Nice article at the Shot on Fred's timing. A few quotes:Fred Thompson…
March, Hmm…
April, Hmm…
May,
Hmm…
June, Hmm…
July, Hmm…
August?
“August is kind of a down month, not much going on, so it wouldn’t make sense to do it in August, but clearly, I think you know the direction I’m headed in. A final decision will be made soon, and I’m just urging my friends to keep their powder dry.”
- Fred Thompson on Hannity and Colmes this week
October maybe? Seriously, this is getting pretty old. I don’t know what his team (meaning, his wife) is thinking, but I can only imagine they are trying to build excitement and the “run Fred run” and “Fred Thompson is the savior of all things conservative” movements.
But guess what? It ain’t working. Donors are fed up and aren’t giving. Campaign staffers are bailing. Politicos and activists in the early states are being soaked up, organized, and now activated by other campaigns. And the public is getting so fed up that the Thompson buzz is wearing off.
We believe that its time for Fred Thompson to, as my father used to say, crap or get off the pot (except he didn’t say crap). Thompson is making a fatal error and his strategy is having an adverse effect. That buzz he is trying to build may have already climaxed and began heading down hill. The public is already sick of watching him skip scrutiny. He refuses to talk issues claiming something like “there’s time for that when we officially launch the campaign.”
And its looking like he is too afraid to stand on the stage and take fire like the other candidates.
Fred – crap or get off the pot!
I've said these same things before. Not surprisingly, his delays are allowing this sentiment to build among opponents, the media, and even supporters.
Below this darling picture of Fred (actively, yet unofficially campaigning) is another story:
For Thompson, spotlight without the scrutiny Quasi campaign can keep donors secret.
When a talk show host asked Fred Thompson earlier this month whether he had decided to run for president, the former US senator was unequivocal: "Yes. But I'm not going to tell you right now."
Yet Thompson is operating under regulations that allow him to "test the waters" for a presidential bid, which lets him run his quasi campaign through a committee that is not registered with the Federal Election Commission and can at least temporarily keep secret the names of donors and the amount of money raised. He has used the money to hire more than a dozen staff members and travel around the country, giving speeches at which he often sounds like a presidential candidate.
Some campaign finance specialists said Thompson is, at the least, operating at the edge of the law by fund-raising and organizing with few constraints even though it seems clear he's going to run, while the other Republican contenders have to reveal donor information and disclose their personal finances. That has let Thompson avoid playing the money expectations game, in which campaigns are judged in part by the money they raise.
Under federal law, Thompson is not allowed to run a testing-the-waters committee if he "raises funds in excess of amounts reasonably required for exploratory activity or amasses funds to be used after candidacy is established."
Nonetheless, the FEC has enforced its rule at least once. In 1988, it fined Republican presidential candidate televangelist Pat Robertson $25,000 for violating the rules. The FEC punished Robertson because he spent more than $5,000 during a rally at Washington's Constitution Hall, at which he said he would run for president if more than 3 million people pledged to support his run.
From some of the latest reports, the Fred campaign has raised money at a level comparable with Brownback and the other unelectables. That's nothing to brag about. Yet, it's better they don't have to be accountable like the rest in the competing field.
No comments:
Post a Comment