Support grows for Fred Thompson White House run

[American Patriot]

Support grows for Fred Thompson White House run
One News Now ^

Support grows for Fred Thompson White House run

Jim Brown

OneNewsNow.com

March 30, 2007

He has yet to formally announce his candidacy, but former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson is moving up in the polls among Republican presidential hopefuls. A close friend of Thompson's who represents the Volunteer State in the U.S. House says the rising popularity of the Law & Order star can be attributed to his "innate leadership ability" and principled conservative views.

A new USA Today/Gallup poll shows Thompson has surpassed former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, and is running third behind former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Arizona Senator John McCain.

Tennessee Representative Zach Wamp has been leading an effort to rally support in Congress for a Thompson bid. Wamp says when people are looking for a president, they are looking for "strength and trust" -- two things he says Thompson has personified all of his life. "I know his record," says the Tennessee lawmaker. "I am looking for a strong conservative to support -- and I think he can win. I think he can compete and win."

Wamp is not alone in his support for the former senator. "You've got very strong conservative members of Congress like Gresham Barrett in South Carolina, Lynn Westmoreland in Georgia, Jeff Miller in Florida, John Carter in Texas [who] have already said 'I'm on board,'" he shares.

And like those conservative lawmakers, Wamp says people are looking for an alternative to the current Republican field, noting the party needs a "standard-bearer" and a "tough conservative who can stand up to the rest of the world."

"It's pretty obvious the only [GOP candidate] that's gained any traction actually is Rudy Giuliani, and most people don't think that he'll win the nomination because he's not conservative on the major issues," says Wamp. On the other hand, he states, Thompson has a "principally conservative record -- and that's going to be a big issue," he adds.

Thompson, says Wamp, appeals to "a whole lot of people, including Reagan Democrats and Independents. He speaks with authority; he's very comfortable in his own skin. He's a whole lot like Ronald Reagan, and everybody knows it."

The Tennessee congressman says the popular actor is not waiting too late to enter the 2008 presidential race, but rather the other candidates have jumped in too early. He believes Thompson "could enter the race as late as August and not have any problem whatsoever."

The former senator will be in Washington April 18 to meet with more than 50 members of Congress to discuss his possible White House bid. Wamp says the only thing that may prevent Thompson from launching a campaign is the fact that he has two young children; but his wife Jeri is encouraging him to run. Thompson also has contractual obligations to Law & Order and "The Paul Harvey Show," he says.

[American Patriot]

HyperFredLinks v2.1
Blog and Media Buzz:

USA TODAY: Jeri Thompson "has been dusting off her old political reporter contacts list."
OneNewsNow: Support grows for Fred Thompson White House run
Lisa Fabrizio: It's Not Too Late For Fred
Rich Galen: Thompson and Gore
Bruce Walker: Fred Thompson and Supreme Court Nominations
J.B. Williams: Fred thompson and Ronald Reagan
Mona Charen: Run, Fred, Run!
Patriot Post: Democrats fear Fred Thompson ... and should
American Spectator's AmSpec blog: Thompson-a-saurus Rex
WaPo: A 'Law & Order' Presidential Candidate?
RedState.com: Goodbye Law and Order, Hello West Wing
Up & Coming Magazine: Watch Out Democrats
More Thompson Analysis from postpolitical.com
Boston Herald: GOP stage set for Thompson
Captain's Quarters looks at Fred Thompson
Mary Katherine Ham Makes the Case for Fred Thompson
OmniPundit criticizes some conservative pundits for dimissing Fred's chances
L.A. Times: Conservative Republicans turning to Hollywood star
Doug Hagin makes a pitch for Fred on American Daily
Draft Fred… Enough Said!
Britt Hume on the Fred Phenom
The Hill says The Fred Thompson Surge will transform the GOP race
AOL:'Law & Order' Actor Mulls White House Run
Race 4 2008: A Conservative Man For All Seasons
William Rusher: Thompson has many undeniable qualifications for the nomination
Human Events: Fred Thompson is a conservative who can win
Fred is 'Just Right' to most conservatives on the issues
Zach Wamp Says Thompson Likely To Run For President
Fred Thompson -- the next Ronald Reagan?
Political Wire: Thompson Seeking Political Operatives
Insiders Map Plan for '08 Thompson Bid
Rush: GOP Base Excited About Fred Thompson
J-Lo: This Fred Thompson Thing Looks Like It Could Be Getting Serious
The Truth About Fred Thompson
NewsMax - Wanted by the GOP: One Good Man


Fred Thompson Endorsements:

J.C. Watts Lends Support To Thompson For President
Former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist Call for Fred to RUN
Tennessee Republicans Urge Fred Thompson To Run
Three Prominent Texas Officials Urge Thompson to Run
Zach Wamp: Why Fred Thompson Should Run For President


Fred Thompson Interviews:

audio: Laura Ingraham's Fred Thompson interview
Transcript of the Fox News Sunday interview that fueled the Fred phenom
John Fund's WSJ Opinion Journal Fred Thompson interview
audio: Sean Hannity Interview (paid membership required


Websites With High Fred Thompson Content:

Knoxville News Sentinel: All Fred, All the time
Elephant Biz is a Thompson news gold mine. Just keep scrolling...


