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Born at the Crest of the Empire

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Picture of the Day

Politico has piece on the state of the Thompson (non)campaign. Internal problems, more personnel leaving, and, notable to me, a lowering of fundraising expectations and belt tightening.

And then there's that "lazy" charge again:

"The rumblings are raising questions more broadly among Republican insiders about whether Thompson has the discipline and zeal to wage a winning campaign -- much less craft a message that can distinguish himself from the current crop of GOP contenders."

(Fred Thompson is reflected in the window at a radio station booth as he is interviewed during a visit to the Minnesota State Fair Monday, Aug. 27, 2007. (AP Photo/Jim Mone))

posted by mikevotes at 8:39 AM

7 Comments:

  • He does seem kind of sloppy and bumbling. Maybe he's going for the Homer Simpson demographic?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 9:02 AM  

  • As an Edwards supporter, I've been frustrated by the traditional media's high-school-like obsession with covering the Hillary vs. Obama horse race to the near exclusion of all other candidates. This is not just unfair to the other candidates, more importantly it's unfair to voters who are given a myopic view of the field of possibilities.

    Not being a close follower of the GOP crusade of coarseness, I can imaging the frustration the Huckabees and Brownbacks must feel with the traditional media's fawning coverage of Grandpa Fred. It the coverage isn't fawning, it at lest is sucking the column-inches and video frames away from actual candidates -- those who've actually stepped up to the plate -- as the "press" continues to waste it's time on this freak show of a non-campaign campaign.

    Nice to see the lazy press biting the GOP in the ass instead of the Dems for once.

    By Blogger -epm, at 9:51 AM  

  • Anon, I don't know. I've never gotten the Thompson mystique. Of course, I find his "Law and Order" character pretty shallow, predictable, and annoying.

    ....

    EPM, Here's my opinion of the dirty little secret.

    Edwards is not treated as mainstream because he really believes in some of his left leaning positions. He is perceived to be anti-corporate and within the media values, that makes him non-mainstream.

    As to the Huckabee's and Brownbacks of the world. Even if Thompson wasn't there, they still wouldn't get limelight.

    The presentation is largely binary.
    frontrunner and chaser, Clinton and Obama, Giuliani and Romney, Democrat Republican, Pepesi and Coke.

    In order to get coverage, they have to crack the perceived top two somehow.

    That is the depth of our horserace media coverage.

    I mean, I like RC cola, but it's not really in the conversation, you know?

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 1:17 PM  

  • Good point, Mike.

    So the media man-crush for Fred is affecting free press for Romney, perhaps? Given that McCain has dipped to Ron Paul popularity, are the traditional media then looking at Fred-Rudy (Rudy-Fred) as the title bout, with Romney as an alternate?

    By Blogger -epm, at 3:26 PM  

  • Exactly, Thompson poses a far more immediate threat to Romney because if Romney's pushed out of the perception of the top two, he's done.

    The media has already accepted it's Giuliani vs. the conservative, it's just a question of who plays the role of conservative.

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 6:07 PM  

  • I think that The Powers That Be do not want Romney as their candidate. I just have that feeling.

    What's wrong with him? Too photogenic, too slick, too Massachusetts, too Mormon? In any case, he's getting no traction in the mainstream media.

    I see the Republican side as trying to figure out who can get the votes aside from Romney: Giuliani or Thompson?

    And on the Democratic side, I'm personally preferring Edwards to Obama or Clinton, knowing as I do that Kucinich, who I really like best, has the same snowball's chance as Ron Paul...

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 7:24 PM  

  • Local, I'm getting somewhat the same Romney vibe. It's like they're covering him as a lightweight or something.

    And I don't think the Republicans are at all happy with their choices. When they're justifying Giuliani by his democratic electability numbers it comes off as a justification for biting their tongues.

    As for the Dems, I still don't know. In past years by the time the primaries got to Texas, it was already decided so I usually got to cast a meaningless protest vote of some type.

    I don't know who I'm going to support. Frankly, I don't have major issues for or against any of the big name Dems, and I think the cabinet/appointee lists for all three will mostly be a reshuffling of the same names.

    (I may end up voting in the Repub primary to get rid of my state's shame, Sen. John Cornyn.)

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 9:00 PM  

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