Thursday’s political round-up

April 12, 2007

Today’s installment of campaign-related news items that wouldn’t generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers:

* Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson disclosed yesterday that he was diagnosed with lymphoma in 2004, but he is in remission. “I have had no illness from it, or even any symptoms,” Thompson said in a statement. “My life expectancy should not be affected.” The political implications were fairly obvious — “Thompson described the announcement as one item on a checklist of issues he must deal with before deciding whether to run for president.”

* I’m generally avoiding national polls in the presidential race at this point — their reliability is dubious at this point — but I was very surprised by the new LA Times/Bloomberg poll, which shows John McCain slipping to third nationally among Republicans. Rudy Giuliani leads with 29% support, followed by senator-turned-actor Fred Thompson with 15% and McCain with 12%. Mitt Romney isn’t too far behind with 8%.

* Speaking of McCain’s troubles, the senator started firing some non-senior staff positions yesterday and cutting some consultants’ contracts. The campaign characterized the moves as “minor adjustments.” Said Brian Jones, a campaign spokesman, “A campaign is a dynamic organization like a business, and we have to take the necessary steps to ensure it’s as efficient and effective as possible.” That’s not a bad spin, but at this point in the campaign, aren’t the leading candidates supposed to be hiring staffers, not firing them?

* Hillary Clinton told USA Today that she realizes that her conservative critics go after her with a vengeance, but she’s not fazed by the attacks. “So what, people are going to say something bad about me?” Clinton said, laughing. “I mean really. I mean look. I understand how contentious American politics is. And why? Because there are big things at stake.”

* And finally, I’m not in a position to criticize others’ typos, but this one really is bad: In Rep. Duncan Hunter’s (R-Calif.) formal Federal Election Commission filing making his bid official, Hunter misspelled “president,” mangling the name of his committee as “Hunter for Prseident Inc.” As Roll Call noted, “On the bright side, although the field of candidates for the presidency is a bit crowded, Hunter is uncontested to be prseident.”

Maybe this accounts for GWB’s poor grasp of the constitution and presidential powers. He thinks he’s the preseident.

  • I’m afraid Hunter might be a bit disappointed that the Constitution doesn’t have a provision for a position of “prseident”. LOL.

    *cough* their *cough*

  • If Fred Thompson jumps into the race, we should all immediately start a nonstop BS session about how he and his wife should be sequestering themselves from the world so that they and their children can wait for him to die. How could he have the audacity to run for president when he’s got cancer? Won’t that “distract him” from his job if he starts to go downhill?

    Makes the whole Edwards thing take on a new light, doesn’t it?

  • * I’m generally avoiding national polls in the presidential race at this point — they’re reliability is dubious

    Rian, @2 is right… It’s “their reliability”

  • Fred Thompson is in second place and he hasn’t even filed yet? I know he’s on TV but that still seems like a huge jump at this stage of the game. And Romney a distant fourth place….I don’t know but something just doesn’t seem right, all things considered.

  • Speaking of McCain’s troubles, the senator started firing some non-senior staff positions yesterday and cutting some consultants’ contracts.

    On the latter, it’s high time Democratic candidates followed suit.

  • I don’t normally say nice things about Republicans—well, actually, I always try not to—but Thompson is a class act when compared to these Bu$hCo clowns. He knows the up-&-up on Lymphoma, and he knows it can come “right back atcha” without any notice at all. If he decides to run, he’ll be looking really hard at his list of VP candidates, and the list won’t include the likes of Romney, McCaca, or Roo-Dee. He’s probably the only one out of the entire batch who would even consider a Dem for a running mate (even if it IS a BlueDog).

    He also doesn’t wear his “faith” on his shoulder like a chip, daring someone to knock it off. He’s avoided playing the morality card to the point of ad nauseum, and tries to promote pragmatic reasons—based on reality—for why he votes the way he does.

    I doubt he’d ever get the nomination, though—the fright-right Base doesn’t care for him too much….

    • Comments are closed.