Fred Thompson Websites:

Online Petition to draft Fred Thompson has over 11,500 signatures
draftfredthompson.com: Discussion Forum and Activist Resource Center
Draft Fred Thompson 2008 Committee website
Draft Fred '08 blog
Elect Fred Thompson 2008 Blog
Senator Fred Thompson for President in '08
Grassroots Voter, a Better-Fred-Than-Red blog
Former Sen. Bill Frist's Volunteer Political Action Committee blog
Blogs For Thompson, news for Frederalist bloggers
Coloradans For Fred Thompson blog
Floridians for Fred Thompson
Iowans for Fred Thompson blog
Official Thompson Store: Gear for Fredheads


Fred Thompson Biographies and Collections:

Bio from Fred's hometown of Lawrenceburg, TN
Fredipedia: Wikipedia's Fred Dalton Thompson bio
AEI Bio (Fred Thompson is a Visiting Fellow at the Institute)
IMDB Fred Thompson bio
IMDB Fred Thompson's TV and film credits
The Fred Thompson Papers in The Modern Political Archives at the University of Tennessee
Sen. Thompson's statement re: the Clinton articles of impeachment


Fred Thompson's Paul Harvey Show Transcripts:

Gandhi's Way Isn't the American Way
A New News World
Power of the President
Plutonic Warming
The Case for Competence
Hollywood vs. Iran
Southern Exposure
Suing for Silence
Mothballing the Fleet
Wishful theorists
War Funding Puzzlement

If you have trouble linking to any of these sites, please let me know. Thanks.

[Jag]

From The Sunday Times
April 15, 2007


‘Fred for president’ chorus grows



Sarah Baxter, Nashville

WHEN his daughter Betsy died, Fred Thompson, a genial 6ft 6in senator for Tennessee, lost his enthusiasm for the rough and tumble of politics. Shortly afterwards he announced that he would not run for reelection.

Betsy, 38, had helped her father on the campaign trail and they were close. She died in 2002 from an overdose of drugs prescribed to help her through a long battle with depression. There was no suicide note and the medical examiner ruled that it was an accident.

Her brother, Tony Thompson, a Nashville lawyer, told The Sunday Times last week that the family had been devastated by her death. He said: “My sister had struggled for years with an addiction to painkillers but she had been doing really well for some time before she relapsed. Her body couldn’t cope with the medication.”

Fred Thompson said at the time that he would not miss the Senate. “For me, the George Washington example of serving eight years and riding out of town on a horse and never returning has great appeal.” He vowed to keep his hand in politics, teach a bit, write his memoirs and carry on with his part-time acting career.

It dawned on him this year that he could ride back into town as president only when, one by one, the conservative choices for the 2008 Republican ticket revealed their flaws. They seemed out of sync with the party or the country or both. Thompson’s name began to be aired by old friends and party power-brokers and, suddenly, the idea of Fred Thompson for president caught fire.

Thompson, a good ol’ Southern boy with bags of charm to match those under his eyes and chin, is already known to millions as a tough district attorney in the hugely popular TV series Law and Order and has appeared in films such as In the Line of Fire, with Clint Eastwood, and The Hunt for Red October with Sean Connery.

A national poll last week put Thompson, 64, in second place behind Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor, and three points ahead of Senator John McCain — and he hasn’t even declared yet that he is running or spent a cent on campaigning. It suggests that he has the potential to be frontrunner in the Republican field.

“I never thought about my dad running for president, but once I did it made absolute sense,” said Tony Thompson, 47. “It’s been quite amazing for me to watch this happen to him.”

Five months after his daughter’s death in 2002, Thompson — single for almost 20 years after his divorce from his first wife — killed off his reputation as a play-boy by marrying Jeri Kehn, a glamorous Republican political consultant 25 years his junior. They now have a four-year-old girl and a six-month-old son. They would be the youngest children in the White House since John F Kennedy was president.

“Jeri is terrific and smart. She makes Fred smile and the kids are beautiful,” said Bob Davis, a former Thompson staffer who is chairman of the Tennessee Republican party. “If he runs, he’ll sling them on his shoulders on the campaign trail — and he’s got pretty big shoulders.”

The signs are that Thompson is preparing to enter the race. He has been dining conspicuously on Capitol Hill with leading Republican organisers and will be meeting key congressmen in Washington this week.

The speculation is that he will announce his candidacy in May, when he is scheduled to give a lecture in the heart of Ronald Reagan country in Orange County, California, and will be appearing on Jay Leno’s late-night television show.

Last week Thompson revealed that he had lymphoma but said the cancer had been in remission for almost three years. He added that he did not believe it would affect his life expectancy. Tony Thompson said that it was “almost a badge of honour” to be a cancer survivor, citing the example of Lance Armstrong, the champion cyclist. “Obviously he needed to put the news out there if he’s seriously considering a run to see what the reaction is,” he said.

The clamour for Thompson to run is growing. His acting career has given him name recognition and stature beyond his political record. “When you put him on TV, people say, ‘Oh yeah, that’s who he is’,” said Davis.

