Booman Tribune

Fred Thompson Drops Out

by BooMan
Tue Jan 22nd, 2008 at 02:42:44 PM EST

Fred Thompson has dropped out of the race. I was watching Fox News last night and Mort Kondracke was speculating about where Fred's voters might go after an anticipated withdrawal of their candidate. Kondracke was of the opinion that his votes would mostly go to Mitt Romney, with some going to Huckabee. Until I heard him say that, I assumed that Thompson's votes would go to John McCain, as I see them as essentially political brothers. But Kondracke is probably right, in that the national narrative/impression is that Thompson is an orthodox conservative, while McCain is not. I actually see both Thompson and McCain as unorthodox Republicans in the same general mold of Lindsay Graham. Nevertheless, I think most of the people that were supporting Thompson were supporting him because he fit the bill on the social/fiscal/national security troika in a way that none of the other candidates could convincingly pull off. With Thompson out of the way, Mitt Romney most nearly fulfills the requirements of the troika (albeit, with some fairly severe credibility problems on the social arm).

Therefore, Kondracke convinced me that I was wrong and he is right (a rare occurrence). Thompson's withdrawal should help Romney in Florida, and Huckabee might see a slight boost as well.



Display:
See ya Fred! Don't let the door hit ya...

A little off topic: Mozilla has released a Bush countdown timer plugin for Firefox.

http://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3792

by RandyH on Tue Jan 22nd, 2008 at 03:01:00 PM EST
Thompson's withdrawal should help Romney in Florida, and Huckabee might see a slight boost as well.
If that turns out to be the case, it's possible that after the clusterfuck that is the Florida Republican primary we'll see Giuliani drop out.  Especially if he finishes 4th.

Tengo un sueño.
by ejmw (ewitham (at) umich (dot) edu) on Tue Jan 22nd, 2008 at 03:01:06 PM EST
Based on the Florida polls, if I'm right, Romney should probably win there.
by BooMan on Tue Jan 22nd, 2008 at 03:01:07 PM EST
But if he doesn't, it doesn't necessarily mean you're wrong.  McCain's support was growing in FL anyway, with Giuliani dropping.  If the Thompsonites do indeed go towards Mittens, it doesn't mean that Giuliani doesn't continue to bleed support over to McCain enough to push McCain just ahead of Mittens.

In any case, I think it's going to be very, very close.

Also, I think I have used up my quota of double negatives for the day now.

Tengo un sueño.
by ejmw (ewitham (at) umich (dot) edu) on Tue Jan 22nd, 2008 at 03:08:14 PM EST
[ Parent ]
From your mouth, to whatever magical deity you believe in ears!

I would so much rather face Romney, or Huckster than Mccain.

"Some men see things as they are and say why - I dream things that never were and say why not." George Bernard Shaw.

by benjamink on Tue Jan 22nd, 2008 at 03:08:17 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Fred was the Freepers' dream candidate. I just went to read what they thought of the announcement.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1957771/posts

There seem to be quite a few talking about Romney now, or  even better, staying home. They're generally pretty broken up about it.

by RandyH on Tue Jan 22nd, 2008 at 03:08:40 PM EST
What a dad-gum shame, eh?
by dataguy on Tue Jan 22nd, 2008 at 03:39:14 PM EST
[ Parent ]
When you read the comments at FR, it's kind of scary to think these people are really running around out there among us.

"Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity"
by MikeInOhio (miken45054@yahoo.com) on Tue Jan 22nd, 2008 at 03:42:51 PM EST
[ Parent ]
When you hang your star on a group of lunatics.  Those freepers started making noises for Thompson.  They amplified that, with the media using a bigger megaphone because, hey, everyone on that one blog is calling for it.  So "Republicans Want Thompson" can be the headline.  Yeah, let's go with that!

~~~THIS SPACE FOR RENT~~~
by fabooj (fabooj [at} mail [dot} com) on Tue Jan 22nd, 2008 at 03:51:29 PM EST
[ Parent ]
I have never seen a candidate who did not walk around the Iowa State Fair.  He took a cart around the fair.  What a lazy guy.
by dataguy on Tue Jan 22nd, 2008 at 03:36:57 PM EST
John Cole Says:

I am not surprised to see this happen, although I am surprised the Thompson campaign did not get more enthusiastic support. If anything, his campaign resembled Terri Schiavo- listless, inert, and with no signs of life, so I really don't know why it was not greeted with more enthusiasm by our friends on the right. Maybe one Schiavo affair was enough.
by RandyH on Tue Jan 22nd, 2008 at 04:08:42 PM EST
Heh.  I was just thinking, was Fred Thompson ever  seriously IN this race?  

Keith Olbermann speaks for me.
by JanetT in MD on Tue Jan 22nd, 2008 at 04:51:10 PM EST
"...was speculating about where Fred's voters might go after an anticipated withdrawal of their candidate."

Um... what Fred voters would those be?

He was walking for President, not running.

by Andrew Longman on Wed Jan 23rd, 2008 at 12:37:07 PM EST


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