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From Time and RealClearPolitics:
Fred Thompson’s one-time New Hampshire primary adviser, Dan Hughes, who for a time was identified as the campaign’s state chairman, has resigned and thrown his support behind Arizona Sen. John McCain for president.
Hughes is now the vice chairman of the McCain New Hampshire operation.
…
Hughes told FOX News that Thompson is not organizing in any way that indicates a serious candidacy and McCain is the “real deal.”
“Nothing happened. That’s why I left. If something happened, I’d still be there,” Hughes said. “What do they need me for if they weren’t going to do anything? I don’t want to be part of a campaign that’s going to say ‘Let’s write off New Hampshire.’ To me, that’s sacrilege.”
October 23rd, 2007 at 11:49 am
The Fred-Fizzle-Effect…..And NH will be a real battle between Mitt, Rudy, and McCain. If Mitt can carry Iowa, though, I think Rudy and McCain will split the Moderate-Independent vote and Mitt will take the First Early state Primary.
October 23rd, 2007 at 11:49 am
Time to pop some popcorn so I can watch the drama unfold. This is getting good.
October 23rd, 2007 at 11:52 am
Good for him. Wish he had switched to Giuliani, but I can’t fault anyone for supporting McCain.
October 23rd, 2007 at 11:59 am
This raises the obvious question: Why would Fred write off NH? How do you run for president, and write off NH? Meanwhile, McCain isn’t writing off NH, but then again, he isn’t exactly going to win it, either. NH has already made that mistake once. If McCain can fool them twice, shame on them.
October 23rd, 2007 at 12:08 pm
So he jumped from one sinking ship to another. That’s an interesting strategy.
October 23rd, 2007 at 12:09 pm
so let me see here… this guy turned in his ticket for the Andrea Doria to get a first class one on the Titanic?
October 23rd, 2007 at 12:11 pm
I guess great minds think alike, eh?
October 23rd, 2007 at 12:18 pm
How did McCain fool them the first time? By being the best candidate in the race? I think he has a real shot to pull off N.H. (Of course he must to win the nomination)
October 23rd, 2007 at 12:32 pm
If all of Fred’s state chairs start thinking like this guy McCain will soon have a lot of people knocking on his door. They obliviously don’t understand Fred’s strategy of non-campaigning in order to win the nomination. Without this guy Fred’s plan for New Hampshire can be executed even more easily. So this is good news for Fred.
October 23rd, 2007 at 12:37 pm
[...] post by Matt C and software by Elliott [...]
October 23rd, 2007 at 12:43 pm
Nice Argamenon #9
October 23rd, 2007 at 12:57 pm
Ouch!
October 23rd, 2007 at 12:57 pm
#9 – Your comment made me smile, Arg. “They obviously don’t understand Fred’s strategy of non-campaigning in order to win the nomination. Without this guy Fred’s plan for New Hampshire can be executed even more easily. So this is good news for Fred.”
Very funny.
And oh so true about FDT’s strategy. Well, it seems to be working — he’s second in the national polls.
As Frank Sinatra sang, “I’ll Do It My Way.”
October 23rd, 2007 at 1:11 pm
Yeah that seems to have been Fred’s strategy all along…’i'm second in the national polls,
so please just nominate me by putting a crown on my head, i shouldn’t have to actually DO anything, right?
October 23rd, 2007 at 1:27 pm
Mike Huckabee will surprise many in New Hampshire.
October 23rd, 2007 at 1:36 pm
#14 – Laurent Fourier
I have had the feeling from the beginning of FDT’s campaign (and reality has confirmed this) that Fred Thompson entered the race thinking that he wouldn’t have to work very hard to win the nomination.
I think he was led to believe, or believed himself, that because of his TV/Movie fame he would only have to do a few you tube-type videos, show up every once in a while, not have to know much or do much, and he would win easily.
I still think that Fred Thompson, himself, is not all that involved in his campaign. The people that are backing him are, for sure, but I get the feeling that if “loses” and drops out of the race, he won’t care at all.
Some folks see that as a positive quality. But I don’t think he has ever really cared about this race. And that is not a positive quality. When apathy, disinterest, lack of energy and lack of knowledge of current events and policy become sought-after qualities by presidential candidates – we are all in really big trouble.
Every day I scratch my head and say “why?” why is he running? He says it’s to make the world a better place for his kids.
There are a lot of ways to make the world a better place for our children — aren’t we all trying to that by being involved in the political process?
