The only thing Thompson is "outside" of is the will of the majority of Americans. Which makes him the perfect candidate for the GOP nomination.

I know he seems weak to us, but the average idiot will vote for him in a heartbeat. If we can't do better than Obama or Hillary, he could easily win. And that's not good.

"The mind is like a parachute, it only works when it's open."

Fred won't be able to hoodwink America. We're too smart and too well organized for that crap anymore.

This is the same thing I heard in 2000 with Gore's campaign and 2004 with Kerry's; to wit, "There's no way an idiot like George W. Bush could possibly win."

I don't think you can afford to take the level of organization of the opposition for granted. As Will Rogers was wont to say, "I don't belong to any organized party; I'm a Democrat." Not much has changed since his time.

The GOP cornpone countrypolitan hustle is in full effect. Beware of the Slick Hick act. Contrast the "muscular, macho, cigar-chomping" image with the "indecisive, feminized, granola munching" image. How do you think the sides are being cast? And now, add "heroic." A lot of people are gushing a lot of self-congratulatory ink about the prospect of Fred rescuing the GOP candidacy.

These ideas are getting to market early. The narratives are already being written.

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Am I the only solipsist here?

If we're going to elect another actor for President, I'd rather have Ben Affleck. Or Susan Sarandon.

Hmmm, Affleck/Sarandon, or Sarandon/Affleck. Has a better ring to it than Clinton/Obama.

Paging Al Gore to the save-our-country-courtesy-phone... paging Al Gore....

This one has a nice ring to it:

(link...)

It's too late for this perennial favorite.

The Hill Online

Bada bing. Big T's campaign staff to include a Bushie cage lister and a Nixon plumber.

Wait ... what?

You base this whole piece on "Fred is running as an outsider" and proceed to try to prove that he is indeed very much an insider.

Nice job.

Except that NO WHERE does FRED say he is running as an outsider.

Despite what seems to have been a charmed life as politician and actor, Thompson can project an outsider's demeanor

In that whole article, that phrase, and the headline, are the only places the word "outsider" is used, and it is in the context of the article author's own perception of the demeanor that Thompson projects. (Emphasis added to 3 dollar words that you might want to look up in a dictionary, to help your understanding, and maybe to avoid future embarassments like this).

I'll type really slowly while I translate using simpler words and concepts, just for you!

Despite the fact that Thompson IS an insider, he does not come across that way. He seems more like an every day, common man. He is in touch with all us little people.

Get it now? Or are you too busy dancing with that straw man?

*smoochies* Muah!

Quotes on Fred Thompson:

(link...)

“I have always looked at this process as a citizen and as an outsider, not as a politician. It never made sense to me to have a system where huge amounts of money were allowed to be given to politicians and then to have those very same donors come up and lobby politicians on issues.”

(link...)

[T]here's more to Fred Dalton Thompson than first meets the eye--which is saying a lot considering this sleepy-eyed Southerner stands 6'5" and weighs 225 if he weighs an ounce. With his pickup truck, his blue jeans, and his deep, friendly drawl, Thompson has cultivated the perfect political image for today's anti-Washington climate: a straight-shooting, no-nonsense man of the people with a big helping of horse sense and a hankering to clean up our nation's capital. Both his 1994 and 1996 Senate campaigns played up this outsider image, portraying Thompson as an average Joe...

(link...)

Mr. Reed said that Mr. Thompson could easily siphon political and financial support from the three leading candidates: He could hurt Mr. Giuliani with socially conservative voters and Republicans who are concerned about terrorism; Mr. McCain with establishment Republicans, independents, and voters looking for an outsider, as well as donors; and Mr. Romney with, again, social conservatives.

Seeing any pattern here?

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I'm a guy in a Reagan mask -- and I'm running for President!

"Real live country lawyer"

Too funny! And right on cue! Fred is gonna have your collective panties all up in wads before he ever declares. Man, you just cannot buy entertainment like this. Fred twitches and ya'll dance ... too cute! Pavlov would be so proud!

