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Thompson imho throws open the race, but doesn’t close it. What if he jumps in, but runs a lousy campaign? So far as I can tell, only one GOP candidate is running a good campaign, and that is Romney.

If he runs a lousy campaign, he drops below 10%. He may also cause a reassessment where both he and McStain deflate. Or his personality and character are so appealing, he just wipes the rest of the field out.

Too early to tell. There's been no test of him and he wasn't a governor.

For folks like me who were leaning Romney due to the “conservative-and-electable-enough” factor, it’s a reboot that could shake things up. Thompson may be better. But (see my previous post) Thompson is really the McCain-killer, and a good thing too; put that McCain campaign out of its misery, by giving us a maverick conservative to root for.

If Thompson is strong enough to suck the life out of McCain, he'll do the same to Romney, perhaps even more so.

I think Thompson's young family is a wash. Slight downturn for older folks who'll wonder about a man in his sixties starting a new family. But it'll give him a stronger voice on education and family values.

I dread the open convention. I'd be happy if we could dispatch Rudi early and then I'd take Thompson or Romney or even McStain. An open convention would be too divisive.

“If Thompson is strong enough to suck the life out of McCain, he’ll do the same to Romney, perhaps even more so.”

How? maybe because his personality and character are so appealing, etc.. I don’t know if you are being sarcastic but I suspect you are.

Put them both side by side any day and I have a pretty good idea of who people will find most appealing. Especially the soccer moms who seem to be the ones deciding elections these days.

The fact that has been overlooked here is the small matter of Money. Romney and to a lesser extent Rudy have built a warchest of tens of millions and are out there raising more and more every day. It’s no coincidence that Romney is beginning to rise in the polls just now when he is starting to spend some of that money in targeted ads. Fred hasn’t raised a dime and has been out of the fundraising circuit for years... I think once he gets in the race we will all be in for a lesson in realism about electoral politics in America.