From the Fred File.
On Saturday night, we flew into Portsmouth, New Hampshire just after a huge storm had blown through. And when I say “a huge storm” I mean “A HUGE STORM!”
It blew trees over and blew two fully loaded hay wagons about four feet driving the tongue of the wagon through the side of a car. It blew over tents and soaked just about everyone at the Chili Cookoff which was a fundraiser for the Republican Women’s organization.
Remember, this is New Hampshire. Home of the first-in-the-nation primary. Also the site of the most recent debate which Fred missed because he happened to have been on the “Tonight Show” with Jay Leno.
There had been much handwringing among the national punditry class about the blow to New Hampshire’s pride that miss had been, and how voters in New Hampshire would surely punish Fred for the slight.
Undaunted we hopped in the bus and drove over to the farm where the event was being held and saw that the 200-or-so people who had hidden out in the barn for Fred Thompson to arrive poured out to greed Fred, and when he hopped up on the stage in a steady drizzle the voters (who, remember, were going to punish Fred) rallied ‘round the stage to listen.
I wondered whether this campaign was going to go up in a blizzard of white sparks and a cloud of blue smoke as Fred was electrocuted by the rain hitting his wireless microphone but, in the end, it all worked fine.
After the speech, while Fred shook hands and posed for pictures, I drifted around to listen to reporters looking for someone who hated the speech and whose support for Gov. Romney or Mayor Giuliani or Sen. McCain had only been increased after listening to Fred.
One reporter, rather than asking “what did you think of the speech?” asked: “Don’t you think he is missing his opportunities by not having more red meat in his speech?”
The man the reporter was talking to, an actual voter from New Hampshire, said that he thought the speech was just fine and, further, while he hadn’t made up his mind, he was now leaning toward Fred.
Unable to stop myself, I dove into the conversation.
“First,” I said to the reporter, “you are requiring Thomson to reach a standard which (a) you, not this man, set and (b) doesn’t make any sense in the first place.”
“Look at all the people who waited through the storm to see him,” I said waiting until he actually turned around to look. “And they’re STILL here,” I said noting how many were swarming around Fred.
“You guys complain (I didn’t actually say “complain” but this is a family blog) about candidates who speak in sound bites and bumper strips. Then when a candidate comes and gives you 20 minutes of substance you tell me you’re looking for someone wearing a red nose and clown hair.”
“You can’t have it both ways.”
I doubt that I made that reporter throw away his “Hillary for President” card, but he agreed with me.
I was hoping for a headline in the Sunday Portsmouth paper which read: “Thompson Takes NH by Storm” but while the story was a fair representation, the headline didn’t reach my standard.
Fox shows that Fred was courting Democratic and Independent voters in a Democratic stronghold.
Thompson began his first visit to the Granite State as an official candidate Saturday evening with a single stop at a traditional GOP picnic at the Scammon farm in Stratham, then spent the night in the heavily Democratic seacoast city of Portsmouth.
Thompson had no public events Sunday morning. His first appearance was in the heavily Democratic 'Queen City' of Manchester, the most populated city in New Hampshire.
His first stop was at a diner called "Chez Vachon," one of the most identifiable haunts of the 1992 Clinton campaign. The restaurant is located on the intensely liberal French-Canadian "west side," where French accents are prevalent and labor union politics rule.
Chez Vachon occasionally features Republican candidates — Arizona Sen. John McCain swung by earlier this year — but the voters are devout Democrats.
More from Boston Globe:
MANCHESTER, N.H. --Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson left a trail of half-empty coffee cups and barely sipped Diet Pepsis on Sunday as he jumped into the kind of person-to-person political campaigning that voters here demand.
On his first swing across New Hampshire as a declared candidate, Thompson visited bars and restaurants where voters watched football and drank beer. Some asked about immigration, the economy and politics.
He even signed a magazine that featured him on the cover with the headline, "Lazy Like a Fox."
"I'm going to lose more weight on this thing. I'll never get close enough to food to eat it," the former Tennessee senator joked with the throng of reporters and photographers chasing him.
[...]"This is where it's at," Thompson said. "Breaking out of the Beltway, getting past the pundits and all the experts and all the people who make their money on politics, getting out there and talking with the people is what it's all about."