This election may actually turn out to be rather amusing, just watching the left go all rabid ;-)

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"I will take what is yours and give it to the common good" - 10 points to the first that can cite the source!

Rudy won't win in New York because they know what a scumbag he is. But he can win in PA and OH and that's the whole ballgame. Fred Thompson is a lazy phony fraud with no ideas for how to help the country. He's a true neocon who'd screw up our foreign policy just as bad as George W. Bush did. All he does is spew outdated Reaganisms for the 30 percenters who think Bush isn't conservative enough - or think Bush is a prophet. The only reason conservative Republicans are flocking to him is because he sounds like a winning candidate.

I think Fred Thompson's candidacy is great for the Democrats because he might crimp on Giuliani's "law and order" cred and open the door for past-his-prime McCain or Romney to win the nomination. The only problem is that living in Tennessee we have to hear all the mindless morons in the Tennessee GOP lie every day about "Fred being Fred."

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"I will take what is yours and give it to the common good" - 10 points to the first that can cite the source!

There's only so many trolls that will bother to go through the registration process here, Lissa. Sorry to sour your game.

____________________________

I'm a guy in a Reagan mask -- and I'm running for President!

Listen here, Ernest T. Bass! This is Sheriff Taylor! Go on home and leave these people alone! You're keepin' 'em awake!

Put Tennessee on the political map Al Gore vs Fred, a good ole Tennessee slap down. I pick Army and Nam vet Al Gore anytime over Fred the dodger thompson.

Is it just me or do posts about Fred Thompson draw more trolls than any other topic? Somebody's a bit sensitive out there about cultivatin' a certain image I 'spose and they don't want nobody to ruin it.

For those Thompson fans still reading along who believe, in a fact-free flight of fancy, that "[Fred] is who we need in Washington ... instead of political whores that will sell out to the highest bidding lobby:"

Republicans pining for a Fred Thompson presidential bid contend the "Law & Order" star would make a strong candidate because of his experience as a senator, federal prosecutor and Watergate investigation counsel, as well as his conservative credentials and fame as a television and movie actor.

But supporters rarely focus on another hat he wore before and after his eight years in the Senate: lobbyist.

The role could be an issue if he seeks to move from his current flirtation with running, which has generated escalating poll numbers and buzz, to actually running, which would subject him to a heightened level of scrutiny.

Over about two decades of lobbying (during which he also acted and practiced law), Thompson made nearly $1.3 million and represented clients including a British reinsurance company facing billions of dollars in asbestos claims, Canadian-owned cable companies, and deposed Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, according to government documents and media accounts from his first run for the Senate in 1994.

[snip]

Thompson cruised to a full Senate term in 1996 but decided not to run again in 2002. A year after stepping down, he registered to lobby for British reinsurance company Equitas Ltd.

The company paid him $760,000 to guard its interests against several bills seeking to protect businesses from asbestos lawsuits, according to records Thompson filed with the Senate.

The legislation died, and Thompson this year filed papers ending his relationship with Equitas, the only client on whose behalf Thompson registered to lobby after leaving the Senate.

Well, whaddya know about that.... Saint Outsider was just another high-dollar pimp in the lobbyist orgy. Tsk.

____________________________

I'm a guy in a Reagan mask -- and I'm running for President!

I liked Thompson's bit part in "Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World." I think he is a fine bit actor.

Let's see. On the front of your own website (which uses your actual name, thus the pseud, I suppose), you write that your life is a miserable mess. We're supposed to be insulted that you don't spend more time hanging around over here, and yet the pressing news items on your blog consist of a gripping report on your coworker's cologne and the white-knuckle drama of the letter you wrote to the manager of Best Buy? Color me absolutely wrecked that you don't consider us worthy of your attention, hon.

Lissa Kay's Words of Wisdom:

Bah! Petty people are a waste of time.

You know, at this point, the jokes write themselves.

