Fred Thompson for President
The Politico reports:
Fred Dalton Thompson is planning to enter the presidential race over the Fourth of July holiday, announcing that week that he has already raised several million dollars and is being backed by insiders from the past three Republican administrations, Thompson advisers told The Politico.
Thompson, the “Law and Order” star and former U.S. senator from Tennessee, has been publicly coy, even as people close to him have been furiously preparing for a late entry into the wide-open contest. But the advisers said Thompson dropped all pretenses on Tuesday afternoon during a conference call with more than 100 potential donors, each of whom was urged to raise about $50,000.
That is $5 million. Not bad. Not Romney-worthy, but not bad.
If Thompson joins the race, the Republican race / primaries will get even more exciting. It is fairly close as it is, with Mitt Romney rising in the polls, McCain losing a bit of support, same goes for Giuliani.
At the moment Thompson enters the race, everything changes. Suddenly, social conservatives will feel like they do not have to support Giuliani: as far as I can tell, Thompson is most certainly electable.
Will a Thompson run hurt Giuliani the most? Or McCain? Or Romney? My guess, again, is mostly Giuliani (and to a lesser extent Romney). At this moment, the majority of social conservatives supports Giuliani. When they can choose, however, between Thompson and Giuliani, my guess is that they will run over to Thompson like a pack of wolf to a wounded deer.
Sorry, I could not resist.
Hurts Romney most. Is electable to the the GOP can’t win general election.
I agree that Thompson is more attractive than Giuliani to conservatives and core GOP, but won’t beat a younger Dem candidate—Giuliani will get more centrists and even some Dems who can’t stand Hillary.
One little known factoid about Fred Thompson- he was at Scooter Libby’s side throughout the entire trial and has been a big supporter of his, unlike his former boss, the Vice President, who appears to have dropped him like a political hot potato, after his friend took the heat for him.
This country needs and deserves the services of a genuine statesman, not another political hack. Reaganesque, Fred Thompson has the tempered leadership qualities so necessary to move our country in a positive direction. God bless him.