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More on Fred Thompson, the Actor Who Would be President

Yesterday, I wrote about how Law and Order star and former Tennessee senator Fred Thompson is currently third in GOP polls. A Slate article today points out that Thompson is the Republicans' "therapy" candidate -- depressed by the imperfections of supposed frontrunners McCain, Giuliani, and Romney, Republicans are turning to the man who looks appealing and makes them feel good. Slate paints him as the Republicans' Barack Obama. (Feel the excitement at draftfredthompson.com.)

But like with Obama, there are questions about whether Thompson has the substance to back up all his style. Thompson's experience consists almost completely of eight years in the Senate -- he has no other governing experience and his Washington work before coming to the Senate in 1994 was as a lawyer in the Watergate hearings and eighteen years as a lobbyist. Oh, and he was in The Hunt for Red October and Die Hard 2. And Sex in the City!

But the Republican base has shown a willingness to overlook a lack of prior experience when choosing presidential candidates. In fact, the comparison to George W. Bush is particularly apt. Thompson is from the south and wins hearts, not minds, based largely on folksy charm and "man's man" swagger. He doesn't have any foreign policy experience, and he enters (or returns to, I suppose) the national consciousness as something of a blank slate. So should we call off the contest and hand Fred Dalton Thompson the Republican nomination?

Not just yet. In a major break from the GWB formula, Thompson is under fire from none other than James Dobson for not being Christian enough. Originally, Dobson said he wouldn't support Thompson because he wasn't a Christian. Thompson's people fired back that Thompson had been baptized in the Church of Christ (phfft, as if baptism is the standard; one must be a veritable foot soldier for Christ if they want to succeed in today's GOP), prompting Dobson to respond that Thompson does not talk about or live his faith enough. Dobson said instead that he liked Newt Gingrich, who has a past full of indiscretions and truly awful moral behavior, but confessed his sins and confirmed his faith to Dobson early this year.

So give that a shot, Fred. Divorce your wife while she is in the hospital with cancer, remarry just months later, fail to make child support payments, then cheat on and subsequently divorce your second wife to marry an aide twenty years your junior. Then tell James Dobson you're sorry about it all. You'll be a lock.

Comments

Good Morning

Unfortunately for me, until I read this article, I had never heard of Johnathan Stein-but I LOVE his way of thinking in the story about Fred Thompson-he's a "tell it like it is" person-and I like that

Thank you Mr. Stein-you just made my day!!

Betty Gaultney
itsjustice@citlink.net

I wil grin/smile/snicker the rest of the day-thanks again

Posted by: Betty Gaultney on 03/29/07 at 8:40 AM Respond

It's certainly well-stated that Dobson is no fan of logic. So it's really not surprising that he believes "words speak louder than actions".

Posted by: adam on 03/29/07 at 9:04 AM Respond

Where the hell has he been for the last six years while the GOP has taken it from all sides? Ohhh thats right...hes been out in Hollywood with his wife young enough to be his daughter attending uber liberal hollywood elitist parties with those that have waged a viscious war against the very party he now wants a nomination from!!!

Meanwhile all the others wanting the nomination have been right there in the trenches with us fighting the good fight! But not Fred...no...he was too busy attending Oscar parties and play acting on television to be bothered with it all!

Get real. I will not vote for him.

Posted by: Beansox on 03/29/07 at 11:53 AM Respond

It takes readers to imdb, not Slate.

Posted by: Your Slate Link is WRONG on 03/29/07 at 12:07 PM Respond

Thanks for the correction, Mr. WRONG. It's been fixed.

Posted by: Jonathan Stein on 03/29/07 at 7:33 PM Respond

Ok Beansox - busted you in the same lies on another board and here you are again.

At least you stopped saying "6 years" (which included his time in the senate) and adjusted it to 4. But substantially you;re still telling the same lies.

Amongst other things, Sen Thompson was the point man for shepherding the Cheif Justice Roberts of the Supreme Court through the senate process, helped with Justice ALito's nomination, active in the American Enterprise Institute, has maintained an active law practice (which includes, unfortunately for him, lobbying), and is currently serving at the request of Secretary of State Condi Rice on a foreign policy advisory board that is evaluating and recommending courses of action regarding terror organiztions around the world - mainly how to help societies grow so they are not incubators for terrorists, preventing the need for military action.

So not at all as you describe it. Why not go back to pumping Ron Paul and spamming boards with his stuff like the nice brainwashed little Buchannanite you are, hmm?

Anyone that can p*ss off Dobson has earned a few points in my book. That includes SpongeBob.

Posted by: Ordinary Coloradan on 03/30/07 at 6:37 AM Respond

DATE: 5/25/07
Attention: Fred Thompson Jr. of Law & Order (and all Good Samaritans)
Personal & Confidential
Unusual circumstances of urgency, read today!
Emergency human rights violations in U.S.
I am contacting you about an emergency situation of original jurisdiction (in legal terms, a Writ of Mandemus) regarding severe and widespread deprivations of liberty caused by an unresolved, still ongoing medical negligence fraud cover-up. For further details, go to yahoo mail. Type in at username maryprice48 and password carollinda. Go to drafts and send the two most recent emails, maryprice48@yahoo.com Parts 1 and 2 to your email address. Print it all. Read it in its entirety. All efforts to get justice have been illegally blocked. Life threatening circumstances exist. Wrongful deaths of my family members have occurred due to illegally delay tactics. Threats have been made to place me in jail if I try to contact person such as you and others with a constitutional obligation to act on my behalf to protect my guaranteed basic human rights (also guaranteed by international law). The situation is as important as the human rights violations suffered by non-citizen detainees at Guantanemo Bay and Abu-Graib, abolition of slavery, voting and equal rights for women, and Roe v. Wade. Thank you. Immediate action is needed. All events recounted can be confirmed by witnesses, documents, photos, and a video. Contact in person is best at 1096 Aberdeen Ave. Baton Rouge, LA 70808 after 7 p.m. CST. Speak to me only. Contact by e-mail maryprice48@care2.com (email irregularities). If yahoo email account does not open due to reported hacking interference, go to Care2.com, MyWay.com, Inbox.com and Fastmail.com. Use the same username and password. Go to drafts, sent, or inbox and open two most recent emails, maryprice48@care2.com Part 1 and Part 2) (or maryprice48@myway.com Parts 1, 2, and 3; maryprice48@inbox.com Parts 1 and 2; or maryprice48@fastmail.net Parts 1and 2) and send them to your email address. If they will not go to your email address due to ongoing computer hacking interference, open up the emails in my account, copy and paste into a word file, rename and save on desktop file on your computer (each attachment file) and then place into your email file making a draft in your email account. It will take time, but this is the only way to overcome the hacking interference to stop others from getting my information. Emergency funds are also needed.
Sincerely,
Mary Price, Ph.D.

Please forward a copy of this correspondence to the Prime Minister of your country and have it hand delivered to U.S. Supreme Court Justices Breyer, Ginsburg, Kennedy, and Stevens at 1 First Street, NE Washington, D.C. 20543. Gross human rights violations are in everyone’s jurisdiction. They cannot occur anywhere in the world including the U.S.

Posted by: Mary Price on 05/26/07 at 8:43 AM Respond