The Republican candidate for President who isn't actually a (declared) Republican candidate for President is in Texas today:
On his first trip to Texas since announcing his presidential exploratory committee, Fred Thompson is presenting himself as the contender more conservative than Rudy Giuliani, more consistent than Mitt Romney and more viable than John McCain.
Thompson, who will headline a rally in a Hobby Airport hangar this morning followed by a Galleria-area fundraiser this afternoon, has become the great hope of Republicans looking for an alternative to the GOP frontrunners.
[...]
State Sen. Dan Patrick likened Thompson to Barack Obama, the Illinois senator who has drawn enthusiastic support among Democrats."Voters in both parties are fed up with the establishment politicians," said Patrick, R-Houston. "People are so desperate for change and someone they perceive as being a fresh voice."
As Thompson the Hollywood actor and longtime political player knows, perception is key, his supporters say. He has mastered the ability to come across as laid-back and plain-spoken.
Thompson probably is more widely known for his role as the hard-charging district attorney on NBC's Law and Order than he is for the nearly 10 years he spent in the U.S. Senate.
In the campaign for the Republican nomination he has cast himself as the reluctant warrior, not someone whose lifelong ambition it has been to run for president, Patrick said.
He's doing a good job of faking it, then. Otherwise it's hard to jibe that statement with Thompson's membership on the Council on Foreign Relations and 40-year political career, with a lengthy and lucrative stint as a Beltway lobbyist thrown in.
But Patrick's categorization of the Senator as a "reluctant warrior" is dead on, whether he's talking about Thompson's role as the gruff but efficient Rear Admiral Joshua Painter in The Hunt for Red October or his effective use of student deferments to avoid - a la fellow tough-talking candidates Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, and (maybe) Newt Gingrich - military service in Vietnam.
I can’t wait until he trots out the whole “I’m an outsider” line of horseshit. You know, when the candidate poses as a man of the poeple and rails against the “inside the beltway” mentality of Washington. If there is any bigger insider than this guy, you’ll have to point him out.
BS or not, his image will very possibly carry the day. He currently looks to me like the best shot the Pubs have of keeping the presiduncy, which I have to admit is unfortunate, as I was hoping they’d have no shot at all.
Plus… he was MITCHELL!
Wait, that was Joe Don Baker? Well, fuck Thompson then.