Thompson (Unofficial) Campaign Book Released: 'The Fred Factor'
by Ryan Sager
Tue, 29 May 2007 at 3:02 PM
updated Tue, 29 May 2007 at 3:03 PM
John McCain's got "Faith of My Fathers," a campaign autobiography that came out back in 1999, when he made his first run for the White House. Mitt Romney's got "A Mormon in the White House?," a campaign hagiography by conservative talk-radio host and blogger Hugh Hewitt. Rudy Giuliani's got both an autobiography and a hagiography: "Leadership," his self-help-management book cum 9/11 memoir, and "The Prince of the City," an admiring volume by the admirable New York historian Fred Siegel.
Now, Fred Thompson's got "The Fred Factor," a slim, 190-page clip job (with 13 pages of pictures) making the case for a Fred Thompson candidacy and a Fred Thompson presidency. It's penned by Steve Gill, a Tennessee talk-radio host and long-ago Lamar Alexander campaign coordinator; and it features an introduction by the head of the Draft Fred movement, Rep. Zach Wamp of Tennessee.
Officially released last Friday, this reporter got hold of a copy Thursday night in Stamford, Connecticut, where Thompson associates were handing out a handful to press.
Is it a campaign book?
"As you know, we don't have a campaign," Mr. Thompson's not-a-campaign spokesman, Mark Corallo, told me this afternoon. "We didn't have anything to do with it."
And, for emphasis, he added: "I just got a copy over the weekend."
"We really intentionally kept at arm's-length distance of them until we were done," Mr. Gill tells me. Though it seems like that arm's length is now receding up to the shoulder. "Obviously, I think they like the product," Mr. Gill tells me of the Fred-friendly effort. "For them, it's the kind of book they'd loved to have done as the campaign. … Now they don't have to do one because they have one."
The book itself is divided into four sections: I) "Who is Fred Thompson" (biography), II) "How the 2008 Race Unfolds" (how Mr. Thompson could win the primary and general elections), III) "Where does Fred stand?" (Mr. Thompson's public statements on issues such as abortion, Iraq, Iran, and gun rights), IV) "Yeah, But…" (responses to questions about issues such as Mr. Thompson's health, his late start in the campaign, and his reputation as a "lazy" campaigner).
The book was written, well … quickly.
Mr. Gill told me this afternoon that he approached Mr. Thompson back in December of 2006, saying he thought the former senator should get in the race for the Republican Party presidential nomination and that he wanted to write a book making the case for his candidacy — but, he didn't want to have 10,000 books sitting around if Mr. Thompson thought the idea of his running for president was just silly.
"He said, that's the silliest thing I ever heard of," Mr. Gill said.
But, when Mr. Thompson cracked the door open to a run on Fox News on March 11, Mr. Gill got to work. He and his partners in Gill Media — which produces Mr. Gill's radio show, TV program, and newspaper column — kicked things into high gear.
He started the book April 12, finished around May 10, and his publisher — Music City News Publishing, owned by some his partners in Gill Media — cranked it out.
The book is available through Mr. Gill's Web site, GillReport.com, Amazon.com, and he expects to sell copies at campaign events.
The book and its distribution — much like the Thompson not-yet-a campaign — has been thrown together and will be subject to quite a bit of revision.
"It literally is a real-time book," Mr. Gill said. "The story begins where the book ends."
He expects to have another edition of the book, covering the beginning of the Thompson campaign, set for press in the next 30 to 40 days.
***
The Nashville city-paper writes the book up here.
You can buy the book here.
You can buy a similarly titled book here.
Related Topics: GOP Primary
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