Less than a week before he officially announces his candidacy, Fred Thompson has lost control of the media narrative. The conventional wisdom has gone from declaring him the GOP’s messiah-in-waiting to buzzing about his “lost momentum” and inept early attempts at running a campaign. ABC news has as good a summary as anybody:
He was primed to be the summer’s big blockbuster and the script was written in advance: A dispirited party finds its great hope in a swashbuckling Southern senator, riding to the rescue to save Republicans from themselves.
But since the heady days of late spring, when the Fred Thompson fever seemed to infect the GOP, Thompson’s pre-campaign has been more “Gigli” than “Gone With the Wind.”
He’s posted lackluster fundraising numbers. He’s faced repeated questions about his lobbying career, his years in politics, as well as his position on abortion.
An announcement rumored for June was pushed back to July, and now early September. His political speeches have been received coolly, with few grand pronouncements or policy proposals that have lived up to his hype.
His potential supporters have grown restless, giving other candidates room to claim the conservative mantle. And, most significantly, his noncampaign has churned through staff like so many extras; Thompson is already on his third spokesman, even though he’s had nothing to announce.
Now, the question for former Tennessee Sen. Thompson looms: Will this ex-movie star see his pilot picked up? Or has the Republican Party changed the channel?
In fairness, Thompson was supposed to post “lackluster fundraising numbers,” as per FEC law, he’s been “testing the waters,” not running an actual campaign. Indeed, one of his problems is that his fundraising to date has arguably gone beyond what the testing-the-waters provision allows.
For Thompson, it’s still the preseason — it’s difficult to tell how he’ll do once he’s in full campaign mode. But the early signs haven’t been promising, and his competitors have been playing hard for a few months now. He has already gifted Mike Huckabee an opportunity — an error he may come to regret. Now, in addition to the hard work of kicking off a presidential campaign, he’ll have to turn the entire media narrative around. It’s going to be a challenging September for Fred Thompson.
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