The Stealth Presidential Campaign of Fred Thompson

The Presidential race of 2008 may mark a new high water mark in the influence of the new media. In 2006, Senator George Allen's incumbency re-election bid was derailed by an aggressive spoiler campaign of attacks waged on youtube by Democratic freelance operatives. No one remembers Allen's distinguished career, all that is remembered is the word "makaca," and the inability of Allen's campaign to rid themselves of the pesky political paparazzi.

Fred Thompson is not just playing footsie with the intent to declare his candidacy; he is working a new media strategy. If and when he declares, a host of new problems will present themselves, not the least of which is complying with the McCain-Feingold election reforms. Fred voted for this bill, and now he could be hoisted on his own petard. The financial accountability required by this act, in effect, requires a full time staff of lawyers and accountants just to shepherd compliance. The constraints placed upon donations invokes a huge list of subtle discriminations. For instance, when is a speaking fee a campaign donation? As a private citizen, Giuliani regularly commands speaking fees in excess of one hundred thousand dollars. This is his largest source of income, which last year exceeded 16 million dollars in total. By establishing such a career as a speaker, independent of a run for the presidency, a candidate may legitimately claim such fees, outside of the campaign finance structure. Is appearing in a national TV series as a actor a political contribution in an era when celebrity status and name recognition are the first high bar of national office? In a much commented upon move, Fred Thompson has announced that he will not be an actor on NBC's hit crime drama, Law and Order, next season. This clears the decks for other roles.

As for now, the Thompson stealth candidacy continues to gather support. A straw poll in Georgia, conducted among Republican party activists, place Thompson in the lead with 180 votes. Second place was Georgian Newt Gingrich, with 77 votes. On line votes, conducted on conservative activist sites such as townhall.com or freerepublic.com, continue to show that Fred has front runner strength. National scientific polls, such as Zogby, or Gallup, place Thompson in third place, behind Giuliani and McCain, but ahead of Romney. The polls are in complete flux, and the Giuliani lead declined in the last week, due to his performance in the South Carolina Republican Presidential debate where conservatives are still uncomfortable with his pro-abortion stand.

So at this point, Thompson's third place candidacy is largely a narrative of Fred's Presidential decision-making journey. Fred has continued to make plain spoken stands on issues such as Iraq, abortion, immigration, and entitlement reform. Fred Thompson is speaking to Republican Clubs, and trade groups, such as the National Restaurant Association. Fred is giving interviews to conservative talk show hosts, such as Laura Ingram and Mark Levin. Fred is filling in for Paul Harvey on his national radio commentaries. Paul Harvey's audience is estimated at twelve million listeners each week. Fred is writing for well read conservative blog sites. Some criticism is beginning to appear, warning conservatives that Fred is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Criticism from liberal newspapers has warned liberals that Fred Thompson once played a racist bad guy in a TV show.

Other freelance independents operate web logs such as draftfredthompson.com, where links can be found to buy tee shirts, bumper stickers and yard signs. Fred is upstaging his declared Republican Presidential rivals on youtube.

Michael Moore went to Cuba for filming an effort to contrast the care available to Americans with that provided by Fidel Castro's regime. Moore got some discounted health care for some 9-11 survivors, and some footage for his new propaganda film "Sicko." Thompson criticized the trip in a radio spot. Michael Moore, seizing on a detail from a story in the April edition of THE WEEKLY STANDARD - that Thompson's office features many boxes of Montecristo cigars--wrote a letter to Thompson suggesting the former senator is a phony for smoking Cuban cigars. Moore then challenged Thompson to a debate. The letter was first reported on the Drudge Report, the news website derided by mainstream reporters as too sensational, but which now has become the premiere political site on the Internet.

Later that day, a couple of Thompson's informal advisers showed up at Thompson's Northern Virginia home with a camera and an laptop computer. As they set-up, Thompson composed a response in his head. Drawing on years of acting experience, he did a quick run-through, and then recorded the half minute video in one take. There was little discussion of the strategy of a response. Thompson wanted to do it as soon as he heard about the letter from Moore, and four hours later his response was on-line.

Mike Huckabee had the loudest laugh line of the South Carolina debate. "Congress is spending money like John Edwards in a beauty shop." The youtube posting of this video sound bite received less that one hundred thousand views. The Thompson reply to Moore got over five hundred thousand views, plus exposure on National TV shows such as the O'Reilly Factor. The new media campaign rolls on, and the legacy media is reporting the action.

A populist image of Fred from his Senate campaigns revolves around Fred's red pick-up truck. Fred would give impromptu campaign speeches from the tailgate bed to fellow Tennesseans. Political junkies will know the race is in full swing when the old, rusting '92 Chevy sports a new paint job. The McCain-Feingold Campaign finance law makes no mention of the political value of red pickup trucks.

sources: freerepublic.com