State of the Art
According to this article, Fred Thompson’s website ImWithFred.com is a new step in using the internet as a campaign tool. I totally agree.
His organization has opted for a slightly different approach to the Web. Thompson’s website doesn’t have the dizzying array of content blocks the other candidates we mentioned have posted. His main content section is a blog, kept up to date by an administrator at times when the candidate himself isn’t posting.
The important concept Thompson’s people seem to get is the need to have their supporters engage traditional media. His site features specific links to encourage people to write to newspaper editors or call talk radio. Those two sections allow the visitor to pick a state followed by a media market. A results page shows the options available for contacting the media outlet of choice.
It’s universally acknowledged that JFK started ‘the TV Age’ of presidential campaigning. While TV is still an important tool in today’s presidential campaigns, Fred Thompson has started the first true omnimedia presidential campaign. He’s hitting all the radio and TV talk shows. He’s written op-eds for NRO. He’s got his own blog at his ImWithFred website and he’s posted at RedState. He’s used YouTube and other similar types of media to ridicule Michael Moore and to ‘air’ his interview with Peter Robinson.
In other words, he’s taken the internet seriously. In the ‘good old days’ of the 2000 election cycle, the buzz was about whether the candidates had their own websites and how this ‘new’ phenomenon would affect future campaigns. Eight years and a lifetime later, Fred Thompson’s media operations model is light years different . The result? He’s using YouTube and his blog to have a conversation with the American people.
Sen. Thompson’s aggressive use of the internet creates a paradox. When it comes to the internet and his use of all of the tools that the internet provides, his communications staff is definitely cutting edge.
The paradox comes in when you realize that Fred Thompson is a Barry Goldwater movement conservative. After reading Barry Goldwater’s “Conscience of a Conservative” in 1963, he promptly became the first Republican in his family.
High Tech, Old School
While Sen. Thompson uses the tools that technology made available to him, his beliefs are definitely old school. He’d appoint strict constructionist justices to the Supreme Court. He’s an old-fashioned Barry Goldwater libertarian. He’s a strong advocate of JFK’s, Reagan’s and President Bush’s tax cuts. He’s on the record as saying that he’d resurrect a Reaganesque communications system to topple the Iranian mullahs, Hugo Chavez and Kim Jung Il.(Think Radio Free Persia instead of Radio Free Europe.)
That’s the type of combination that we’ll need to defeat Democrats in 2008. Thus far, Thompson’s the only person out there that’s using the total package. He’s also the only person with a true movement conservative background, which means that there’s an underlying philosophy guiding his beliefs. I can’t say that about Gov. Romney or Sen. McCain. That isn’t a small thing for GOP primary voters.
It’s time to realize that Fred Thompson is the guy who is best equipped to defeat Hillary in November, 2008.
Technorati Tags: Fred Thompson, Blogs, NRO, YouTube, Barry Goldwater, Libertarian, Strict Constructionist, Talk Radio, Ronald Reagan, GOP, Hillary, Liberalism, Election 2008
Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog
June 26th, 2007 at 5:05 pm
How is wasting money fixing other people’s countries and raping the taxpayer to do so conservative? The conservatives I know are concerned about returning America to the constitution, to freeing America from a repressive regime, to making America secure, and to protecting Americans from aggression.
The only true conservative in the race is Ron Paul.
June 26th, 2007 at 11:37 pm
Straight shootin’ Thompson
Can’t win without loads of help
Our new bald sex toy