THE PLANK DECEMBER 19, 2007
-
Read Later
READ LATERAvailable only to subscribers. SUBSCRIBE TODAY
-
Listen
ARTICLE AUDIO
- Font Size
I thought Fred Thompson had a decent line when he refused to raise his hand at last week's DMR debate, but his campaign evidently thinks it was something much more. From today's NYT:
After Mr. Thompson, the former Tennessee senator, told Carolyn
Washburn, the moderator, that he was “not doing hand shows today,” in
reply to a question about global warming, his campaign renamed the tour
“The Clear Conservative Choice: Hands Down! Bus Tour in Iowa.” And for
at least his first three stops on the 15-day swing through Iowa, Mr.
Thompson made sure to remind his audiences of what his campaign called
his “defining moment.”
Do note the irony that Thompson's defining moment involves his refusal to do something. Fred Thompson: so lazy he won't even raise his hand!
P.S. Or maybe Thompson's just adopting the Crowley strategy* and making a virtue out of his sloth.
*--link goes to an NYT blog item about Crowley's TNR article, since our online archives are still apparently unavailable.
--Jason Zengerle
4 comments
Hands down--OK. Eyelids up, Fred.
- teplukhin2you
December 19, 2007 at 11:00am
I thought that was maybe the worst campaign slogan ever. The whole point of the campaign is to get people to vote for you. Metaphorically, to raise their hands on behalf of a given candidate. So "Thompson: Hands Down" is about as close as they can come to the campaign slogan, "Don't Vote Thompson."
(Plus, if yes-or-no show-of-hands questions are beneath his dignity, what the heck did he do in the Senate all those years? His chief claim of qualification for the office is his record in a job that consisted entirely of participating in show-of-hands yes-or-no voting. "Fred Thompson: Refuse to Choose.")
- rhubarbs
December 19, 2007 at 11:07am
U-tube link - very sly. No doot aboot it.
- teplukhin2you
December 19, 2007 at 11:17am
NPR story on Thompson this morning mirrored Crowley's take on Fred perfectly. They noted his refusal to walk down the street in Iowa and his glaring picture on his campaign bus. The couldn't come right out and call him a lazyass, but they left the impression in their NPR way.
- stgla
December 20, 2007 at 10:39am