Tom Kovach
Fred's feint, Bush's blunder, public's pullout
You don't think Thompson will really run, do you...?
By Tom Kovach
"There are more instances of the abridgement of the freedom of the people by the gradual and silent encroachment of those in power, than by violent and sudden usurpation." — James Madison (1751-1836), fourth president of the United States (1809-1817), and one of its Founding Fathers.
"Whenever nothing is happening, something is happening!" — Dr. James Dobson, discussing politics during one of his radio broadcasts.
In politics, as in war, the feint can be an effective maneuver. In war, a properly conducted feint can require the movement of an entire division. In politics, the course of a nation can be steered by one man (who, of course, has an entire division of unseen media consultants doing the yeoman work for him). In this weird-and-getting-weirder presidential election cycle, the pivot man of the Republican feint is Fred Thompson.
For several months, Thompson has enjoyed daily attention from the major news media. (You know, the ones that kept telling you that Bill Clinton and Al Gore are "centrists.") What does Mr. Thompson do to keep the news spotlight focused upon himself? Nothing, and plenty of it! When was the last time that you saw a person repeatedly make front-page headlines for what he was thinking? When was the last time that endless news stories were published about what a person might do? Could it be that Mr. Thompson's protracted period of "testing the waters" actually is the strategy?
Numerous writers and talk-radio hosts have been all a-twitter about the "soon to be announced" presidential campaign of Fred Dalton Thompson. It hasn't happened. The closest he has come is to announce a "test the waters" committee. And, even that took months longer than his GOP cheerleaders had predicted. Several potential dates have been predicted, and then conveniently forgotten, but Mr. Thompson is still not a candidate for president. Well, this writer is offering a counter-prediction.
Fred won't run
Fred Thompson is feigning a run for president, but he will not actually run. How can I predict this with such confidence? Because, in fighting terms, Thompson "telegraphed his move" early on. Just at the point when Thompson's eyes should've been focused squarely upon his political opponents, he turned and looked back toward his own corner. To put it in military terms, on his way to altitude, Thompson patted the handle of his reserve parachute. (Experience jumpers know that you should never do that.) Meaning: shortly after announcing that he was thinking about running for president, Thompson played the cancer card. (If the cancer had been in remission for three years, then why did he need to hold a press conference about it?) Although I'm very sympathetic to a person's health problems, the fact remains that announcing that problem early in his purported quest for the White House has given Fred Thompson a convenient exit option, which can be exercised at any time "without prejudice."
Fred's feint is a diversion. Why? The plan was to get Republicans excited about the possibility of a GOP rebound in the 2008 elections. Party bosses knew that the public was less than impressed with the existing crop of candidates. So, they pulled out somebody that looks like a conservative. (But, when crunch time comes, those bosses know that Ol' Fred will dance to the CFR tune.) Thompson is serving as a fundraising lightning rod for the Republican Party. The plan was that people would give money to Thompson, then he would back out (claiming health problems), and then Thompson would transfer all his money to his party. The problem (for the GOP) is that the plan is backfiring.
Bush's blunder
President Bush thought that everything was all sewn up. Conservatives were supposed to dutifully line up and throw money at the Republican Party — as they have for a long time, especially with Hillary Clinton as the boogeyman. But, in a stunning show of political fortitude, the so-called Bush base didn't fetch the stick this time. Instead, the dog has jumped the fence. Why?
President Bush got tired of waiting. He thought that the public had consumed enough of the Republican "spiked punch" to fall for his ill-logic regarding the Republican sellout of America. He went so far as to proclaim that conservatives opposed to the "shamnesty bill" just don't know what's good for America. He stirred up a public outcry that stopped that bill in its tracks. Within hours of his whopping legislative defeat, President Bush suddenly became ill. The president recovered, but his party appears to be terminal.
Public's pullout
The arranged marriage between President Bush and conservative Christians definitely seems to be over. The bride is recovering from battered voter syndrome, and is now regaining her sense of identity. Like an abusive husband, President Bush ignored the warning signs of the 2004 election, when the Constitution Party muscled its way into the national TV news coverage. Polls and events have shown that the Republican Party is in virtual death throes. (It had already been predicted for months.) Ironically, the killer of the Republican Party is its leader, President Bush.
Although a proposed amnesty for illegal aliens lit the fuse, that was not the only issue. The vast majority of American jobs still come from small business; but, Republican actions defy that fact. Mom and Pop work hard to build up their shop, only to have their tax dollars spent to give a huge "incentive package" to their rivals from the world of Big Business, which lobbies and supports Republicans that will help them. Repeat this cycle of "silent encroachment" all over America, and add to it the perversion of the 'eminent domain' doctrine (facilitated by "conservative" Republican justices), and you can see why Republican contributions have dried up. (The public figured out that something was happening, and they did not like it.) Eventually, that money will go somewhere else. My guess is that both money and voters will go to the Constitution Party in a big way.
The public's pullout from the Republican Party sets the stage for its demise, and for a president that is from neither of the Big Two political parties. The confirmation of this prediction will be when Fred Thompson uses his "reserve parachute" to suddenly exit from the presidential race. My guess is that he will do it soon after publication of this column because his coordinated feint has been exposed.
NOTE: In the interests of full disclosure, the author is the PR coordinator for the Constitution Party of Tennessee. He was also, until recently, the director of operations for the National Veterans Coalition (an outreach of the national Constitution Party). The NVC is encouraging Dr. Jerome Corsi, an author and investigative columnist, to run for president on the Constitution Party line. He is considering it.
