(2007-08-24) — Former Sen. Fred Thompson today finally ended all the speculation by announcing he will, in fact, seek the Republican nomination for the presidency in 2012.
“It took me a while to make up my mind,” said Mr. Thompson, the star of TV’s Law & Order, “but if we’re going to mount a serious challenge to President Clinton in 2012, we’d better get a move on. I’ve got to assemble a national organization and raise some big bucks, and we’ve only got 50 months or so before the primaries.”
The former lawmaker, and make-believe law enforcer, will turn 70 just three months before the 2012 general election, but he said he’s now “almost as healthy” as septuagenarian Sen. John McCain, and he expects to feel even better by 2012 thanks to President Hillary Clinton’s national health care program.
46 responses so far ↓
1 JamesonLewis3rd // Aug 25, 2007 at 7:47 am
God Bless America
2 Rock Slatestone // Aug 25, 2007 at 8:31 am
God Bless the USA
3 Rock Slatestone // Aug 25, 2007 at 8:40 am
Since they the left started early with the presidential campaign I’d say I can’t wait for the 2008 elections to be over. But of course they will do it again when the republicans stay in the White House.
That is if the “lame duck” republican voters who allowed the left to take over congress, doesn’t vote this time for republicans…or doesn’t even vote at all.
4 Beerme // Aug 25, 2007 at 8:51 am
In my opinion, he doesn’t look too strong now…
But all this dilly-dallying is certainly unflattering.
5 University Update - Fred Thompson - Fred Thompson to Run for President in 2012 // Aug 25, 2007 at 9:13 am
[...] Clark Fred Thompson to Run for President in 2012 » This Summary is from an article posted at ScrappleFace on Saturday, August 25, 2007 This [...]
6 camojack // Aug 25, 2007 at 10:10 am
Maybe for a second term in 2012. Getting impatient, Scott? Heh. I hear he’ll announce after Labor Day Weekend. The election is over a year away, after all.
Speaking of Labor Day Weekend, when are you going to announce your plans vis-á-vis the “ScrappleFest”?
[Editor's Note: We're still considering all of our options, conferring with family, getting a sense of the popular mood of the country, conducting focus groups and internal polling, and consulting with opinion leaders and strategy experts. It's not something into which you just leap, and it's not like we've been planning all of our lives for this. At this point, it looks like we may have some kind of announcement about ScrappleFest in the coming days.]
7 University Update - John McCain - Fred Thompson to Run for President in 2012 // Aug 25, 2007 at 10:32 am
[...] Clark Fred Thompson to Run for President in 2012 » This Summary is from an article posted at ScrappleFace on Saturday, August 25, 2007 This [...]
8 Harry Daschle // Aug 25, 2007 at 11:48 am
Who knows, maybe they will invent an “energy pill” sometime before then, and if so, he MAY make a good President?
9 SGT USMC 1ea // Aug 25, 2007 at 1:28 pm
Harry Daschle, Unfortunately they already have “energy pills”. I think Shrillary is hooked on them.
Who needs a Fred when we have a McCain. I foresee another hideous 3 party “Go ahead and give it to the dems”, “I am not a [Ross Perot] spoiler” election next year if we do not soon get a real conservative front runner.
I feel shame that I voted for Perot and thus handed the country over to clinton for 8 years with a terrible 43% of the electorate. It is almost as if I personally had a hand in 9/11. ———-Still if Perot had won we would certainly be a different nation…How though?
Deus est Semper Fidelis
10 SGT USMC 1ea // Aug 25, 2007 at 1:51 pm
Hmmmmm.. Ross Perot: Uncompromising business man, Realist, able to balance a budget, (Pause for NAFTA sucking noise), application of business principals to foreign relations…etc,
I guess the rest of the world would really hate us. Afghanistan would be a glass hole and we would be even richer.
Jesu est Semper Fidelis
11 onlineanalyst // Aug 25, 2007 at 2:13 pm
Good grief! Madame Hillary has been running for the presidency since 1992. After 15 years of her soapboxing and grandstanding, more than half of the country still cannot stand her.
12 Fred Sinclair // Aug 25, 2007 at 2:16 pm
Dark horses have a very nasty track record of coming out of the backstretch and winning.
Frontrunners have a nasty track record of stumbling in the stretch
I think that there are way too many people who have a “bad feeling” about Mrs. Bill Clinton. If she is elected president it will only be due to liberals who want Mr. Bill Clinton back in the White House.
I’d like to see Fred Thompson, with Janice Rogers Brown as his running mate.
Thompson will fight like blazes to achieve peace and even harder to keep it.
