You know what cracks me up about this?
At a later rally in Council Bluffs, several people said they saw similarities to another actor-turned-politician, the late President Ronald Reagan, in how Thompson sounded broad conservative themes and generally avoided specifics.
"He has the same leadership qualities," said David Clark, 47, a carpenter, who saw Reagan as a teenager. "He can bring people onboard to his way of thinking."
It's avoiding specifics as a "leadership quality."
Thompson isn't going to lie to you. He's going to be nebulous enough to allow YOU to do all the projection.
Fred Thompson opens campaign in Iowa with wife
BY RICHARD SISK
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU
Friday, September 7th 2007, 4:00 AM
DES MOINES - His young second family at his side, GOP latecomer Fred Thompson auditioned before Iowa voters yesterday, declaring his conservative "core beliefs" hold the solution to the nation's problems.
"The preseason is over; let's get on with it," the politician-turned-actor-turned-politician told a modest crowd of 200 supporters who had plenty of room in a walled-off section of the convention center.
"I am determined to make decisions that will leave us a stronger nation, a more prosperous nation, and that's why I'm running," Thompson said. The Des Moines appearance was the first for the former two-term senator from Tennessee as an official Republican presidential candidate.
It was also the debut for his controversial spouse, Jeri Thompson, rumored to have been behind several recent staff hirings and firings.
In preparing his pitch to conservative "family values" voters, Thompson has cited his consistent opposition to abortion rights, but he also has been candid about being married at 17 and having three children with his first wife.
Thompson, 65, was equally upfront about his second family, bringing his wife, 44; daughter Hayden, 4, and 10-month-old son, Sammy, to the kickoff.
Jeri Thompson was heavily involved in the formative stages of the campaign as "she stepped in to do a lot of it" for her husband, said veteran GOP operative and Thompson adviser Rich Galen. Galen said the sniping is partly a product of her bombshell looks. He urged critics to back off.
"Look, she's either too involved or she's the trophy wife sitting out by the pool eating bonbons," he said. "You can't have it both ways."
The shakeups continued yesterday with the resignation of popular strategist-spokesman Mark Corallo.
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His wife looks 34, which makes the 'Trophy Wife' label stick
even more.
He's got a 10 month old?
As a woman, I'll say it - it ain't fair.
She'll be deeper involved in
She'll be deeper involved in a Thompson administration that Sen. Clinton ever was back when she was Hillary.
Saw pictures of her on Hardball today - she's gone shopping
more conservative dress on her, and not so glam.
Is Mrs. Thompson going to go
Is Mrs. Thompson going to go over well in middle America? If my memory has not failed me, Hillary never showed cleavage to get attention.
She Can, and Dose
Have it both ways. She IS a trophy wife and she is too envolved. I see her being worse - even more ambitious - than Billery Clinton in a Thompson administration.
But does she have the
But does she have the professional credentials that Hillary possessed in order to carve out a position as a policy maker?
That's not necessary (we're
That's not necessary (we're talking Republicans here).
LOL... yeah i get your
LOL... yeah i get your point... i just think she will have a hard time getting intelligent, informed people to take her seriously (at least I would hope). For all her drawbacks, Hillary can command a certain amount of respect for racking up accomplishments in an arena which had previously been male dominated; and she didn't need to play the trophy wife in order to do this.