Fear
Peter Brown, the assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, writes his weekly column for Real Clear Politics about the subject of fear. Specifically, Brown looks at the hyper-partisan attacks on Fred Thompson and reaches the conclusion that someone in the Democratic camp is scared of Thompson. Badly scared.
When one political party tries to influence the other's presidential primary race the reasonable assumption is that someone is trying to stop the nomination of a candidate that party does not want to face in November.
That's why a Democrat-aligned group injecting itself into the Republican campaign by alleging that Fred Thompson lobbied for abortion rights is a pretty good indication the other side thinks he has serious potential.
Thompson has become a force in the GOP polls even though almost half of Republicans and more than half the rest of the electorate say they don't know enough about him to form an opinion.
In this case his Democratic foes are trying to define him negatively for GOP voters before he can make a good first impression.
That's why in the last few weeks we have seen a stream of stories that would seem to be aimed at derailing his candidacy. Some were clearly planted in the news media with information from partisans of other candidates or causes. Others may have arisen independently from a news media itching to vet Thompson……
……The National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association claimed that Thompson had lobbied the White House on its behalf in 1991. Thompson denied the charge, and John Sununu, who was White House chief of staff at the time, backed up Thompson.
Only time will tell which side eventually turns out to be perceived as being truthful by the electorate. But regardless of the truth of the allegation, its presence is remarkable at this stage of the race.
Memory does not produce a similar case where an interest group tied to one of the major political parties sought so overtly to influence the debate and outcome of the other parties' nomination fight, especially before a candidate even formally announced.
And it has been a remarkable series of negative attacks, obviously planted in a compliant media. I've said all along that candidates in both parties should rightfully be frightened of a Thompson run. It sure looks like some are.
Other Links to this Post
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Maggie's Farm — Monday, 16 July , 2007 @ 10:00 am
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The Thunder Run — Monday, 16 July , 2007 @ 10:20 am
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Fear of Fred | BitsBlog — Monday, 16 July , 2007 @ 11:42 am
By syn, Monday, 16 July , 2007 @ 8:20 am
Democrat’s campaign plan is investigating their opponents up the bleep then a week before the election offer up all the dirty deeds done(ex R Emmanuel had the Foley tapes almost a full year prior to releasing them in 2006); my guess as to why they fear Fred is that they have been digging dip into the bowels and they cannot find anything dirty.
Further, my guess as to why Democrats do not fear Rudy is that Donna Hanover aside, Rudy’s NY ‘friends’ are chomping at the bit to provide all the dirt they have on their pal Rudy. I like Rudy and his tough foreign policy stance but having lived in NYC long enough I do not trust his ‘friends’ to be loyal; Rudy’s friends are liberals and liberals are never loyal to anyone who might step off the Democrat plantation.
By Mark E., Monday, 16 July , 2007 @ 8:54 am
A relevant video to this story is this video by this former liberal. Check it out
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaE98w1KZ-c