We need a President named Fred in the White House anyway. (Fred = peace)
Heirborn Ranger
13 onlineanalyst // Aug 25, 2007 at 2:26 pm
This just in from Jim Geraghty at NRO’s “The Campaign Spot”:
…I’ve been told that Fred Thompson’s speech tonight is important.
Why?
This Thompson Associate wouldn’t say why.
So I see three options.
1) “Tonight, my friends, I’m going to talk about how we need to renew America’s values…” Boo, hiss, same stuff as always, over-hyped by an overeager associate.
2) “Tonight, my friends, I’m going to share a bit of news for you. I’ve been testing the waters, and they seem pretty warm, and I think I’ll have an answer for you guys real soon. In fact, I’d urge you to mark [insert date here] on your calendars.” Not the announcement, but the announcement of the announcement date.
3) “Tonight, my friends, I’m letting you know that I’ve found the water to be just fine…” Maybe he’ll surprise us all and declare that he’s in. It would seem odd to do it on a late August Saturday night, but Romney unveiled his health care plan ideas on a late August Friday afternoon, and Giuliani is talking up his tax plan on a Saturday afternoon….”
FWIW: I like Fred Thompson’s slow and easy approach. Why waste the money or the energy when most people’s minds are still in summertime mode? This campaign season is way too long, and the primaries are way too early to be meaningful. Some voters don’t even know who their choice is until days before the general election. Sorry to say, but these voters don’t have meaningful reasons for their choices, and they are often the ones who swing elections.
14 JamesonLewis3rd // Aug 25, 2007 at 3:26 pm
I agree, many voters make their final decision at the last minute, choosing the one they think is going to win (everybody wants to be on the ” winning” side, after all) but without regard for their (the politician’s) stance on any particular issue.
I have always considered this motivation to be a major flaw in too many voter’s thinking.
15 camojack // Aug 25, 2007 at 4:07 pm
[Editor’s Note: We’re still considering all of our options, conferring with family, getting a sense of the popular mood of the country, conducting focus groups and internal polling, and consulting with opinion leaders and strategy experts. It’s not something into which you just leap, and it’s not like we’ve been planning all of our lives for this. At this point, it looks like we may have some kind of announcement about ScrappleFest in the coming days.]
Well played; quite on topic also. I know that everyone who is planning to attend would certainly love it if you do as well.
I’m bringing the scrapple…
[Editor's Note: With enough maple syrup, a body can eat almost anything.]
16 mig // Aug 25, 2007 at 5:27 pm
If Fred has those really swell charts like Perot had, I’ll vote for him. The planning is all in the details.
17 onlineanalyst // Aug 25, 2007 at 5:58 pm
Speaking of details: I made a major run for foodstuffs today to tuck away in my freezer: sausage, bacon, hot dogs, and hamburgers. I’m bringing enough extra paper plates, napkins, plastic cups, and plastic cutlery to last us through the weekend. Several dozen eggs, sauerkraut, some large cans of pork and beans, and condiments round out today’s purchases.
Friday is fresh vegetable (and maybe watermelon and Chambersburg peaches) and buns pickup time. Butter, milk, coffee, and syrup (for Ms. RW, Ink’s homemade pancakes with from-scratch batter) round out my contributions.
I am working on getting some kind of tee shirt available for our maiden get-together. This may not fly though because of the short notice. (Details to follow.)
We have access to a stove in the cabins, but I will bring along a gas grill (propane needed). Can someone take on the charcoal purchase duties in case we decide to grill al fresco? Or soft drink/bottled water purchases? Do any of the participants have a pot large enough to boil corn or know how to roast it in the fire pit?
This is becoming more exciting as the ScrappleFest is shaping up. (Who knows? Maybe our fearless leader will join us. (Yes!) Maybe even Rush Limbaugh will make a guest appearance. (We know that you read us, Rush!)
Posting any photos of our shenigans will have limited Internet exposure. (We don’t want Madame Hillary to learn who some members of the Very Right Wing Conspiracy are, after all.)
18 JamesonLewis3rd // Aug 25, 2007 at 7:21 pm
Well, I broke down and did it…..I went to HuffPo…..
I had been reading about this article by Martin Lewis (not the comedy team from back in the day by a long shot) all day and I just had to go see if what I was reading was for real…..and it is.
The comments weren’t what I expected, however, and made it worth while.
19 Effeminem // Aug 25, 2007 at 7:56 pm
Being the Fearless Leader isn’t all it’s made out to be. You’re apt to find yourself charging the enemy lines alone.
Enfilade, then.
