September 05, 2007
Happy Republican Debate Fred Thompson Day!
All eight remaining Republican presidential candidates will go head to head once again in New Hampshire, starting at 9 p.m. EDT in a debate to be aired on FOX News. But there's little buzz surrounding the first major post-Labor Day White House '08 debate, thanks to Fred Thompson, who after months of waiting will make his candidacy zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Oops. Sorry about that.
The former Tennessee senator and "Law & Order" star is skipping the Q&A tonight in favor of an appearance on "The Tonight Show." Tomorrow, he will formally announce his candidacy for the GOP nod in a Webcast. Is it us, or is this not how anyone thought Thompson would ride in to rescue his anemic party?
Whereas Thompson's entry a few months ago might have been met by Hallelujahs and confetti from the base, he will now find a number of unpleasant questions awaiting him. Namely, why did he wait so long, and what's with the staff overhaul just as his campaign is going official?
There have been few good answers to why he scrapped the planned July 4 kickoff. Earlier this summer, when it became clear that John McCain was imploding and that social conservatives' votes could go to Mitt Romney by default, it might have been a good time to get in. Now, the media honeymoon appears to be well over, and Thompson has just four months to establish a ground operation to turn out voters.
Thompson will be expected to explain why he has been bleeding staff recently. Jim Mills and Linda Rozett abandoned their careers to join Thompson's campaign, only to be abruptly dumped weeks later. National Review's Jim Geraghty is now reporting that longtime aide Mark Corallo is the latest man overboard.
The campaign has said that Mills, a highly respected former Hill producer for FOX News, left due to internal disagreements. But FOX's Carl Cameron reports that Mills was unceremoniously fired, along with at least a dozen other senior staffers, with little explanation.
A source told Cameron that Mills "was recruited and hired by the candidate and his wife and they did not have the guts to let him go themselves. They have wrecked his life and it's totally wrong."
Mills, by the way, signed a no-comment waiver along with the rest of the senior staffers, so this version of his firing would not have come from him unless he's bruising for a lawsuit.
Now for tonight's debate. The candidate who stands to gain the most may be McCain, because while progress in Iraq is still unsatisfactory, there's growing momentum to let the new counterinsurgency strategy play out into next year. Rudy Giuliani, who leads in the national polls but lags in Iowa and New Hampshire, may face new questions on the role 9/11 plays in his campaign along with more on his socially moderate-to-liberal views. Romney also needs to perform well in order to catch the eye of Republicans who aren't in Iowa and New Hampshire, where he is concentrating his ad money and ground operations.
The GOP top tier has been in stasis, mostly because everyone's been waiting for Thompson to jump in and shake things up. There are now doubts he can even do that. He was supposed to be the Reagan conservative with a solid record on social issues who didn't tick off the base the way McCain does. We've pointed out before that Thompson has been more relaxed about abortion than his base would like -- he admits as much -- and that the most he and Ronald Reagan seem to have in common is Hollywood.
Hollywood is not why conservatives loved Reagan. Which is why Thompson's decision to hang with Jay Leno tonight instead of FOX and announce in a Webcast tomorrow instead of at a rally seems odd to some.
But hey, maybe the Republican voters could use their own Obama. Judging by their unhappiness, it probably couldn't hurt.
We'll be watching the GOP debate and Thompson's appearance on Leno tonight. Check back tomorrow for the write-up and analysis; our copy editors need their beauty sleep.
Photo Illustration: Reuben Dalke
Posted at 6:59 PM
Posted to:
Campaigns, Fred Thompson, John McCain, Mitt Romney, Republicans, Rudy Giuliani, WH 2008
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