Wednesday, July 25, 2007

FRED THOMPSON

The Mission For Randy Enwright and Spencer Abraham

I think Randy Enwright and Spencer Abraham, the new top men on Team Thompson, have a tall task ahead of them.

The fine, bright, hardworking folks on Team Thompson are trying their darnest to persuade us that everything is going according to plan. I understand they're just trying to do their jobs, but... not announcing until September is part of the plan? (Remember, Fred talked about tossing his hat in the ring back in early March. Six months of testing the waters?)

A director of research quitting a week and a half into the job?

Fred's appearances this week include another one with Sean Hannity on his tour, and local radio? That's small potatoes compared to the other candidates. McCain gets less "he's doomed" coverage when he does a conference call with bloggers on Iraq and other issues. Rudy's rolling out his legal advisory team. Romney's making news day by day by going after the Democrats, being opportunistic by jumping on Obama over the "sex ed in kindergarten" comment. All of them are trying to shape the narrative by going out and doing things, while Fred raises funds and does pleasant, but not terribly newsy speeches. Imagine if he went out and ripped every foolish comment in the Democrats' debate yesterday. It would have dominated the headlines, and provided a story beyond the personnel shuffle.

Look, going on Jay Leno is great, and generates a day's worth of talk. Going on Tim Russert would generate a week's worth of talk. Don't like Russert? Fine. Do Larry Kudlow again, or Wolf Blitzer, or anybody on Fox beyond Hannity. Heck, do national talk radio.  I think one reason so many Republicans see Thompson as the Great Folksy Hope is his skills as a communicator. So why do we see comparably little of the candidate?

By the way, naming Spencer Abraham, former senator and Secretary of Energy, as one of the new leaders of the campaign left some readers saying "uh-oh" and some readers scratching their heads. I felt it was like a President naming Michael Jordan as Secretary of State - you know the individual is talented, but you have little or no criteria to know whether those talents fit the position. We know the last time he himself won an election was in 1994.

I see that Abraham received the "Defender of the Melting Pot" award from the National Council of La Raza. Somehow I suspect that won't wow a lot of GOP primary voters.

UPDATE: JPod thinks highly of Abraham.

07/25 11:34 AMShare