November 24, 2009 11:41 AM
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Lou Dobbs Weighing Presidential Bid, "30 Different Opportunities"
(CBS/The Early Show)
Dobbs, who recently left his position at CNN, said on a Washington radio program yesterday that he would consider running for president. He repeated that assertion on a radio interview with 2008 GOP presidential contender Fred Thompson.
Dobbs' spokesman Robert Dillenschneider told the Washington Post this morning that Dobbs is considering "30 different opportunities" to pursue in the future.
"Since the day he left CNN, his phone has been ringing off the hook," Dillenschneider reportedly said, with calls from business and television executives, as well as "politicians who are both on the right and some in the center, who are independent."
"Some say he should run for Robert Menendez's seat," representing New Jersey in the Senate, he said, "and that might morph into something larger. It's just incredible what's happened."
Web sites already exist to promote Dobbs' political ambitions, like loudobbs4president.com and www.loudobbsforpresident.org. Dobbs in 2007 was already hinting at a presidential run, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Some commentators have suggested Dobbs could have some success in politics. Matthew Cooper of the Atlantic said Dobbs "does fill a void in American politics," though he calls it "an ugly one."
"It wouldn't be surprising if this economic hardship gives us a candidate named Lou Dobbs," Cooper wrote.
"It is, of course, a preposterous idea that someone never elected to anything except high school student body president in rural Texas could win the nation's top elected job on the backs of angry voters who believe the incumbent is incompetent," writes Andrew Malcolm of the Los Angeles Times. "Next thing you know, people will be suggesting that some old movie actor from California, who switched parties and peddled refrigerators on black-and-white TV, could run against a Democratic president elected after eight years of Republican controversy and scandal. And then the Republican actor could be elected president -- twice."
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Stephanie Condon Stephanie Condon is a political reporter for CBSNews.com.
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