GOP candidate: Romney is "copying me"
Thompson campaigned in Iowa on Saturday
HUMBOLDT, Iowa (CNN) - At a stop on his bus trip through Iowa Saturday, GOP presidential candidate Tommy Thompson fired away at Republican opponent Mitt Romney, who also recently began his own bus tour of the Hawkeye State, saying that Romney is mimicking his plans.
"I'm the one that started the bus tour, and Romney is copying me," Thompson said forcefully. "And what's the best sense of flattery? It's when they copy you... He's following me around the state because I think he's seeing the polls and seeing we're starting to grow, and that's going to be threatening to him."
Thompson is currently on his tour of the 99 counties of Iowa in an “Iowa-made” Winnebago. His comments came shortly after both GOP candidates were in the rural town of Algona, Iowa.
When asked if he was bothered by the fact that Romney may be pulling potential attendees away from Thompson's events, Thompson said 'absolutely not.'
"We've been on this tour now for two weeks and he is just starting yesterday," said Thompson. "He's going to the same place I am, hopefully to show that he's got support better than mine, but I think overall [my campaign is] doing very, very well."
Romney’s Iowa spokesperson Tim Albrecht declined to comment.
- CNN Iowa Producer Chris Welch
And he's in the presidential race because....?
He inspires no confidence in his leadership abilities and has no message. Drop out, already!
What a big baby...and he wants to be President! Maybe it's Alzheimers.?
He should go home to his trophy wife and cry!!
L.R. – You're thinking of the other Thompson, Fred Dalton not Tommy, when referring to the "Trophy Wife". Secretary Tommy Thompson has been married to the same woman since the late sixties or the early seventies.
That being said, what a ridiculious assesment. My respect for T. Thompson has gone down with this assesment. For a guy who won consecutive elections in Wisconsin he doesn't seem to have any idea how elections work if this is the way he thinks
What an amazing and original idea Tommy had there to run around Iowa on a bus campaigning!! I don't think I've ever heard of anyone ever doing that in the history of American politics! wink, wink!
I guess Ole' Tommy has hit his low point, doing and saying whatever it takes to get a headline. It's time for Tommy and few others from the Republican and Democratic field to take their 1% followings and fade from the field of viable candidates.
Too bad Sam Brownback had a bus tour long before both!
OK, Tommy, you win. We'll let you have the exclusive title as the "True Bus Tour Conservative" in the race.
Hope it makes you feel better. Wow, man. Just, wow.
For your sake, I really hope CNN did a wicked splice and spin job to give that story its ring. Otherwise, refer to comment above.
TT raised $500,000 in the second quarter – compared to around $30,000,000 for the Democratic frontrunners – so he has to troll around his neighboring state in a bus, pretending that he is a presidential candidate. He can't afford anything more.
Thompson is a dolt – not that that disqualifies him in the Republican Party – but, even they know he's a loser.
Maybe Romney thought he was following Fred Thompson, and not Tommy.
Just really pathetic. A true crybaby
Not even a one-issue candidate.
Looks like the reporter failed to mention that Romney's schedule took him to the same towns, at the same time (or 30 minutes before), as Thompson's schedule, which had been released weeks earlier. So for two days, each had 4-6 events/day, with head-to-head battles most of the day. Think Romney's campaign scheduled their stops in the same towns at the same time, day after day, by mere co-incidence? Ridiculous. While I agree the comment is silly, my guess is that the reporter picked up one or two sentences of a longer response to her own question, and made this "story" out of it. Thompson has been on a month-long tour of the state, and probably is picking up some support–the Des Moines Register recently called him the only serious contender to Romney in the Iowa Straw Poll coming up in Ames on August 11th. I went and listened to both of them in Okoboji, and Thompson actually had a larger crowd.
Only thing more ridiculous than the story are the comments.