Why is it when planning for the General Election battle of 2012, nobody ever mentions

[PBS Poll-435]

Fred Thompson (Freeper's Choice) as a potential top-of-the-ticket Republican?

[madeline_con]

1. Because they think Palin is hot. n/t

[firedupdem]

2. They love palin and only palin...she's their savior!

Plus Fred is orange and they only like white people.

[Occam Bandage]

3. Because he proved this go-around

that he was too goddamn lazy to win a nomination.

[PBS Poll-435]

5. !!!

Absolutely!

No "fire in da belly"

[Radical Activist]

7. Yep. And he was the guy I was most worried about.

I thought he could have been a very strong candidate for them but he didn't do shit.

[lurky]

4. He actually makes McCain look like a viable candidate? n/t

[Bicoastal]

6. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...WHA? Wha?

Ehhhhhhhhrg...zzzzzzzzzzzzz...

[PBS Poll-435]

8. LOL

"Fred...Fred...Wake the FUCK UP! The moderator just asked you a question."

[Davis_X_Machina]

9. Sounds like...

...he's not interested in politics much.

And he'd be 70. The GOP's not going in that direction next time, I bet.

[camera obscura]

10. They'll turn on Fred. Just watch. Suddenly he's a Hollywood elitist gay-lover.

No one gets between John Q. Freeper and his mommy... I mean Sarah.

[CreekDog]

11. they have to ask him first

but they are waiting until nap time is over.

[Jennicut]

12. He turned out to be a real exciting candidate, where is the No Doze when you need it?

[Hokie]

13. I worked wth a moron who told me last year that Fred would be president

He was a contractor who I happened to work with for a while. The guy was a piece of work. He was a real big Fred T. fan. I will have to see if i still have his email and ask him how ole Fred's doing these days and how he liked the election. Fred's campaign would have been the biggest joke of the campaign if it weren't for Rudy Giuliani.

[Clio the Leo]

14. Because he dropped like a stone last time?

I think old Fred ..... OLD OLD Fred .... has missed his window of opportunity.

[karynnj]

15. Because he seemed to barely have the energy to briefly enter the race in 2008.

If he was reluctant, thinking that 2008 was a Democratic year, he should not have entered in 2008. Once he did enter, he should have done wholeheartedly. I thing the image of being a very lack luster candidate will hurt.

To me, it seems as though the Republicans first need to do the work to decide who they are before looking to candidates. What is clear is that they have rejected the "Bush" model - the question is what pieces of the Republican base and independents or even disaffected Democrats can they pull together for 2012.

They are in far worse shape than Democrats were after 2004. In spite of not winning, Kerry did create a platform and a message that all the 2008 candidates were able to build on. In particular, he put the Democrats in the position of having the better position on dealing with non-state terrorism and (from K/F in 2006)a better position on what to do in Iraq. Obama's plan on Iraq was essentially K/F with a slightly longer deadline. Kerry's strong environmental/alternative energy platform was copied and even his words were used, especially by HRC (and even John McCain). Kerry also made universal access to healthcare insurance an issue. Obama used Kerry's idea of re-insurance for catastrophic costs and many people picked up his call to let people buy into medicare at 55 and to be able to buy the types of insurance that Congressmen had. The fact is that the Democratic party did not have to reinvent itself to win in 2008. The only decision was who was the best candidate to run - and Obama did a fantastic job.