20 Darthmeister // Aug 25, 2007 at 8:13 pm
Well, yeeeeah! He’ll be running for his second term.
BTW, right now on the History Channel the morons in the “Troother Movement” are getting their butts handed to them. The conservative blogosphere has known the real facts about 9/11 and the rebuttals to these troother moonbats, it’s about time this stuff went mainstream.
21 camojack // Aug 25, 2007 at 9:02 pm
[Editor’s Note: With enough maple syrup, a body can eat almost anything.]
Some folks eat scrapple with maple syrup, ’tis true…but I’m not one of ‘em. I’ll take mine straight up…
(De gustibus non disputandum est)
22 conserve-a-tips // Aug 25, 2007 at 10:01 pm
All this talk about Scrapplefest is making me depressed. I want to try some scrapple with maple surple!! When you all get together, go ahead and start planning for next year. (Just don’t make it in June ’cause y’all are invited to a wedding.
Has anyone heard from Ms Rightwing, Ink? I am seeing that Ohio got hit pretty hard today.
23 Fred Sinclair // Aug 25, 2007 at 10:15 pm
When I was in High School the idea of no 10 Commandments in Courtrooms or no prayer in school would have gotten you laughed out of school. Barber chairs had ash trays built in the armrests. Every hospital bed had an ashtray on the bedside table. Greyhound buses had ashtrays built in the armrests. “George Orwell’s “1984″ book was laughed at as a joke book or loony Science Fiction novel.
Today we wish it was only that bad, we’ve turned the satire into grim reality.
Anybody think that in another 50 years Muslims won’t be “offended” by our “un-Islamic haircuts and women’s naked faces, Going on rampages as they burn cars, beat people, etc. like they recently did in France.
“Iran closes barbers offering ‘un-Islamic’ haircuts” (DRUDGE headline, today)
Heirborn Ranger
24 mig // Aug 26, 2007 at 6:08 am
Heavy Metal is the music of Peace like those bumper stickers ‘Peace through Music’?
25 mig // Aug 26, 2007 at 7:11 am
(smirking)
$2 million to establish the “Rangel Center for Public Service” at City College of New York, requested by none other then Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY). Amendment failed, 108-316.
Establish a Rangel Center for Public Service. (chuckle, chortle, snort)
26 Maggie // Aug 26, 2007 at 8:22 am
Online….
Good work on the Scrapplefest.Cudos.
If you do indeed have T-shirts ,maybe you can also include a 2nd tier shirt for those of us who are unable to attend but really really want to.
27 Maggie // Aug 26, 2007 at 8:25 am
Personally,I can’t see Fred Thompson “running” for anything.He looks and acts like death eating a cracker.
28 JamesonLewis3rd // Aug 26, 2007 at 8:44 am
How about:
Kick Me
I Missed
ScrappleFest
2007
In a two-inch, Day-Gloâ„¢ orange, 3-D, uppercase, serif font (with Day-Gloâ„¢ green drop-shadow, of course) centered on the back of a Day-Gloâ„¢ yellow T-shirt?
29 JamesonLewis3rd // Aug 26, 2007 at 8:48 am
Kind of hurts my retinas just to think about…..
30 Darthmeister // Aug 26, 2007 at 9:06 am
Howeird Dean and the DemDonk Party is going to lower the boom on Florida as to when it can hold its primaries. Looks like the party of totalitarianism isn’t Republican but rather Demoncrap. But of course the “reality-based” nutcases who believe in “troother” conspiracy theories are too busy spinning more lies about 9/11 to worry themselves about the fascism in their own God-forsaken party.
31 egospeak // Aug 26, 2007 at 10:57 am
Got home from Church about 20 min past 11am here on the east coast and decided to watch the last few minutes of the progam (I have no idea what it is called) that is hosted by Chris Matthews on Sunday mornings. Heaven only knows why. Anyway he has a segment called “Tell me something I don’t know.” So I thought and thought and thought and the only thing that came to mind was, “Ok, you’re an idiot, and a blowhard”. Don’t know why I felt the urgent need to share that.
Regards,
32 egospeak // Aug 26, 2007 at 11:19 am
Maggie, re: 26,
Ol’ Fred may look and act like death eating a cracker, but you misunderestimate him at your own peril. Those southern boys (I guess Tennessee is considered southern, in a West Virginia kind of way) can be pretty sly.
I’m hoping he gets in soon. He’s seems to be electable, has name recognition, and appears to have the requisite conservative credentials and speaks in a common sense way. IMHO, while all the republicans running would be better than anyone the dems are offering, I think Fred is the best of the bunch.
