Fred Thompson, the formula, sequel candidate.

[JDPriestly]

Nobody really likes him that much. He has never been a leader. He has nothing new or original to offer at a time when voters want change. Yawn. That is all I can say about him. A big, hunking chunk of yawn.

A few desperate Republicans like Mary Matalin are hoping that F*T is enough like Reagan and Schwarzenegger to draw TV lovers to the polls to vote for him. How wrong they are. Reagan and Schwarzenegger got by on a certain innocent charm. They exuded exuberance. Their philosophies and policies are and were horrid, but a lot of people saw their smiles and thought about their movies and either smelled hero or smelled cute and funny and voted their noses.

F*T doesn't have that heroic or lovable aura around him. Pitted against an extremely Democratic field, voters are going to scrutinize everything F*T says and does for substance. F*T has some things going for him. He used to have an imposing physique (which, thanks to gravity, actually makes him look kind of decrepit) He is a lawyer and presumably, at one time, had the smarts to get through law school. I suspect he can spout the usual Republican "me first, everybody else get to the back of the line" philosophy that the true believer kool-aid drinkers get so high on, but basically he is a has-been, a bore with hackneyed answers that all who have lived through the Bush II administration realize fail, fail, fail over and over. F*T has no answers for Katrina, for stagnant wages and downward spiraling incomes for most people, for ending the war, for preventing terrorists from getting the upper hand, for lowering our international trade imbalance, for making us energy independent, for dealing with our decline in the face of a rising China, etc., etc.

F*T is going to spout the same old Republican nonsense we have been hearing since 1980. Our Democratic candidates are just so much better, so much better -- any one of them, that Fred Thompson would be wise to stay out of the race.

F*T the sequel, formula candidate who is going to lose big time. All he will do is prove how devoid of ideas the Republican Party is, just how incapable the Republican Party is of responding to the challenges of the 21st century.

Dup -- on purpose -- I want to correct a couple of grammar issues and post this to my journal, but don't know how to post after the expiration of the post to my journal period. Sorry, moderators.

[TexasBushwhacker]

1. I'm not sure how First Lady Arm Candy will play ....

in Peoria either. Second wife, 30 years his junior. IF he ends up getting the GOP nomination, he'll get the hard core neo-cons, but I don't see him attracting many votes from the independents and conservative Democrats.

[93ncsu]

2. He'll get the independents and conservative Democrats as well ...

Thompson won his two elections by 20 points each, in a state that went to Bill Clinton twice. He could not have done that without winning Independents and conservative Democrats. Thompson knows how to appeal to these people. Do not underestimate him.

[Rantnrave]

3. Wrong age difference

Um, she's 24 years younger, not 30.

[Carrieyazel]

4. Fraud Thompson is Unelectable as Hell, Can't See the Repukes nominating him

He has only Senate experience, adds nothing for the Repukes, the South is effectively locked up for any Repuke, so the whole "he's southern" thing doesn't wash, and he's already being attacked by radical conservative kooks like the Washington Slimes on his voting record.