GOP Nominee
Former Candidates
When this is all said and done, the history of the 2008 race will be one of stunning rises and catastrophic falls. But one story stands out as the most bizarre of the campaign. What happened to Fred Thompson? It seems like ancient history now, but he was supposed to be The Guy. The White Knight riding into town to sweep aside the apostasies of The Mayor, the Maverick and the Mormon and claim the nomination of the Republican Party. His name had been touted seriously as a candidate since March. Back in June, I wrote an extensive post that analyzed his effect on McCain, Rudy and Romney. I concluded that he had hurt Romney the most because he was filing a vacuum that Romney was supposed to take. He had pundits and bloggers waiting in anticipation for the moment when he would officially enter the race. Any day now, we were assured by his campaign. By the beginning of next month at the latest. And then, nothing. He had missed his moment. By the time he finally entered the race, he fizzled incredibly quickly. Instead of being proactive and working to win back disillusioned supporters, he just sort of disappeared. Nowadays, he’s almost a non-entity on the campaign trail. Even Ron Paul gets more press coverage than Thompson.
So, color me surprised when I saw that Thompson was claiming that party time is over and that it’s time to get down to business. He declared that he was “all in” to finish strong in Iowa and South Carolina. Of course, he declares that after the rise of Huckabee cut Thompson’s already lagging support base in half, if not more. Even if Thompson manages a 3rd place finish in Iowa, he will still lose the state by 20 or more points. That’s not going to earn him any momentum anywhere. Not to mention, his shocking 1% showing in the latest New Hampshire poll and his inability to compete with Huckabee, Romney, McCain and Rudy in Michigan and Nevada. By the time South Carolina rolls around, will he have any support left?
How does Thompson plan to fix this problem? He plans to unveil the Nonstop Express and take Iowa by storm:
The campaign plans to launch a bus tour of Iowa starting on Dec.17 and will take a few days off for the Christmas holiday before returning to Iowa for another bus trip, which will continue until the beginning of the new year.
Doesn’t that just symbolize his entire campaign?
It is ironic that Mitt Romney’s inability to fill the Southern conservative messiah role that was meant for George Allen and Bill Frist, gave rise to Fred Thompson. But due to his inabilities to live up to the role, he opened the way for Mike Huckabee and now Huckabee’s campaign might single handily destroy Romney’s and Thompson’s.
December 12th, 2007 at 1:11 pm
is Fred just now realizing that his numbers are down?
December 12th, 2007 at 1:12 pm
Someone must have given him some Adderall …
December 12th, 2007 at 1:17 pm
“The White Knight riding into town to sweep aside the apostasies of The Mayor, the Maverick and the Mormon and claim the nomination of the Republican Party.”
Nice line, LJ - and nice alliteration!
Now I can just see a campaign ad for Thompson — he would be sitting on a white stallion - with his armor and weapons (and his beautiful Maiden Jeri by his side) getting ready to attack the Three Mighty Ms (no, not M&Ms) - except now it’s the FOUR MIGHTY Ms - The Mayor, The Maverick, The Mormon, and The Mike!
December 12th, 2007 at 1:20 pm
The Fred NonStop-(Because-my-Wife-is-making-me)-Express!!
“Um…But…Uhh…I want off this thing…Um…”
December 12th, 2007 at 1:21 pm
“I am now getting down to business, but will take a few days off, because frankly 3 weeks of work is just too much.”
December 12th, 2007 at 1:24 pm
The only person will will hurt in IA is the Huckster. Thanks Fred for waking up right now!! Go Mitt!!
December 12th, 2007 at 1:25 pm
Who will Fred’s Express hurt the most? Anybody? Will he be robbing from Mitt’s more educated, fiscally-conservative base? Or will he be taking from Huck’s evangelical base?
December 12th, 2007 at 1:26 pm
Fred’s got his work cut out for him in Iowa. But I just don’t see what other options he has.
December 12th, 2007 at 1:34 pm
Well, as a Romney supporter. I do like FDT since he has the full package. I’d like to see him sell it better. At any rate, I hope he campaigns in IA like he has never campaigned before. If FDT can win back half of the support that schmuckabee took, Romney will win IA.
December 12th, 2007 at 1:35 pm
Full package = social, economic, and security conservative.
December 12th, 2007 at 1:37 pm
“Who will Fred’s Express hurt the most? Anybody? Will he be robbing from Mitt’s more educated, fiscally-conservative base? Or will he be taking from Huck’s evangelical base?”