Regards,
33 JamesonLewis3rd // Aug 26, 2007 at 11:29 am
Nouri al-Maliki should demand the resignation or ouster of Clinton and Levin.
Makes more sense than the other way around, if you ask me.
34 egospeak // Aug 26, 2007 at 11:58 am
Got home from church about 20 minutes after 11 am east coast time and decided, for heaven only knows why, to watch the last few minutes of whatever the program is that Chris Matthews hosts on Sunday mornings. He has a segment called “Tell me something I don’t know”. So I thought and thought and thought and the only thing that came to mind was, “OK, you’re an idiot and a blowhard”. I don’t know why I felt the desperate need to share that.
Regards,
35 egospeak // Aug 26, 2007 at 12:02 pm
re: 33
I must be having some computer issues. Please disregard the double post.
Regards,
36 egospeak // Aug 26, 2007 at 12:16 pm
Now I’m sure I’m having computer issues. If I go to comments but don’t log in, there is only the one post, but if I log in… shazam, the double post is there, plus a second post to Maggie re:26 about Fred Thompson. Anyway, if you happen to see the double post, my apologies, and if you don’t… well as Bob Dole used to say, (before the Viagra commercials), “Whatever”.
Regards,
37 Maggie // Aug 26, 2007 at 3:48 pm
Egospeak,
Your post re Thompson did not appear.I would be interested in knowing what you think.
38 egospeak // Aug 26, 2007 at 5:01 pm
Maggie re: 26,
Ol’ Fred may look and act like death eating a cracker, but you misunderestimate him at your own peril. Those southern boys (I guess Tennessee is considered southern, in a West Virginia kind of way) can be pretty sly.
I’m hoping he gets in soon. He seems to be electable, has name recognition, appears to have the requisite conservative credentials, and speaks in a common sense way. IMHO, while all the republicans running are preferable to anybody the dems are offering, I think Fred is the best of the bunch.
Regards,
39 mindknumbed kid // Aug 26, 2007 at 10:05 pm
I sure wish I could be there for Scrapplefest, sounds like a good time.
I like Thompson alright, but where is a candidate that goes in swinging and ain’t afeared to break out of the mold ? Tell it like it is and then how it oughta be, not afraid to be politically incorrect……someone who can shake things up and not sound so Washingtonized.
40 conserve-a-tips // Aug 26, 2007 at 10:45 pm
Mindnumbed kid - That would be Tom Coburn from our state, known as “Dr. No” in the Senate. He is ultra conservative and knows the constitution backwards and forwards. I wish that he would run…we had heard rumors…but I guess he isn’t. He had a bout with cancer and I guess he thought that would turn people off or else his health is such that he can’t run.
41 Effeminem // Aug 26, 2007 at 11:26 pm
mindknumbed.. I think Ron Paul meets those criteria. The problems are he’s funny looking, doesn’t yell, and voted against the Iraq invasion in 2003. Thus he has no credibility.
42 da Bunny // Aug 26, 2007 at 11:27 pm
OT…It’s bad enough that I stand a good chance of missing out on meeting Scott, but if I missed out on El Rushbo, too…it would be devastating for me!!
43 mig // Aug 27, 2007 at 5:05 am
Maybe the RNC can take out a want ad:
Conservative for President. Long hours, good pay and perks. RINOS need not apply.
44 Maggie // Aug 27, 2007 at 7:02 am
Mig re # 40…………Excellent!
45 boberinyetagain // Aug 27, 2007 at 7:46 am
Of course he’s announcing for 2012!
It seems as though there is no “election cycle” anymore, everyone is running for office all the time.
Sgt, Perot didn’t win because everyone thought voting for him would be a “waste” of a vote. Had they thought otherwise he would have won hands down. Now, as to how we’d be different, that’s a good question but one I was willing to find the answer to
46 JamesonLewis3rd // Aug 27, 2007 at 8:45 am
Hm. I love Arizona-spent a little less than 2 years there in Mesa earlier this decade.
I might have to take a little drive over there and see what sort of jobs are opening up because I know just how varied the jobs are that have been STOLEN with the utterly false mantra of “Doing jobs Americans won’t do.”
For example: Guess who built the houses (every aspect) before the criminals invaded and put a BUNCH of hard-working Americans out of work, replacing them with non-English-speaking, disrespectful, totally unskilled workers who do nothing but mill around acting (?) ignorant, doing as little as possible, while keeping an eye on their watches and hiding from the boss. It’s not just about doing a half-butted job of mowing lawns, flipping burgers or, even, washing your car (jobs, by the way, also filled by pride-filled Americans prior to the INVASION).
We’ll see, I guess.
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