Fred Thompson: Testing The Waters And Shaking Them Up

The Associated Press reports this afternoon that Ex-Sen. Fred Thompson has replaced his would-be campaign manager, Thomas J. Collamore, with former Sen. Spence Abraham and political adviser Randy Enwright's . No explanation was provided; Collamore will remain an adviser.

I cannot as of yet advance the story, and I do not know the circumstances behind the change. When Collamore was brought aboard, he was described to me as the "campaign manager in waiting." That suggests that either his desire to slog through a campaign changed or his relationship with the candidate did.

The star in Thompson's orbit is his wife Jeri, a former RNC official who has given no interviews since Thompson began to speculate about a run. Jeri Thompson is his most ardent supporter and Thompson associates credit her with encouraging him to run. Thompson is said to trust her judgment explicitly. Others, particularly some of the newer advisers and allies, are wary. Still, this election cycle features several powerful spouses -- Elizabeth Edwards, Bill Clinton, Michelle Obama, Ann Romney -- so some of the criticism can be chalked up to sexism mixed with envy.

Some of Thompson's supporters-in-waiting worry that his delay in entering the race cuts off avenues of support and fuels speculation that reinforces the negative parts of Thompson's reputation. He recently lost a key potential social conservative endorsement to Mitt Romney -- the Judicial Confirmation Network's Wendy Long.

The news today will reinforce doubts about whether Thompson is ready to run a real campaign.

That said, Enwright's is a top notch strategist and campaign hand. So if Thompson is going to proceed with the campaign, having Enwright's at the helm (rather than a tobacco lobbyist -- no offense to Mr. Collamore) is a good thing.

Comments

Do they really spell Randy's name with that apostrophe?

Posted by Neil the Ethical Werewolf | July 24, 2007 5:47 PM

Good News. Some things were a little off center. I applaud the change.

I must say it seems forever for Fred not to announce however I am hopeful he waits until September. He must not enter the Aimes Straw Pole. If he does anything less that win, like being almost even he has helped Romney and the reputation of Aimes.

Let Romney win a nothing contest.

Announce in September after the Iraq report.

Don Jones
MyManFred.com

Posted by Don Jones | July 24, 2007 6:39 PM

Collamore being a tobacco lobbyist was a problem, but Abraham being a Big Oil lobbyist and lobbyist for Qaddafi is somehow not a problem? I don't get that one.

Posted by Joel | July 24, 2007 7:15 PM

Quite a few endorsements have already been made, actually early in the campaign. So long as Fred Thompson is deliberate, that is fine. Timing the campaign reporting is fine and lining up a good team and reviewing all the issues and fine tuning the campaign is great too. At this point, there are exactly two candidates in the GOP who can give Ms. Socialist a run for her money and those two are Rudy Guiliani and Fred Thompson. A ghost 3rd is Mitt Romney. Regardless of the number of months it takes to formally announce, we will have no wine before its time. Democrats are kind of ticked off because they are shooting at a moving target and the field is about to get much smaller. Fred Thompson has the advantage in a way of letting some candidates just self-destruct. He has the time to sharpen and contrast his positions with the likely opposition, Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama. Thompson does not have to much of a chameleon like the leading Democrat at this point, pandering to audiences so obviously, basically telling them what they want to hear, not necessarily how they would act as President. The Democratic strategy seems to be if you cannot dazzle them with brilliance, you cover the voter with bull manure. If that doesn't work, you just obfuscate or lie on the topic. If you have no new idea to present, you just repackage the old one, like socialized medicine forced down your throat and that of the entire medical community. It is sort of like having 8 years of White House dinners and then serving old leftovers for dinner when you have new out of country visitors. Of course you can curry a little more favor by renting out the Lincoln Bedroom. All Fred Thompson has to do is do his homework, work hard and just be himself. I believe he has the ability to do all three and look forward to him throwing his hat into the ring, getting out his red pickumup truck and talking rings around Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. I don't think Monica will attend the debates, we'll just have to get along without her.

Posted by Curtis41 | July 24, 2007 7:32 PM

Abraham is a terrible deal....he is a long time Islamist appeaser and apologist. Both him and Norquist should be deported.

Posted by mrbill | July 24, 2007 8:53 PM

What does it mean to "trust [someone] explicitly"?

Is it the opposite of trusting them implicitly, which is the usual English usage? Or is it the same thing?

Shouldn't the Atlantic's writers be familiar with idioms of the English language?

Posted by agum | July 24, 2007 10:05 PM

Tom Callomore is a great American ,father and husband. He gets things done and inside the beltway that is not the norm. h

Posted by joe banker | July 25, 2007 12:20 AM

Don't worry about Abraham's views. Unless Fred is a poor judge of character, Spence will have nothing to do with the shaping of positions. It ain't what he does well. He's a party builder. An inside guy. Someone who makes the trains run on time. In Michigan he and John Engler saved and rebuilt the GOP after William Milliken left it in shambles.

And Abraham is not pro-Islamist. He's a Lebanese Christian. You can call him pro-Arab. Ok, sometimes that doesn't seem like much of a distinction, but it is a real one.

Posted by Dave | July 25, 2007 9:56 AM

talking rings around Hillary Clinton

Good luck with that. I would never vote for Clinton, but by all accounts she's a formidable debater whereas Thompson is a bit slow on his feet verbally. There might be other reasons that Thompson would do well in the general but an ability to take on Clinton in debate is not one of them.

Posted by bbartlog | July 25, 2007 11:08 AM

Thompson's phantom campaigning has gone stale and he has lost the momentum back to Giuliani. Thompson needs to formally declare ASAP because he is simply not looking as presidential as Giuliani or Clinton right now.

Mike S.
www.steigmann.com

Posted by Mike S. | July 25, 2007 11:40 AM