As everyone must know by now, Fred Thompson announced on the 22nd that he has abandoned his campaign for President after his not-so-great showing in the South Carolina primary.
This is disappointing to me, of course. Some might interpret it to mean that the 'conventional wisdom' of the DBM and the 'conservative' pundits in the Beltway was right all along...Fred didn't really have his heart completely in it. One friend has suggested that Fred expected it to be a cakewalk, and when it didn't turn out to be such he picked up his marbles and went home.
I respectfully disagree with such speculation; I just can't believe he would've thrown into the race if he wasn't all in. My guess is that his very vocal and enthusiastic supporters (and money donors) who persuaded him to run turned out not to be nearly enough...and/or not numerous enough where they needed to be. The early primary process is a joke, putting it charitably, considering the momentum effect it has. I wish Fred had stayed in until at least Super Tuesday, but he evidently concluded that it was pointless-largely because of the campaign bank account, I would imagine. With thanks to my friend Sledge the Hoosier for reminding me, it's quite possible that Fred's elderly, ailing mother might well have factored into his decision. I'm not saying that that's the case or trying to make excuses, but it's certainly a possibility.
Obviously, we'll never know, but I'm certainly grateful that Fred refrained from endorsing any of the remaining candidates.
I see no point in doing a full autopsy on the campaign, though; I'd rather salvage some usable organs from it. In that spirit, in days to come I'll continue with the series on Fred's white papers. Hopefully, the best candidate still standing-Mitt Romney, as far as I'm concerned-will adopt the bulk of Fred's policy proposals. It wouldn't surprise me if Huckabee tried to co-opt them first.
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3 comments:
Your treatise is sound and, I too hope the entire party will adopt Fred Thompson's policies as the foundation of the platform for the convention.
If we can make the Republican party get back to conservative principles before the convention, The candidate becomes the vehicle, not the focus.
Well said, and thank you for the encouragement to continue. Events of late have been fast-moving and pretty disheartening, but this is hardly the time to lose faith. My next post, however, will be on the topic of what-if regarding McCain or Huckabee securing the nomination. (God forbid!)
Cpl. WhoFan, the thing about blogging is, you have to make new posts several times a week! Now, get cracking, soldier!
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