This ploy of Thompson's is going to fall flatter than Wanda Jackson's hair at the Memphis 4th of July Parade. Verner Liipfert is the ultimate insider lobbying firm in D.C...of course, Axel's right, and Thompson will be cast as the heir apparent to George Bush's cigar-chomping cowboy.

Too bad he is, as I once heard said of Bush, way more Stetson than bovine...here's hoping this country returns to the reality-based community sooner rather than later.

Paging Al Gore to the save-our-country-courtesy-phone... paging Al Gore....

The sheer dramatics of a Gore-Thompson contest nonwithstanding, I'm not convinced Gore's even got the gumption to do what it takes to pull the country out of this morass. Guess I'd like to know what exactly about the 2000 campaign didn't alert him to the shambling disaster the Bush Administration was going to be, and exactly why he didn't exhaust every conceivable angle before throwing in the towel.

Randy is a man of his word, and keeps confidences of those who wish to remain anonymous -- that means he doesn't give secret identities up, no matter who it is. That means nobody else is privy to the information, and people like you are free to be as nasty as you want to be under cover of anonymity,natch. Just look at your contributions to this thread, for example. You are not in a strong position to be giving out lectures on civil discourse.

And I do recall your making a farewell and screw you sayonara post here awhile back -- considerably before Randy tightened things up, and before you were reborn as a troll.

Like I said, I came to witness the frothing that is the result of Fred Thompson's announcement. Nothing more. You guys did good!

And to steal a phrase from another worthy blogger, "I do this (blog) to entertain me, not you" ... my site is a personal hobby. I care not in the least if anyone ever reads it or not. If you do not care for the topics I chose to write about, don't go there. It's just that easy.

Oh, and would you email the link to the post or comment wherein I "stomped off in a huff"? I bet ya can't ... cause it didn't happen. I only noted that the method by which Randy chose to close off ranks here was not very graceful, but the decision is his alone. Never said I was "leaving" ... there is nothing to "leave" or resign. Ya'll are just either being delusional or purposely trying to stir shit.

On being "ugly" ... ya'll hold the franchise on that. I've had this discussion with Randy too ... that there are way too many people that get extremely nasty here. Sure, I get sarcastic and snark some. I will mock mercilessly. But I don't attack people on a personal level. That's just childish.

A troll is not someone that presents a viewpoint contrary to yours. Can't deal with it? Get off the intarwebs. Don't call names, don't drag people's personal lives into an argument, attack the opinion, not the person. That is how grown-ups play this game.

Is this a grown-up site or not?

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"I will take what is yours and give it to the common good" - Hillary!

Shorter Under Dress:

If a duck stood still you could catch him by the bill.

I don't chew my cabbage twice. And you ain't heard the last of Ernest T. Bass!

Ol' Fred's an outsider alright.

The Hill Online

attack the opinion, not the person.

You set such a fine, shining example, Lissa.

Emphasis added to 3 dollar words that you might want to look up in a dictionary, to help your understanding, and maybe to avoid future embarassments like this. (Attacking my comprehension skills.)

I'll type really slowly while I translate using simpler words and concepts, just for you! (Again with the comprehension skills)

Fred twitches and ya'll dance ... too cute! Pavlov would be so proud! (Calling me a slobbering dog.)

Wow ... it only took you, what? 27 weeks and 1 day to figure that out? Brilliant! (Again with the comprehension skills.)

But you're a Republican, so different rules apply to you, right? Boy, that sense of entitlement you have just shines right through like a sunbeam.

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I'm a guy in a Reagan mask -- and I'm running for President!

Is he #9? Lady Vols?

Oh gosh. Berated by someone whose world philosophies seem to be stolen from Hallmark's recent line of greeting cards. Guess I'll go off and cry now.

Hang out here if you want, Lissa, you might learn something. I don't read your blog, but maybe after some exposure to people with some common courtesy (we aren't actually posting on your blog about the general vacuousness of the subject matter) and common sense (we see Fred Thompson for the statesman manque he is), your content will begin to improve. Best of luck with that, hon.