I like Fred too, but he was such a dope early on it was crushing. There was so much anticipation, so much energy, waiting for him to take the reins of the movement and what does he do? He acts like he’s out of his Viagra prescription.

He languished too long, he let his wife control too much. That became reminiscient of someone else.

He screwed the pooch.

He is bitterly disappointing.

Thompson said a long time ago “I’m not running for that position” (might be slightly paraphrased) when asked about the VP. I don’t know if that will turn out to have been a cagey way of not saying “…but I’ll accept it if offered” or not. I kind of hope not, but it’s up to him.

I remember being disappointed when Fred didn’t announce his candidacy in May…or June…or on July 4, or in August. He kept saying “there’s plenty of time.” But there wasn’t, of course. There was no time to create and shake the bugs out of his campaign organization, there was no time for fund-raising, and there was no time to make all the campaign stops he needed to make.

I don’t think Thompson is lazy. I think he just had no comprehension of the difference between a state-level campaign against a couple of opposing candidates, and a 50-state campaign against opponents from the same party. Before, he could count on his native republican base of voters - all he had to do was campaign to independents. In the GOP primaries the republican base is being split amongst competing Republican candidates.

There’s no way to win without a decent campaign machine, but Fred obviously thinks that campaigning is BS. A barely necessary or tolerable evil. I admire that perspective, but it’s meant that his campaign has been in disarray from the beginning.

People kept questioning how serious he was about becoming President. I think he was very serious about it - he just wasn’t serious about the campaign process. I suspect he was also reluctant to start cutting the kinds of deals required to get big sponsorship and pull in big local political machines.

I would love to have the kind of political system where a guy like Fred Thompson could be a serious contender for the nomination. But we don’t.

Well, Geoff, I have to agree completely. I hoped and hoped and hoped it was just the media saying he was too late, but lack of name recognition means you have to try to get out front early, alas. I never heard of him until the buzz started over the summer—and while he obviously wasn’t too late for those of us who keep ourselves informed via the web, I vastly overestimated the number of voters who do that.

Alas.

I still like Fred the most. However, I dislike McCain more than I like Fred, and I think that Fred is providing cover for McCain. As such, I’m moving on. Mitt’s the next-best across-the-board conservative IMO, but I’ll vote for the most viable competitor to McShame in my state. If that’s the Huckster, then he’ll get my vote. I hope it’s Mitt, though.

Good on you! Thompson is not my first choice, but I think he’s been really good for this campaign. He single-handedly managed to bring a depth to the debates he joined which made the entire field look better as a result.

If he doesn’t end up serving in a new administration, I sure would like to see him replacing any one of a number of the folks hosting shows on cable. I’m so sick of the vacuous exchange of talking points that passes for political discussion on the tube. He and Joe Lieberman once hosted Hardball for a week, and they actually managed to get both Dems & Republicans to talk substance.

In retrospect, I suspect that the critics who said he started too late were right, though not for the reasons that most posited. Fred was correct when he quipped on Leno that the American people would not hold it against him that he waited a few months to officially declare. Everybody I know, however, underestimated how important it is to have political allies lined up ahead of time. Most of the leading candidates were working behind the scenes for years, making unofficial deals with the people in every state who know how to wield influence and mobilize the rank and file. Fred, on the other hand, honestly never lusted for the power of the presidency. He agreed, upon significant urging, to run because he believed it was the right thing to do for his children and the country. Politics, however, apparently requires more.