Romney Takes the Lead in Softening up Fred Thompson.

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Read the full story in Slate. Some salient quotes:

But according to Romney insiders, the former Massachusetts
governor is not just aiming at Clinton, Obama, and Edwards. His other, perhaps more salient target, is fellow Republican Fred Thompson. Like the Democratic front-runners, Fred Thompson has also never run anything, though he has pretended to run all kinds of things in his many films. Romney is laying the groundwork against Thompson now and plans to make the charge explicitly when the actor gets into the race.

The Romney campaign was also thinking about Thompson when it produced its latest television ad about the depravity of modern culture. The ad is primarily an assault on the extended metaphor, but its purpose is to appeal to social conservative voters who think the country is on the wrong track.... The ad's secondary function is to show Republicans that only Romney can talk about values. Thompson can compete with Romney in opposing abortion and gay marriage, but as a former actor, he's compromised on the subject of cleaning up sex and violence in movies and television. "Why didn't he speak out loudly about Hollywood when he was of Hollywood?" Romney may ask in a future debate.

To draw contrasts between their guy and Thompson, Romney allies are working behind the scenes, and even Thompson's wife is fair game. June Bond, a Republican from Spartanburg, introduced Ann Romney at a recent rally as her husband's starter wife and trophy wife "all in one." This called up a loaded phrase for Thompson's much younger second wife from a New York Times piece.

In a recent interview with the Washington Examiner, he made a not-too-subtle allusion to Thompson's reputation for laziness. "Will he do the work it takes to become the president?" asked Romney. "To beat Hillary Clinton ... you're going to have to work like crazy." Of course, Romney hopes Thompson never has a chance to face the Democratic front-runner. And so before the actor even gets into the race, Romney is trying to create more work than he can handle.

If the Republicans give Mitt a chance and Fred some scrutiny, this race would quickly reduce to one guy: Willard Mitt Romney. I believe it'll take some time before Fred is seen realistically and as a still-good, but inferior product to Mitt.