He said he would leave his fate up to the people and the Lord.
"That's all I can ask," Thompson said.
He made his way through one restaurant, leaving behind half-finished orders before finally grabbing a hamburger to go. At his first stop, he left behind half a cup of coffee.
"That's pretty good coffee. I hate to leave it," he bemoaned.
He followed his day in Manchester with a late afternoon event at Nashua City Hall, where then-Massachusetts Sen. John Kennedy launched his New Hampshire campaign for the 1960 presidential election.
"I may not give you a lot of applause lines as we go along," Thompson warned. "I think this is a serious time and the people of New Hampshire, especially, are interested in serious issues and a serious discussion about them in frank and forthright matter. And that's exactly what we're going to do from one end of New Hampshire to the other."
During his town hall-style event, he answered questions about Social Security, health care and the national debt. He said he won't work from sound bites, adding energy independence sounds good but will take work to get there.
"Let's be honest about that. We're not going to be energy independent overnight," Thompson said. "It's going to be some time. ... We've got to use the resources we have here at home. We can do ANWR without doing environmental damage. I've looked at it and I'm convinced of it."
A day earlier, Thompson dropped by a Republican women's chili dinner at a farm just after a rain storm.
From all accounts, the people like him, the media is following him like puppies and the reports are positive.
The only harsh reports on him so far are coming from the far left liberal crowds, bloggers, not media.
They are beginning to fear the fact that he holds appeal to the people. He is personable, friendly and talks to them, not at them like most of the candidates for president on both sides of the aisle do.
In other Fred news, Mike Huckabee is offering to have a real debate with Fred, not these 30 second soundbite type things the candidates have been doing the last couple of months.
I share your view of the debates and agree that Newt's "Nine Nineties in Nine" concept is a far better way to make sure America's next President has the character and capacity to lead our nation forward, and that's why I have already signed that pledge. I agree that what is needed is a real discussion by the candidates about their vision for the future of our country.
The debates so far have not offered an in-depth discussion on critical issues such as health care, education, energy independence, in addition to terrorism and national security.
I am aware of your comments on Fox News that you would like to participate in a series of Lincoln Douglas-styled debates. I would like to officially accept your offer and look forward to working with your staff to schedule this. I would suggest we start this series in New Hampshire.
I have to agree with pundits that feel this would be the perfect format for Fred, in fact he said himself (on Leno) that he would prefer a debate with substance rather than the fluff we have been seeing lately.
From the Leno Transcript:
JAY LENO: How would you like to debate? FRED THOMPSON: I would do it in small groups preferably one‑on‑one and set aside a segment of time ‑‑ Newt Gingrich has a good idea. He talks about the Lincoln‑Douglas debates. The circumstances are different, but the principal is still the same: A thoughtful discussion over a period time to get to know what people are really thinking and what they're really like. The segments now, you know, you've got ten guys if everybody shows up, you know, with 30, 40 second sound bites. It's not designed to enlighten the American people. It's more designed for the people who are putting the debates on, and you run from one to another to another to another, and that's all well and good. I'll do my share, but I don't think it's a very enlightening forum to tell you truth. And I'll tell you something else. For those who talk about that New Hampshire situation, I'm certainly not disrespecting them, but it's a lot more difficult to get on the "Tonight Show" than it is to get into a presidential debate. (Applause.)
You can see the video here or I have it posted at the Leno link above.
Don Surber agrees and is ready to rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrumble.
Oh I am sooooooooooo ready to rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrumble. These chat sessions with yahoos like Dr. Ron Paul are like a grandma’s gynecological exam. I mean, I suppose they are necessary, but I don’t have to watch.
Rather than let everyone go at it, the reporters ask gotcha questions and CNN rolled out that YouTube talking snowman gimmick. Before the Fox News event, Brit Hume bragged that he was trying to get the candidates to go off-message and to leave their talking points behind.
Why?
I want to hear their talking points. I want to know where they stand on the issues. I want them to set the agenda, not Brit Hume. And I like Brit Hume.
Lincoln and Douglas didn’t have some third-party set the agenda. They argued the issue of the day: Dred Scott. They didn’t need a talking snowman to set their agenda.
Go for it Fred!!!!!
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