy. He has all the right stands, his Federalist approach is exactly what we need. He is strong on 2nd amendment rights, strict judges, border AND internal enforcement against illegal aliens, strong on winning the war on Islamic Fascism, strong on smaller but more efficient government, and strong on individual liberty. What's not to like? BUT...
He isn't campaigning worth a crap - he is the right guy philosophically, but nobody is hearing about it, and those grass roots organizers like me have been shunted aside and ignored. I had well over a hundred people stepping up in my state ready to do the footwork. But we have gotten ZERO response from the campaign, and the numbers have withered away to less than 2 dozen, because there is simply NOTHING TO DO.
The campaign never called us, never emailed us never acknowledged that we
existed.The new people that came in August to run the show threw away all the internet support, threw away and neglected the grass roots except to send old-style direct mailers to us recently begging for money, threw away his Youtube spots, threw away the podcasts, and threw away all the momentum we generated. Its like they want to run a 1992 campaign, top-down, direct-mai and phone based. But its 2007 dammit, thats a recipe for losing!
So now, unless someone in the Thompson campaign wakes the hell up and shakes things up, Fred is done.
And that leave me with precisely NOBODY I want to vote FOR on the Republican side. I will not be donating money, I will not be volunteering to do campaign work. I will only ultimately pull the lever AGAINST the Dems, because the porkers and powerbrokers in the Republican Party have failed to leave the Country Club and come back for us Sam's Club Republicans.
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.
"Fred Thompson's eight-year record is generally pro-growth with an excellent record on entitlement reform and school choice and a very good record on taxes, regulation, and trade," said Club for Growth President Pat Toomey. "His belief in a limited federal government is demonstrated by his numerous votes against government intrusion in the private sector and increased federal spending. His fondness for Tennessee pork aside, Thompson consistently voted against increased spending and new government projects, at times, one of only a handful of senators to do so."
Next week, Fred will announce he is running for President of the United States. The internet has been buzzing these past few hours and excitement continues to build as we near the day of his announcement.
The plan is Fred announcing September 6 by a webcast at www.imwithfred.com. Then Fred will head out on a five-day campaign tour through Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Florida before his homecoming in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee.
It’s exciting for everyone who has been supporting Fred these past few months, but this is just the beginning. As Fred said, “we have an opportunity to change politics in Washington and across the country.” Supporters from all over the country can now devote their time, energy, and resources to supporting a man who wants to keep America secure, unite us, and push for continued prosperity.
The first step begins September 6. Join us on this journey. Sign up to be a Friend of Fred. Put widgets and buttons on your blogs and MySpace pages. Tell friends and family why you think Fred would be great for America.
Gather with your friends and family at one of the thousands of national house parties for Fred September 6. Together we can show our support for a leader who will help keep America secure, unite us, and keeps us on a path of prosperity.
I asked her to do certain things for me. She did what I asked her to do.”
The former senator said his wife’s actions, however they have been interpreted in the press, have been at his behest. “She always looks out for my best interests, and when she sees something that she knows I would not approve of, or is not in my best interest, she voices that concern — in other words, just exactly the way I would want her to. Now, some people don’t like that, especially some people who have their own issue with regard to the campaign, shall we say, and they take advantage of putting out anonymous comments and so forth.”
“She’s not going to become a public commentator and personality as a candidate’s wife until there’s a candidate,” he said.
Speaking at his $1,000-a-ticket fundraiser at the J.W. Marriott Hotel in downtown Washington on Monday night, Fred Thompson began by introducing "my campaign manager -- oh, I mean my wife." That little joke about Jeri Thompson reveals how the prospective Republican presidential candidate regards the attack on his intelligent, beautiful wife.
The archetypal "trophy wife" (a phrase coined by Fortune magazine 18 years ago) conjures up the image of a rich corporate executive who tires of the woman he married when they both were young, whom he has grown old with, and turns to a young, chic new wife, usually seen as a home wrecker. Mrs. Thompson does not fit that mold. Thompson had been divorced for 17 years and was on friendly terms with his first wife when he married Jeri Kehn in 2002. They also have two small children -- not the trophy wife caricature either.
Nor does Jeri Thompson's background fit the caricature. After working for the Senate Republican Conference and the Republican National Committee, she became a big-time political media consultant in Washington.
[Tom] Collamore is a former bureaucrat and tobacco lobbyist with vastly less political experience than Mrs. Thompson has. Not even Collamore's friends could conceive of him running a national campaign. [But Jeri, on the other hand....]
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.”
There are several conservatives over the years who have been members of the Council on Foreign Relations. I try to learn as much as I can from all viewpoints. I have been a fellow of the American Enterprise Institute, one of the conservative thinks tanks in town, and enjoy having intellectual exercise and discussions whether I agree or not with anyone on any particular issue."
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.
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.
We were pleased, but not surprised, to read this morning that Sen. Fred Thompson has secured the services of Joseph Cella of Fidelis, a conservative Catholic advocacy group.
Cella began reading the old Dayton v. Kennedy blog from its inception and was kind to offer us long-distance advice — advice we often took.
This is a major catch for the prenatal Thompson candidacy as it continues to man up. It signals that Senator Thompson’s brain trust sees the GOP nomination contest emerging as a battle between Thompson and Mayor Giuliani — the candidate of whom Fidelis has been most critical.
Email
I am going to be blogging at "At My Own Risk" (atmyownrisk.com) once I get that site set up and get used to the software.
