Fred Thompson: The Breitbart Interview

This Internet "TV" interview should get people talking.

I think Thompson's use of the Internet and radio commentaries to communicate with "the base" at this early stage has been inspired.

Some excerpts have been posted by Kathryn Jean Lopez here.

Hugh Hewitt, perhaps biased because of his extreme preference for Mitt Romney at this early juncture, didn't think all that much of Fred's speech at Orange County's Lincoln Club last night. Ed Morrissey, on the other hand, thought Thompson's speech "brilliant" and an "excellent" way to launch his almost-campaign.

Hewitt believes Thompson must enter the campaign immediately to get people's attention, but I disagree. People are going to be bored silly by November 2008, thanks to the new two-year campaign format. Hugh talks a lot about Romney's use of the Internet -- such as for fundraising -- yet doesn't seem to understand that same Internet may have changed the dynamics as far as how Thompson is launching his campaign. Thompson is already well ahead of Romney in the latest poll, without having started a formal campaign. He's getting his message out in a very untraditional way.

Thompson commenting on the Internet and the new style of campaign he's apparently in the process of launching: "If I'm successful in what I'm doing here...if it turns out to be something that we do...and is successful at it, it will in large part be because of that. I'm already going against the rules. In my timing, and what I'm saying, and whether a guy who hasn't been out there working feverishly ever since he was in the eighth grade, and all those kinds of things, and if I do it successfully, it will be in large part because of this very thing."

Incidentally, I commented today at Hugh's site on Hugh's Romney biases tainting his analysis of the race. I admire Hugh in many ways, but I feel his early commitment to Romney may be preventing him from giving other candidates a fair assessment.