The Thompson Option. It could have worked once upon a time (in light of the presently-arrayed field). But some 2 or more years ago Fred let himself and his name be attached to the Libby Defense Fund. His immediate pay-off seemed to be a torrent of poorly ghost-written articles and reviews (probably assigned to the interns of the children at the Scooter-friendly neoconservative cesspool known as National Review Online).

The same smudged fingerprints seemed to be all over the Thompson campaign launch strategy. IncompetenceR-Us: the neocon warrior caste of the mind.

Would that he learned anything, but no! Today I see his campaign adviser is the lock-jawed harridan/bipartisan moll, the petulant cow and wife of the snake, Mary Matelin.

Put a hole in Fred. He's done. The hole will clue him in.

Aw, the Libby stuff is old news for inside baseball fans. But the late launch was a colossal mistake, squandering the groundswell of support. Obama, OTOH, took the cue of the Big Buzz and jumped in while he was a hot property, and took off. Fred might not have equaled his fundraising, but he could have pulled in enough to be a, if not "the," frontrunner.

But he diddled until the buzz had all but gone away.

His policy pieces, though, have been far more substantive and specific than those of any other candidate, ghostwritten or not.

NRO reports most of their contributors are in long pants now, btw . . .

"His policy pieces, though..."-ja

Fine. I'm talking about the thrashing the Thompson brand took by being sheep-dipped in hackery such as this early on:

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NzY1YTE4YzU5YjIwYmQ1NDQ5NDRjYjNhNTYwZjRiZTU=

Note the asterisk'd correction. Note the superficiality and the numb-skulled allusions contained within the piece which is based on a throw-away Hollywood product based on a nerdy comic book (for "adults") anyway.

Now google "fred thompson 300" and see the wide circulation this "masterpiece recieved. I imagine the ordinary WSJ reader might think Fred Thompson was sidling into the autograph-convention-dinner theater stage of post-stardom, fattening-up his estate for his future little widowed wife and kids before he kicks the bucket (any minute now).

I mentioned this when I first saw the article. It had Faust written all over it, so the fault really is Fred's. He's not entered his dotage quite yet, though Nixon did warn us, "He's dumb!"

"Note the asterisk'd correction."

Forgetting the Iranian revolution and US embassy take-over occurred in 1979: that is BAD!!!

That's like 1973 and the oil embargo, 1941, 1929, 1861, 1812, 1776, 1620, 1492. Some dates we should all know! Even kiddies! Especially LAWYERS!

See, that's why I love you, man.

You are (occasionally) witty, erudite, and insightful. If only you had understood why they put those perforations on the blotters, no telling where you might be today.

I admit, my admiration of your habit of dropping (sometimes obscure) allusions into comments may reflect my own fondness for the practice, and my nostalgia for times when such things were part of every child's education.

Nowadays it is . . . well, WYSIWYG . . .

The short one line bio at the bottom of the NRO article says it all.

" -- Fred Thompson is an actor and former United States senator from Tennessee."

He IS an actor and WAS a politician. He tried acting like a politician again (see the infamous, childish reaction video to Michael Moore) and it just wasn't enough -- but I agree with Jim in that Fred diddled away his chances by sitting on his haunches and waiting to come out of the gate.

The excuses at the time were numerous - he was gaming the fundraising game by not declaring until after the summer quarter ended -- or he was honoring his contract with NBC Radio, etc. etc.

Whatever the reason, Fred blew it. He's not now, nor has he ever been, a presidential contender. He might make a good Veep candidate though, and Huckabee might be wise to team with Fat Head Fred... assuming God said it was ok, of course.