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T. Thompson (Heart) Iowa

June 13, 2007 4:58 PM

ABC News' Z. Byron Wolf Reports: When outside Presidential candidate Tommy Thompson's campaign staff notified reporters that the former Wisconsin Governor and HHS Secretary would have a "major announcement" about the presidential campaign on a 3pm conference call, the first thought in most people's minds was that Thompson must be dropping out of the race.

Thompson, who has staked his outside Presidential campaign on "the Iowa strategy," has surely been frustrated by the increasingly front-loaded primary calendar that would seem to make the early caucuses in Iowa less important.

"Most of you have tuned in wondering whether I was dropping out of the race," Thompson said at the outset of the call.  "I wanted everybody to know upfront that I am very much dedicated to running for President."

And the "major announcement" about the campaign? He's not changing his campaign strategy either. Despite the front-loaded calendar of primaries and caucuses that would seem to make the early caucuses in Iowa less significant, T. Thompson's focus remains on the Hawkeye state and he's still going to devote his resources to the August 11th Republican straw poll in Ames. He chastised (after calling them "fine individuals" and "great Americans") Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz, and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani for both announcing they'll skip the poll.  Thompson said he hopes they reconsider this decision -- and this says something about their "orbanizationability" there.

Tommy seemed, during the call, to hope that the other Thompson -- the former Tennessee senator cum Actor named Fred -- will decide to take part in the poll, theoretically maintaining its legitimacy as a Republican barometer. But he said no matter what F. Thompson does, T. Thompson made the commitment to take part in the straw poll early on and he's going to do it.

Every play in Thompson's book relies on the straw poll and he said that a showing outside of the top three on August 11th will force him to reevaluate his entire candidacy.

But if he places in the top three, Thompson said he thinks the legitimacy will give him access to more donors and everything will snowball from there.  As things stand now, Thompson told reporters his fundraising in the current fundraising quarter is "going to be adequate but not great."

"Adequate to win the straw poll," he added a moment later.

T. Thompson has spent time in Iowa every week since the beginning of last December. He's visited 51 of the 99 counties there and said today he plans to get to the 48 more.

It's obvious that T. Thompson is trying to shake things up with his campaign a bit. The "major announcement" that he won't be doing anything differently comes the day after Thompson unveiled his first radio ad, which features the former Wisconsin Governor and former Secretary of HHS under President Bush, speaking for nearly a minute. In the ad, he lays out his plan for Iraq, which includes having Iraqis vote on whether US forces should remain there and, if so, federalizing the Iraq government and forcing oil sharing among the whole country.

June 13, 2007 in Thompson, Fred | Permalink | User Comments (0)

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