Bunch of folks are sure getting antsy for Fred Thompson to buy into the Presidential thing.
Of those, I’m starting to hear some grumbles from a minority along the lines of: “What’s he waiting for?” and such. And some are tooling up to get irritated by his perceived dallying about.
Now, this is just a guess on my part, but I think I understand why Senator Thompson is waiting.
There is a Federal law that requires each candidate get more-or-less equal face time on the National TeeVee. And that’s the kicker: None of Fred Thompson’s opponents star in a very popular TeeVee show. Not one of them has been a successful actor.
Each time ‘Law And Order’ runs, for each re-run of ‘Die Hard 2’, ‘Days of Thunder’, and the rest of his movies, Senator Thompson gets air-time — time which much be matched for his opponents.
So, what do you do? Do you allow the Main Stream Media to give every Presidential candidate who isn’t Fred Thompson the equivalent time that he gets from his ‘Law And Order’ episodes?
Nope. That would be candidate suicide. His opponents would be able to use the extra time — the time Senator Thompson uses to recite script — to politick.
Not good.
So, you remove Senator Thompson’s extra air time. You cancel runs of ‘Law And Order’, and you cancel any of his movies that are slated to run on broadcast or cable TeeVee between now and the election.
Eep.
Other people besides Senator Thompson receive residuals for those episodes and movies. The Senator might not need that money, but what about the other actors that were in those productions? Why should they give up their money?
Plus, there are contracts with advertisers, studios, TeeVee stations and channels, that sort of thing. If station WKRP paid X millions of dollars for the right to run back episodes of ‘Law And Order’, cancelling that contract so that one of the actors can run a fair campaign for President mite get a skosh — expensive.
Now, I could be wrong. Lord knows it wouldn’t be the first time. However, until someone can show me a better explanation, I’m willing to bet that this is the reason Fred Thompson has yet to announce his candidacy — and it’s a darn good reason.
Patience, folks.
LawDog
16 thoughts on “Fred Thompson”
Comments are closed.
Um ‘Dog, I’m no Lawyer, but I would venture a guess, that those TeeVee shows and movies don’t count as “Face Time” for the Candidate Fred Thompson. He was on TeeVee as an ACTOR not a Candidate.
Good Sunday morning the 29th to you LawDog !
Interesting point you made.. The existing tv exposure almost disqualifies him in a strange way, doesn’t it ?
On the other hand, it didn’t stop Arnold S. when he ran for Governor…
But that was movies, not tv….
Just came by to say hello and see what was new with you !
Today is “thank-you’s” on my blog, and you have an honorable mention !
Be Safe Out There.
Sincerely,
Loving Annie
My dear Holly,
Considering the political climate, and the moral quality of politicians and bloggers who would be opposing Senator Thompson — “Better Safe Than Sorry”.
After all, in these heady days, is not perception more important than reality?
hollyb,
Yes, they do. Ronald Reagan had a similar problem, and a news story at the time was that Carter’s campaign had “late-nite-tv watchers keeping an eye out for any movie RR was in so that Carter could claim equal air time.
TheMajor’sLady
lornkanaga.livejournal.com
Absolutely agreed.
And Holly, here’s the answer to your question. It’s still face/exposure time even if it’s not directly related to the candidacy.
Well said, LawDog. I would add that we also don’t know the exact terms of his contract with “Law & Order.” He may be having some trouble getting out of it.
Once again Fred proves he is the better candidate.
Rather than subject us to increased air time for Rudy, Rommy and John, Hillary, Obama and Breck Girl he is staying un-declared until he has no choice.
Well, if there IS an equal exposure time thingie, then we should pray the obscenely over-exposed Al Gore runs. Did you know he was wearing his “Tuesday” panties on Friday last week?
Good and valid reason, not often brought up. I suspect you are right to a large percentage, and that says something about the man as well.
On the other hand, the media are losing their minds trying hard not to cover his non-campaign. That alone is worth the price of admission.
Thompson remains a strong contender without evening entering the fray.
Him and his ain’t no dummies.
A side note… love the blog, and I’ll post a link to it on mine. Worth the read. Thanks!
Doesn’t matter if he announces he’s running or not..there is always the option to write him in, am I right?
I do seem to remember when Reagan ran for president, they cancelled all of his movies and whatnot..didn’t they just do the same for Arnold S. when he ran for governor???
my 2 centavos:
I think there is a more strategic issue. I think Fred is waiting to let the other candidates bash their heads against each other and throw their money away fighting each other and let them chew each other up with oppo research and mud slinging. then he can walk in and take it away.
Fred doesn’t need to announce this early in the game. He’s getting all the free publicity he wants with the all the news stories and speculation about when he’ll make it official. So essentially he has all the perks of running (ie. name recognition, news time, general election “buzz”) while not having to deal with the negaitves (ie. having to answer questions from his opponents, paying for air time, etc.) Plus, he’ll be the defacto front runner among real conservatives and once your the front runner you have a big target on your chest for all the other candiates to aim for… politically speaking.
I’m too lazy to look it up, but I was under the impression it was for campaign finance rules — since he hasn’t officially declared, he doesn’t have to follow the rules for presidential candidates yet. Someone less lazy than me have better information?
Unfortunately I just couldn’t vote for Fred Thompson though… don’t get me wrong, I couldn’t vote for Rudy, Rommy or John, they’re all liberals with an R next to their name. But here’s the thing with Fred Thompson…
OK, he is trying to style himself as a pro-American tough-talking pro-border Conservative, so far, right?
Yet, since being a Senator, and beside his time as an actor, he has worked as a registered foreign agent (something that starts to make me a bit cautious) and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).
Now… yes, the people who normally bring this up are Ron Paul supporters, who I am NOT in favor of (in fact, I would vote 3rd party before I vote for anyone that I have mentioned so far).
I just mean, how do you reconcile someone with being a tough-talking pro-borders and pro-American conservative when they are willingly a member of an organization that seems to focus on removing borders and having countries give up sovereignty to the International community?
Seems like another Trojan Horse, like Bush was. Give me a real conservative like Hunter or Tancredo. I think they are the only ones that would cause me to vote Republican so far, and not continue to vote Constitution Party, as I have been.
Maybe the other candidates can get bit parts as CRIMINALS. They no doubt fit the profile.
I agree, Thompsone isn’t nearly as good as he looks.
He really doesn’t understand the threat from Isalm.
Tancredo is the only one running who’s had the balls to say what should be said –
“if they nuke us – we nuke Mecca and Medina”.
As far as I’m concerned we should do it right now.
We need a Tancredo in office! Don’t be fooled by Thompsons evident support of the 2nd Amendment. That ain’t enough.