He is used to playing gruff, commanding authority figures on film, but the key to his acting success is that he has always played himself. When Thompson starred with Tom Cruise in Days of Thunder, he used to joke: “Cruise and I were crossing the street and all these ladies were just screamin’ and hollerin’. Can you believe Cruise used to think they were screaming for him?”

He has plenty of female fans from Law and Order and in Tennessee easily won the vote of blue-collar Reagan democrats and independents when he first ran for the Senate in 1994. Many believe he could demolish Hillary Clinton, the Democratic party frontrunner, in the South and Midwest and prevent Al Gore, the former vice-president and a fellow Tennessean, from entering the race for fear of once again losing his home state. Could he be the dream candidate for Republicans?

There is a fantasy element to the build-up behind Thompson. Suddenly an actor has appeared stage right to lift the spirits of the depressed Republican faithful.

He has plenty of foreign policy expertise, having been a member of the Senate intelligence committee during the September 11 attacks, yet was providentially out of office by the time the war in Iraq was launched and thus free to carve his own path.

Bill Kristol, the editor of the conservative Weekly Standard, recently noted that Thompson was being projected as the new Ronald Reagan. He wrote: “Many times I’ve heard conservative friends consider Thompson’s merits (which are real) and then, chuckling, add, ‘The last time we nominated an actor, it didn’t turn out badly’.”

Bob Tuke, former chairman of the Tennessee Democrats, believes Thompson would be a formidable candidate. “He’s a wonderful campaigner who speaks very well and has the kind of voice people like to hear. I think he will bear up pretty well under scrutiny.” He believes the death of Thompson’s daughter will arouse sympathy and will not be used against him.

But a new Reagan? Hardly, said Tuke. “Reagan was a governor and a political icon long before he ran for president, who was adored by the conservative wing of the Republican party. Fred Thompson doesn’t have his experience or potential. We’ll have to see how far he can get by on personality.”

Thompson, the son of a secondhand car dealer, was born in Alabama. He married his first wife, Sarah, at 17 and was still in his teens when Tony was born. Two more children, Daniel and Betsy, followed soon afterwards, while he was a law student.

Tony Thompson remembered how his father worked to put himself through law school in the 1960s. “He worked in a bicycle plant and sold shoes in a department store. It’s quite an American success story. He was the first person in our family to get a college education.”

Bill Kirkland, a university friend who studied law with Thompson, recalled how the family lived in a tiny apartment. “They had this large closet that they made into their baby’s room,” he said.

“He was a very conservative Republican even then. He was a huge supporter of Barry Goldwater in the 1964 presidential election.”

With his southern conservative roots, Thompson has the necessary credentials to appeal to the right. James Dobson, the influential evangelical Christian leader, almost threw a spanner in the works by remarking, “I don’t think he’s a Christian. That’s my impression”, but has since admitted he may have been mistaken.

According to Kirkland, Thompson grew up in the Church of Christ, a fundamentalist denomination, and his first wife’s family sold church furniture. “He and Sarah used to go to church, but he didn’t wear his religion on his sleeve.”

He described Dobson’s claims as “ludicrous”.
Davis is in no doubt: “The heartland of America will say, ‘I know that guy, I trust that guy, I hope he runs.’ He’s pro-life and believes marriage is between a man and a woman. His voting record speaks for itself. He’s not a flip-flopper.”

Thompson has led something of a charmed political life since he was selected as a young lawyer to serve in the 1970s as chief co-counsel on the Senate committee investigating the Watergate scandal.

In his rich southern drawl, recorded for posterity, he addressed a killer question to one of Richard Nixon’s assistants: “Mr Butterfield, are you aware of the installation of any listening devices in the Oval Office of the president?” The outcome was the damning Nixon tapes.

He fell into a film career by accident after investigating a bribery scandal in Tennessee. The governor had been selling pardons to prisoners until a single mother, Marie Ragghianti, blew the whistle on the affair. The film producers chose Sissy Spacek to play Marie and persuaded Thompson to play himself in the movie Marie.
“It’s still my favourite film,” said Tony Thompson, who added that his father saw acting as a “refreshing change — almost like a vacation” from his political and legal career."

Thompson could once again be falling into a new role — that of president — seemingly by chance. “He’d be the first to tell you opportunities have come his way and he’s taken them. They’ve almost always turned out to be the right decision,” Tony Thompson said.

Is it possible for Fred Thompson to become the accidental president? For Pat Nolan, a Tennessee political analyst, the question is whether the former senator has the “fire in the belly” to run.

“He’s always been a very effective campaigner but has sometimes lacked focus,” he said. Others have described Thompson as endearingly “lazy”, but then so was Reagan.

Tony Thompson dismisses such fears. “If he makes the decision to do the job, he will give 110%.” He believes his father’s political independence gives him a great advantage.

While Thompson and McCain are great friends, the difference between them is that the right is seeking out Thompson while McCain is seeking out the right. The power balance is different.

“He is his own man. He’s always been that way. I don’t think you will see him playing to anybody but the American people,” his son said.

If he runs, it will be the actor and politician’s greatest role yet.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle1654837.ece

Jag