I just finished watching the official announcement video by Fred Thompson and the appearance on Leno last night. (available at Scott's post) Overall: Fred is a rock star who changed the shape of the GOP race just by thinking about entering back in late May and early June.
The official video is extremely wordy and sort of conventional. Plenty of red meat for the conservatives, and a nice turn of phrase: "A government that is powerful enough to do anything for you is powerful enough to do anything to you." Did I mention it's wordy?
Jay Leno had a great bumper sticker: "Fred Thompson: He has a narrow stance." Heh. I'm always impressed at how totally at ease Fred is with himself in these situations. He doesn't mind talking and he has a great voice, with which he just rambles on and on. It's going to be easy for folks to get comfortable with him and trust him. Hillary Clinton's high pitched and forced voice mannerisms will look even worse when compared to Fred Thompson.
Prediction: Fred Thompson national polling averages gets a bump of 10 points that should drop back three points in a couple of weeks as the newness wears off.
Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 1)
1. Fred reminds me of two other Freds; Fred Flintstone and Fred Mertz of "I love Lucy"; both were down to earth types; this is why "I Like Fred"....
nick at 9:39AM on Sep 6th 2007
2. I find it ironic that people are criticizing Thompson for choosing The Tonight Show as a method of announcing his candidacy for President. Need I remind those with selective memory that Bill Clinton made a lot of appearances on the Late Show Circuit---I don't know if it was Leno or Letterman(although he was in the race before that occurred). At least Thompson spoke about the issues last night. What did Clinton do? He partied on with the band on his sax!!! Extreamly revealing!!
Peter at 11:45AM on Sep 6th 2007