AZ for Mitt

A blog dedicated to informing Arizonans about Mitt Romney and the campaign for the 2008 presidential nomination.

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

While listening to ABC News on the radio early this morning, I heard Fred Thompson do a segment on American Heroes. He shared a brief story about the courageous actions of a soldier in Iraq. Then, to my surprise and chagrin, the segment turned into a commercial with Thompson extolling the virtues of some company’s service. He passionately pleaded: “I urge you to contact Lifelock.”

I was left with a bad taste in my mouth.

Why is Fred Thompson using patriotism to peddle products and services? Does he not have enough money? And even more than that, is it ethical for someone who is going to run for the highest office in the land to use his political star power to sell Americans something? That is akin to John McCain doing a commercial on Centrum Silver, or John Edwards becoming the spokesperson for Vidal Sassoon. His attempts to earn an extra buck sure are in contrast with Romney’s recent statement to forgo the presidential salary.

Now, some may argue that Thompson has to do the commercial bit of the segment, but I wonder if ABC would really make their beloved political celebrity do it if he said he wouldn’t. And some may say that he could have recorded the segment long before deciding to run for president, but I don’t buy that. As Lincoln once said, once a person gets bit by the president bug, it’s tough to shake, though it takes a while to finally give in. Thompson’s been thinking about the Oval Office for a while. Granted, Reagan may have done a few commercials in his Hollywood days, but that was decades before he ran for office, not days.

In the end, I’m left to wonder if Thompson, like Giuliani, will be likely to seek more of the perks of elected office than the American people, who desire a self-sacrificing leader, would be comfortable with. At the very least, he's not acting the way I'd want my future president to act.

1 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

Fred Thompson has associated himself with a criminal and con man. As you say, he is doing paid radio ads for Lifelock (an Arizona based company). A story about Lifelock just broke in the Phoenix New times (see http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2007-05-31/news/what-happened-in-vegas/full).

The story above focuses on the founder, COO and Chief Marketing Officer of Lifelock, Robert J. Maynard.

Now Fred Thompson is on record as taking bales of money from this dirty outfit. Not only that, Maynard was also arrested in Dallas years ago for making death threats.

11:56 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home