Oliver Willis

Hollywood actor Fred Thompson seems to have thought he could just slide on to the political stage without trying, but the facts are not lining up with the spin.

Lost this week amid other news was the lackluster trip to Iowa made by the candidate-in-waiting. Notes GOP analyst Jennifer Rubin on the American Spectator’s campaign blog: “It was a cringe inducing day for Thompson in the MSM and blogosphere coverage. There was Carl Cameron picking up on the Gucci loafers and the golf cart ride through the Iowa fair. Politico picked up on the lukewarm reception and the crowd’s disappointment that more substance wasn’t offered. MSM coverage echoed the same. He then gave a remarkably muddled interview with John King, leading to guffaws at Campaign Spot and confusion about what he meant with this response to a question on abortion and gay marriage.”

Clearly the Thompson campaign knows he screwed the pooch on the abortion/gay marriage question as they quickly emailed this liberal blogger - no friend of the campaign - their spin on the issue. So far the campaign looks much more competent than the candidate. Or is he a candidate? There’s an FEC complaint about just that issue right now.

I’ve seen positive reports in the field about candidates from all across the spectrum so far, from Kucinich and Ron Paul to Mccain, Giuliani, Clinton, Obama, Romney, and Edwards. But every time Fred Thompson goes out there with actual voters as opposed to some Youtube video for the consumption of con bloggers, it just goes splat.