Thompson In
Politician-turned-actor Fred Thompson has been coy with audiences as he flirts with a bid for the Republican presidential nomination.In an interview with USA TODAY, however, the former Tennessee senator not only makes it clear that he plans to run, he describes how he aims to do it. He’s planning an unconventional campaign using blogs, video posts and other Internet innovations to reach voters repelled by politics-as-usual in both parties.
Of course, no one is surprised by this.
It will be interesting to see how well Thompson’s ‘unconventional’ campaign does, and how ‘unconventional’ it actually is. Fred Thompson does seems to have quite a flair for communication, and he has quite a resume, being a President numerous times, perhaps the most celebrated DA in history, and holding several important posts in different branches of the military (see here for details).
It will be interesting to watch how this reshapes the race though. I get a pretty strong sense that Republican’s don’t like the choices they have very much. Fred Thompson will enter that void with great name recognition, considerable charisma, and a fairly strong record with the base. It certainly wouldn’t surprise me if he jumps to a strong lead.
