That is the charge asserted by Robert Novak and those he has interviewed who have linked Thompsons lackluster entrance into the race with his “gatekeeper” staff who seem to want to go it alone in planning.
An example of those excluded is Scott Reed, who ran Bob Dole’s 1996 campaign and is regarded as one of Washington’s keener political minds. Reed donated money to McCain but had not committed to him and was ready to join Thompson’s team. He would have given Thompson an experienced political manager who knows how to navigate the Republican nominating process.
Reed participated in one private meeting with Thompson but got no further. Three sources told me that the gatekeeper who excluded him was Mary Matalin, a longtime Republican operative dating back to George H.W. Bush’s campaigns. She is a Washington insider who does not espouse the socially conservative views Thompson is expected to project by those Republicans in search of a nominee. Matalin did not return my telephone call.
Fred Thompson’s roll-out into the primary race is already being reported by the media and through comments by pundits as less than exciting, to be nice, and former Speaker Gingrich is talking more and more like he may enter the race.
In an interview with the National Journal Gingrich says democrats right now have 80-20 odds of winning the presidency in 2008 and that none of the Republicans at the moment are offering “change” in a way that many Americans want. In the past Gingrich had called the Republican candidates, sans Thompson, “pathetic” bunch “of pygmies”.
A tantalizing tidbit from the interview on 2008 is “The most tempting thought about running next year is the idea of debating Senator Clinton. That would be fun.” Gingrich goes on to say “She is actually much more centrist than MoveOn.org. She is much tougher on military affairs than [her party’s] Left. She is more rational, and I have very great respect for her as a hardworking professional. No Republican should think she is going to be easy to beat. But I have watched her now for a year be gradually pulled to the left. Her husband was too clever to do that.”
So is he really thinking about running or just giving the media runaround?
News
- Last night president Bush gave an address to the nation on Iraq. It was followed with a paid advertisement by candidate John Edwards, which you can see here, and will likely dominate the newscycle and the campaign today and for the rest of the week.
- Ahead of the speech Senator Joe Biden gave a “prebuttal” to the presidents address, attacking what was anticipated and leaked from the speech.
- Some are arguing the Patraeus report gives Sen. John McCain a boost in the Republican primary. McCain has been a steadfast supporter of the war and John Edwards labeled the surge plan the “McCain Doctrine”. Will the report make a major difference in public opinion, probably not. Will it give McCain an issue to capitalize on that could bring some energy to the campaign. Yes, indeed.
“I can’t pass judgment on it,” said Thompson. “I know that good people were doing what they thought was best. That’s going back in history. I don’t remember the details of it.” - ABC News
It seems rather unlikely that Thompson wouldn’t be able to recall the “details” of the Schiavo case. It wasn’t exactly ancient history, it was 2005. It also wasn’t exactly a quiet little issue, it was a national obsession for quite awhile. So what can we take from it?