The Fred Thompson Implosion
I really don’t know if I can think of a modern analogue to the Fred Thompson campaign. Mind you, almost the week before he announced, he was practically the frontrunner for the nomination, with all the Big Mo’.
And, a week AFTER he announced, he was already underperforming, and from then on, his campaign strength has gone from bad to worse to worse to worse to worse to worse.
The only analogy I can muster is it would be as if Al Gore finally entered the Democratic race in early September and then, his first week on the campaign trail, he slapped a baby. And then, his second week on the campaign trail, he slapped another baby. And for every consecutive week thereafter, he just kept slapping babies.
Only then do I think you could mimic the reverse-boomlet that’s occurred for Fred Thompson.
Two stories today, courtesy of The Right’s Field.
The first is admittedly more emblematic than anything, but still: Thompson has failed to make the ballot in Delaware. Huckabee, Giuliani, Romney, Paul, McCain, and Tancredo all had no problem. Thompson, however, couldn’t get over the impenetrable hurdle of having to get 500 registered Republicans willing to sign something saying he should be on the ballot.
…the DOE said Thompson only had 281 out of 500 signatures, and that most of their signatures were rejected because they were not registered Republicans.
We talk about whether Huckabee has the institutional capacity and drive to capitalize on early wins, but if you don’t have enough support to even gather signatures for ballot access, you’re in trouble.
The second is now, in New Hampshire, Thompson is polling seventh. Behind Tom Tancredo.
How many people in America can even name six Republican Presidential candidates, much less choose to vote for any one of them over Fred Thompson?
I know I’ve said this before of various candidates (McCain, Brownback, Hunter), but: Fred Thompson. It’s time to go.