Associated Press
12-17-07
Thompson Seeks to Boost Popularity
By LIZ SIDOTI – 17 hours ago
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Republican Fred Thompson, Hollywood celebrity
and former Tennessee senator, went from hot to not in short order.
Now, he's trying to create another popularity burst in the presidential race, this
one perfectly timed.
His voice and expression serious, Thompson told Iowa voters this past week: "I
would ask people to think of one thing — when our worst enemy's thinking about
what he can do to the United States of America, who do you want sitting on our
side of the table representing you? That's probably the guy you ought to elect
president."
It was Thompson the lawyer presenting his closing argument for the Iowa
caucuses, now less than three weeks away.
Rhetoric aside, the obstacles to his goal — at least a third-place finish to propel
him forward — are daunting.
Financially, Thompson essentially is living hand-to-mouth. He hardly has enough
money for TV ads and mailings. He's lagging his rivals badly in polls, and his light
campaign schedule has been undercutting his argument that he's a strong
leader.
He hopes to change all that with a caucus homestretch strategy that begins
Monday. That's when he opens a five-event-a-day bus tour planned through the
Jan. 3 caucuses, save for a Christmas break. It's a last-ditch push and is geared
toward local TV coverage to maximize free exposure. Aides say he will not only
talk about his vision but also will draw distinctions with his rivals, albeit carefully.
His low-key personality and Southern drawl could soften the sting that could turn
off Iowans who are prone to dislike negativity.
The bus tour theme: "The Clear Conservative Choice. Hands Down!"
That's a play on last week's debate just outside Des Moines when Thompson —
in a moment that showed the real man — refused to cooperate when the
moderator asked the candidates to raise their hands if they thought global
warming was a serious threat caused by human behavior.
"I'm not doing hand shows today," Thompson said, dispensing with what he's
wont to argue is political gimmickry that just gums up what should be a
substantive process of picking a president. "You want to give me a minute to
answer that?"
"No, I don't," said moderator Carolyn Washburn.
"Well, then I'm not going to answer it," Thompson said, to the audience's delight.
At another point, he chided rival Mitt Romney, who's worth $190 million to $250
million, during a tax question, saying: "My goal is to get into Mitt Romney's
situation, where I don't have to worry about taxes anymore." When Romney
countered the comment, Thompson shot back: "Well, you know, you're getting to
be a pretty good actor."
Thompson's straightforward style shone through when he said: "I'm going to take
a chance on telling the truth to the American people. Our entitlement programs,
by 2040 or so, we're going to eat up our entire budget." Then he said he would fix
the problems.
Looking like he's right out of central casting, the towering Thompson with his
deep baritone and conservative Senate voting record charmed restive
Republicans in the spring with talk of a presidential bid. But his star faded as he
waited until fall to enter the race and then, once in, saw his poll numbers drop.
"The expectations were so high in Iowa that he was going to be the savior of the
social conservatives. Then he came here and fell flat," said Dianne Bystrom, an
Iowa State University political science professor.
Nevertheless, Iowa Republicans don't dispute that Thompson still has a chance
to rise.
"It might be too little too late, but with it being so fluid, you never know.
Everything breaks late here," said Chuck Laudner, the Iowa GOP's executive
director. "Getting to first place is going to be near impossible, but he certainly
could exceed expectations, and finishing third would be that."
Thompson hopes to do well enough to be able to raise money to continue in
states beyond Iowa. Unclear, at this point, is whether he would try to compete in
next-up New Hampshire, which he's all but ignored the past three months, or skip
that and Michigan to head to South Carolina, where his Southern populist appeal
could resonate best.
With polls showing Thompson behind just about everywhere, aides acknowledge
the uphill nature of his bid but say they see an opening in Iowa. They argue the
volatile race, the large number of Republicans still willing to change their minds
and the skirmishing between front-running rivals Romney and Mike Huckabee
could give Thompson a chance to re-emerge as a favorite among those on the
party's right flank.
They argue that Thompson would be the main beneficiary of what they expect
will be Huckabee's fall as more voters get to know the former Arkansas governor.
They say those voters won't go to Romney, the former Massachusetts governor,
because they've had more than a year to do so and haven't.
Thompson has run a moderate-to-small level of TV ads in the state and doesn't
have enough money to ensure he'll be on the air at full-bore, or even every day,
in the final stretch. In recent weeks, Thompson sent Iowans a few mailers
criticizing Huckabee, but it's not certain he can afford any more.
"Maybe (Thompson's plan) will work, but it seems to be the timing may be
problematic," Mike Mahaffey, a former Iowa GOP chairman, said. He speculated
that the holiday season could interrupt any momentum Thompson could get. "I'll
tell you what's going peak in the next two weeks in Iowa — Christmas!"