“Why, Fred?” “Why are you ‘moseying,’ not running, for the nomination?
October 23rd, 2007 at 2:06 pm
McCain leads Hillary in Ohio and Washington State and is now polling as good or slightly better than Rudy against her Nation wide.
If Fred continues to fade, look for a good portion of his support to go to McCain.
McCain may be the GOP candidate not everybody likes,but almost everybody can support, and that may be his ace in the hole to win the nomination.
October 23rd, 2007 at 2:31 pm
Now all we need is for Fred to jump his own ship. Then Romney, then McCain. This will make way for what is looking like the best ticket teh GOP can possibly get in 2008: Rudy-Huckabee (that is, if Palin won’t take the nod)
October 23rd, 2007 at 2:33 pm
#14 Laurent – - I agree, FDT is pathetic
October 23rd, 2007 at 2:41 pm
“To hear some of these comments, you would not recognize the fact that I’m apparently second in all the national polls, that I’ve got over 100,000 contributors and I’ve been in the race for about eight weeks.” — Fred Thompson, October 22, 2007
See the whole article here. Fred Thompson defends his schedule.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071023/NATION/110230072/1001&template=nextpage
Fred Thompson’s arrogance is what will be his downfall. If you read this article and you can’t see that he’s full of himself, you’re not reading the same article I am.
He doesn’t listen to his campaign staff. He doesn’t want to do the normal campaign work that the other candidates are doing. He doesn’t need to. He’s Fred Thompson.
October 23rd, 2007 at 4:00 pm
bethtopaz,
I wish Scott Reed was right in the article you linked when he said that there will be only 2 tickets out of Des Moines: the guy who wins, and the guy who exceeds expectations. If that were true, there would be no need to worry about Giuliani or McCain, or Tompson. The guy who exceeds expectations will be Huckabee, who doesn’t have a prayer. The guy who wins will be Mitt.
October 23rd, 2007 at 5:29 pm
#21 – Well said, Dave.
I believe, though, that the candidate who has the best organization on the ground in each state will win the nomination.
That was Rove’s genius and his formula.
Who is the candidate building the best, the strongest, and the most organized grassroots support — right now?
My sister, who lives in PA, is a conservative evangelical. My brother, also a conservative evangelical, called her the day of the 2006 election and reminded her to vote for Rick Santorum. She said she would, but got busy with work and her kids. She meant to go and vote, but she forgot. How many other well-meaning conservative voters were like her?
Rick Santorum lost.
It will take folks like us (who are kind of, pretty much obsessed with the primary process right now) to man the phones and call, call, call to Get Out The Vote!
And it’s a numbers game — the more people you call, the more people will be reminded to get out and vote.
We shall see …
October 23rd, 2007 at 6:00 pm
Which president had the “front porch” campaign? Basically, he didn’t do any traveling and people would line up at his house, he’d amble outside, make a speech, and disappear. He was from Ohio, I think.
Warren Harding?
Benjamin Harrison? Somebody help me out.
Anyway, Fred reminds me of that guy. Except Fred won’t win.
BTW, did you noticed that when confronted with his laziness at the end of the debate, Fred rattled off his resume without addressing his lack of campaigning, which was the point of the question? Then for good measure, he cut off Britt Hume saying thanks and good night to give the country the mental image of him siring two children in the last five years (thanks for that Fred).
So never mind that he won’t campaign, used to have a lot of good jobs and still has sex.
October 23rd, 2007 at 6:01 pm
Should read:
So never mind that he won’t campaign, he used to have a lot of good jobs and still has sex.
October 23rd, 2007 at 8:26 pm
#23 good point.
If all the candidates had listed everything they had accomplished since age 16 we would have been there forever.
What are the candidates doing now? what kind of energy are they putting into their campaigns now? That was more like the question, huh?
Seems like FDT wants to rest/campaign on his laurels and get crowned the King of the GOP.
October 23rd, 2007 at 9:49 pm
[...] of my preferred choice for the GOP nomination, but when your competitors like to dwell on your missteps, it’s part of the [...]
October 23rd, 2007 at 10:06 pm
[...] of my preferred choice for the GOP nomination, but when your competitors like to dwell on your missteps, it’s part of the [...]
October 23rd, 2007 at 10:37 pm
It’s becoming clear to me that if we want to beat Hillary in ‘08, we’ve got to nominate McCain.