This is interesting:

quote:

IN the battle for the women’s vote, Fred Thompson has a secret weapon against Hillary Clinton - the legions of former girlfriends who still adore him and who want him to be president. The Hollywood actor and former Tennessee senator racked up an impressive list of conquests during his swinging bachelor days in the 1990s, but he appears to have achieved the impossible and kept their friendship and respect. Lorrie Morgan, a country singer who dated Thompson and considered marrying him in the mid1990s, told The Sunday Times: “I couldn’t think of a bad word to say about Fred if somebody put a gun to my head. “Fred is a perfect example of chivalry. He’s the kind of man little girls dream about marrying, who opens doors for you, lights your cigarettes, helps you on with your coat, buys wonderful gifts. It’s every woman’s fantasy.” Thompson, who wooed Baroness Thatcher during a visit to London last week, is expected to announce officially next month that he is running for president. He is already challenging Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, for first place in polls of likely Republican voters. Morgan remembers encouraging Thompson to run for president when they were together. “I think he has a great chance of capturing the women’s vote. He’s majestic. He’s a soft, safe place to be and that could be Fred’s ticket. Women love a soft place to lay and a strong pair of hands to hold us,” she said. Georgette Mosbacher, a leading Republican fundraiser who dated Thompson after Morgan and remains a good friend, said he would defeat Clinton because of his appeal to “traditional women who will like the Southern gentleman in him”. He is just as able to charm professional women, she added: “Another thing that is extremely attractive about Fred is that he is a really good listener. As a woman you can talk to Fred about any subject and know that you’re getting someone who respects your opinion and isn’t just being polite.” In anticipation of a presidential run, a group of potentially supportive Republican congressmen recently questioned him about his private life. “I was single for a long time and yep I chased a lot of women,” Thompson told them with a grin. “And a lot of women chased me. And those who chased me tended to catch me.” However, he was also able to reassure them that he was on excellent terms with his first wife and home-town sweetheart Sarah Knestrick, whom he married in Tennessee at 17 and divorced 26 years later. Thompson said he had just spoken to her and she was intending to campaign for him. “It says a lot about his character that his ex-wife and ex-girlfriends think he is fabulous,” said Mosbacher. “Character is important in a president.” Mosbacher is a friend of Jeri Kehn, Thompson’s second wife, whom he married in 2002. At 24 years his junior, Kehn has been described as a “trophy wife” but the former Republican consultant is as clever as she is vivacious, according to Mosbacher. “Just because Jeri is fun and beautiful, one should not make the mistake of stereotyping her. She is not someone who seeks the limelight and will not be out front, but will be very supportive,” she said. Joe Scarborough, a television presenter, was recently pilloried for wondering on air whether Thompson’s wife “works the pole”, although he later claimed that he had been referring jokily to the pole fitness craze rather than to stripping. When she was dating Thompson, Kehn complained that she had to chase other women away. “They just won’t leave him alone,” she told a gossip columnist. “I can’t get up to get a cocktail at a party without coming back and finding some girl sitting in my chair.” One of her rivals for his affection was Margaret Carlson, now a columnist for Bloomberg News, but she has also joined in the praise for Thompson. “He’s handsome, he’s charming, he sounds like a president,” Carlson gushed recently. “He’s smart, he’s articulate, he knows his line, he can hit his mark.” Morgan blames herself rather than Thompson for the break-up of their “serious” relationship. Although she is a Republican, the country singer believes that she was too politically incorrect to suit the role of senator’s wife. “Country music is all about glamour and shine and politics is a little more reserved,” she said. “I felt I had to change my whole wardrobe.” Thompson not only charmed her but also the women in her family. At the time, she had two young daughters who are now in their twenties. “My children thought the world of Fred and my mother thinks he’s the greatest thing since sliced bread,” Morgan said. “He has such charisma. He can go to a down-home Southern-fried chicken dinner and later that evening eat the best caviar and drink wine with an ambassador.” She laughs at the thought that she could have become the first lady. “You know what?” she said. “The White House would never have been the same.”

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"The favorite American pastime is not baseball, it's moral crusades."