FDT never had any of Romney’s base. I think FDT did have some evangelical base which is now for Huckabee. I view FDT getting serious in IA as a positive for Romney.
December 12th, 2007 at 1:37 pm
cwpete,
“SCHMUCKABEE”…..I love it!!
December 12th, 2007 at 1:37 pm
Abe,
& I love your optimism.. We need more of it!
December 12th, 2007 at 1:40 pm
Wait…Who woke Fred Up?
December 12th, 2007 at 1:44 pm
cwpete,
Thanks….GO MITT!!
December 12th, 2007 at 1:47 pm
Mike’s supports are not easily swayed - most are fed up with FDT - that is why they left him in the first place - I have a feeling that Mitt will be losing some due to people trying to jockey for a position to stand on after getting trampled by Huckabee in the Polls. The negatives coming out against mike are not hurting him - they are having an opposite effect.
December 12th, 2007 at 1:47 pm
Don’t count Fred out just yet. Not that long ago everybody thought Rudy was unstoppable.
December 12th, 2007 at 1:47 pm
if huck is going to destroy romney, why is romney the only whose support seems to remain constant despite teh huckaboom. all have taken a hit but romney. he did drop a few points in iowa but has remained about the same overall. he actually has been increasing in national polls to aroudn 17 percent in most polls.
fred’s day had ended when he opposed the fedearl abortion ban. the evangelicals were mobilizeing but that came to a screechign halt the day he came out with that suprise.
December 12th, 2007 at 1:47 pm
The problem with Fred is that his pretty young wife tried to take the campaign over and Fred didn’t have the stones to stop her. He went through 2 whole staffs, wasted 3 months and squandered the opportunity that he had.
Huckabee is filling the vacuum that Fred left. Thanks for nothing Fred.
December 12th, 2007 at 1:47 pm
“now Huckabee’s campaign might single handily destroy Romney’s and Thompson’s.”
as long as Huckabee goes down with them, than I’m happy
December 12th, 2007 at 1:51 pm
fred needs to do really well at the debate today
December 12th, 2007 at 1:53 pm
16, the negatives coming out on Huck have no effect among his core supporters, but in the electorate at large they do have an effect. That is why Huck trails Edwards 60-35.
Even we nominate Huck, we are going to get a McGovernesque butt kicking, with 20 House seats and 5 Senate seats thrown in as a bonus for our stupidity. Huck is blasting apart the Reagan coalition by calling economic conservatives the “club for greed”. That might be a good short term strategy to pander to the national press and to promote himself, but blasting apart your own coalition is stupid in the long term.
December 12th, 2007 at 1:56 pm
The reason Huck does well in debates is because the field is too crowded. The time is split between all the candiates so you don’t really have a debate, you have a one liner and joke contest, which Huck excels at. When it comes to a real policy debate with longer answers, Huck will get squished like a bug. That will not happen until next October, then we can all stand around with our thumbs up our rears wonderding why did we nominate this idiot.
December 12th, 2007 at 1:56 pm
This is what you need to do guys.
Switch to Huck.
December 12th, 2007 at 1:57 pm
Here check this out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-2rjrpumhU
December 12th, 2007 at 2:03 pm
#22 - QuackHack - you said:
Even we nominate Huck, we are going to get a McGovernesque butt kicking, with 20 House seats and 5 Senate seats thrown in as a bonus for our stupidity. Huck is blasting apart the Reagan coalition by calling economic conservatives the “club for greed�. That might be a good short term strategy to pander to the national press and to promote himself, but blasting apart your own coalition is stupid in the long term.
I agree! What Huckabee is doing is the same as someone calling their entire family “low life scum” and then wondering why you’re the only one that doesn’t get invited to the family reunion.
December 12th, 2007 at 2:04 pm
The Religious Conservative Republicans supporting Mike Huckabee is like the Anti-War Liberal Democrats supporting Ron Paul.
December 12th, 2007 at 3:34 pm
“It is ironic that Mitt Romney’s inability to fill the Southern conservative messiah role…”
Surprise, many southerners want to vote for a southerner.
December 12th, 2007 at 3:38 pm
I think Fred would make a nice #2. He gets truthiness:
http://conspiracytheorysatire.blogspot.com/2007/12/fred-thompson-understand-truthiness.html