Fred Thompson hires Schwarzenegger aids who helped in CA 2003 recall

[Auggie]

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, 9-5-07

Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson's political playbook - a high-profile visit to "The Tonight Show," a splashy bus tour, the efforts to take a familiar actor and reintroduce him in a new political role - contains pages that look eerily familiar to California voters.

Maybe that's because the former Tennessee senator has at his side some of the same key aides who, in nine short weeks, helped transform Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger from "The Terminator" into the chief executive of the Democratic-leaning state that is the most populous in the nation.

<snip>

Thompson's campaign includes two veterans of another whirlwind effort - the 2003 California recall election that starred Schwarzenegger - who know firsthand at least some of the challenges ahead.
They are Todd Harris, who was Schwarzenegger's campaign communications director and will hold the same title for Thompson, and veteran Republican strategist and Fox News commentator Karen Hanretty, Schwarzenegger's press secretary during the 2003 recall effort, who will be Thompson's deputy communications director.

Adam Mendelsohn, the governor's current communicators director, said the pair provide Thompson "a big-picture thinker out of the box" - Harris - and "one of the most effective political spokeswomen in the country" - Hanretty. Both are "seasoned in translating the benefits that someone has from working in entertainment into a political reality," he said. "For Fred Thompson, it's a very smart hire: There's not a lot of people who understand taking a national entertainment figure and translating that into political value."

More: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/09/05/MNMVRUPB2.DTL

[rinsd]

1. How is this a smart hire? Ahnuld's campaign for Gov was all of 2 months long against a weak field

Maybe they deserve some credit for being able to blunt the LA Times groping allegations that came out but other than that it was a fairly standard campaign run in a crunched time frame where Ahnuld had a huge money & name recognition advantage.

This on a bigger stage against extremely well known and/or financed candidates and that is just the GOP primary.

[Auggie]

2. I guess we'll find out in a few months

Thompson is known to hate campaigning -- is it possible his bid will be weighted heavily on broadcast media exposure? Why not? He is an actor and can read a line in that "awe-shucks" folksy bullshit manner of his better than anyone. I imagine his image can be crafted a lot better on tape by hiring "directors" with successful track records and utilizing clever scripting and editing than through personal appearances.

Also, they still had to build Arnold into a credible politician with some brains -- Thompson is a step ahead in that department.

[rinsd]

3. How does one run for President when one hates campaigning?

Even in the TV age!

[Auggie]

6. I guess we'll find out in a few months

Seriously... you can campaign and still hate it. I expect his managers to utilize his "on-air" abilities and limit appearances to fund raising dinners, local GOP events and maybe even autograph signings. I think he'll draw the line at kissing babies.

People love the concept of celebrity. The fact he was on TV and in some movies has already won him votes.

I can't stand the slug.

[JDPriestly]

7. Fred Thompson is sort of a sequel, formula candidate

Nobody really likes him that much. He has never been a leader. He has nothing new or original to offer at a time when voters want change. Yawn. That is all I can say about him. A big, hunking chunk of yawn.

A few desperate Republicans like Mary Matalin are hoping that F*T is enough like Reagan and Schwarzenegger to draw TV lovers to the polls to vote for him. How wrong they are. Reagan and Schwarzenegger got by on a certain innocent charm. They exuded exuberance. Their philosophies and policies are and were horrid, but a lot of people saw their smiles and thought about their movies and either smelled hero or smelled cute and funny and voted their noses.

F*T doesn't have that heroic or lovable aura around him. Pitted against an extremely Democratic field, voters are going to scrutinize everything F*T says and does for substance. F*T has some things going for him. He used to have an imposing physique (which, thanks to gravity, actually makes him look kind of decrepit) He is a lawyer and presumably, at one time, had the smarts to get through law school. I suspect he can spout the usual Republican "me first, everybody else get to the back of the line" philosophy that the true believer kool-aid drinkers get so high on, but basically he is a has-been, a bore with hackneyed answers that all who has lived through the Bush II administration realize fail, fail, fail over and over. F*T has no answers for Katrina, for stagnant wages and downward spiraling incomes for most people, for ending the war, for preventing terrorists from getting the upper hand, for lowering our international trade imbalance, for making us energy independent, for dealing with our decline in the face of a rising China, etc., etc.

F*T is going to spout the same old Republican nonsense we have been hearing since 1980. Our Democratic candidates are just so much better, so much better -- any one of them, that Fred Thompson would be wise to stay out of the race.

F*T the sequel, formula candidate who is going to lose big time. All he will do is prove how devoid of ideas the Republican Party is, just how incapable they are of responding to the challenges of the 21st century.

[rinsd]

9. Great post!

[Auggie]

10. I hope so... this country still elected shrub twice

[JDPriestly]

4. Right. Gray Davis hardly put up a fight.

[rinsd]

5. Davis ignoring the sig drive in a strategy to not legitamize the effort was a mistake.

[Netbeavis]

8. No Fred thought he got the producers of "Total Recall"

won't he be embarrassed when these bozos show up.