© Tom Kovach
"There are more instances of the abridgement of the freedom of the people by the gradual and silent encroachment of those in power, than by violent and sudden usurpation." — James Madison (1751-1836), fourth president of the United States (1809-1817), and one of its Founding Fathers.
"Whenever nothing is happening, something is happening!" — Dr. James Dobson, discussing politics during one of his radio broadcasts.
In politics, as in war, the feint can be an effective maneuver. In war, a properly conducted feint can require the movement of an entire division. In politics, the course of a nation can be steered by one man (who, of course, has an entire division of unseen media consultants doing the yeoman work for him). In this weird-and-getting-weirder presidential election cycle, the pivot man of the Republican feint is Fred Thompson.
For several months, Thompson has enjoyed daily attention from the major news media. (You know, the ones that kept telling you that Bill Clinton and Al Gore are "centrists.") What does Mr. Thompson do to keep the news spotlight focused upon himself? Nothing, and plenty of it! When was the last time that you saw a person repeatedly make front-page headlines for what he was thinking? When was the last time that endless news stories were published about what a person might do? Could it be that Mr. Thompson's protracted period of "testing the waters" actually is the strategy?
Numerous writers and talk-radio hosts have been all a-twitter about the "soon to be announced" presidential campaign of Fred Dalton Thompson. It hasn't happened. The closest he has come is to announce a "test the waters" committee. And, even that took months longer than his GOP cheerleaders had predicted. Several potential dates have been predicted, and then conveniently forgotten, but Mr. Thompson is still not a candidate for president. Well, this writer is offering a counter-prediction.
Fred won't run
Fred Thompson is feigning a run for president, but he will not actually run. How can I predict this with such confidence? Because, in fighting terms, Thompson "telegraphed his move" early on. Just at the point when Thompson's eyes should've been focused squarely upon his political opponents, he turned and looked back toward his own corner. To put it in military terms, on his way to altitude, Thompson patted the handle of his reserve parachute. (Experience jumpers know that you should never do that.) Meaning: shortly after announcing that he was thinking about running for president, Thompson played the cancer card. (If the cancer had been in remission for three years, then why did he need to hold a press conference about it?) Although I'm very sympathetic to a person's health problems, the fact remains that announcing that problem early in his purported quest for the White House has given Fred Thompson a convenient exit option, which can be exercised at any time "without prejudice."
Fred's feint is a diversion. Why? The plan was to get Republicans excited about the possibility of a GOP rebound in the 2008 elections. Party bosses knew that the public was less than impressed with the existing crop of candidates. So, they pulled out somebody that looks like a conservative. (But, when crunch time comes, those bosses know that Ol' Fred will dance to the CFR tune.) Thompson is serving as a fundraising lightning rod for the Republican Party. The plan was that people would give money to Thompson, then he would back out (claiming health problems), and then Thompson would transfer all his money to his party. The problem (for the GOP) is that the plan is backfiring.
Bush's blunder
President Bush thought that everything was all sewn up. Conservatives were supposed to dutifully line up and throw money at the Republican Party — as they have for a long time, especially with Hillary Clinton as the boogeyman. But, in a stunning show of political fortitude, the so-called Bush base didn't fetch the stick this time. Instead, the dog has jumped the fence. Why?
President Bush got tired of waiting. He thought that the public had consumed enough of the Republican "spiked punch" to fall for his ill-logic regarding the Republican sellout of America. He went so far as to proclaim that conservatives opposed to the "shamnesty bill" just don't know what's good for America. He stirred up a public outcry that stopped that bill in its tracks. Within hours of his whopping legislative defeat, President Bush suddenly became ill. The president recovered, but his party appears to be terminal.
Public's pullout
The arranged marriage between President Bush and conservative Christians definitely seems to be over. The bride is recovering from battered voter syndrome, and is now regaining her sense of identity. Like an abusive husband, President Bush ignored the warning signs of the 2004 election, when the Constitution Party muscled its way into the national TV news coverage. Polls and events have shown that the Republican Party is in virtual death throes. (It had already been predicted for months.) Ironically, the killer of the Republican Party is its leader, President Bush.
Although a proposed amnesty for illegal aliens lit the fuse, that was not the only issue. The vast majority of American jobs still come from small business; but, Republican actions defy that fact. Mom and Pop work hard to build up their shop, only to have their tax dollars spent to give a huge "incentive package" to their rivals from the world of Big Business, which lobbies and supports Republicans that will help them. Repeat this cycle of "silent encroachment" all over America, and add to it the perversion of the 'eminent domain' doctrine (facilitated by "conservative" Republican justices), and you can see why Republican contributions have dried up. (The public figured out that something was happening, and they did not like it.) Eventually, that money will go somewhere else. My guess is that both money and voters will go to the Constitution Party in a big way.
The public's pullout from the Republican Party sets the stage for its demise, and for a president that is from neither of the Big Two political parties. The confirmation of this prediction will be when Fred Thompson uses his "reserve parachute" to suddenly exit from the presidential race. My guess is that he will do it soon after publication of this column because his coordinated feint has been exposed.
NOTE: In the interests of full disclosure, the author is the PR coordinator for the Constitution Party of Tennessee. He was also, until recently, the director of operations for the National Veterans Coalition (an outreach of the national Constitution Party). The NVC is encouraging Dr. Jerome Corsi, an author and investigative columnist, to run for president on the Constitution Party line. He is considering it.
© Tom Kovach
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