The voters of Iowa are not having to look under a rock for Fred Thompson. He HAS taken his campaign directly to them. Strategy entails going to those who vote first...FIRST. Much of it is posted here in detail on the very threads you post to.
But success begets success, and failure begets failure. Fred went for a period of weeks, if not months with very little major national media exposure. The little he got was nothing like the daily barrage of Romney and Giuliani. He just didn't go after it, and it didn't come looking for him. That is why he began fading in the national polls and never came back. People in Iowa and elsewhere read the same newspapers and see the same polls. If they see Fred dropping like a rock, then their not going to be inclined to support him either. People just don't like getting behind sure losers.
Those of us who are paying even a modicum of attention are watching Fred work his campaign every day. You claim to be a Thompson supporter but somehow never see or hear any of it. Even after having the daily Fred news and events all laid out for you here at FR, you still claim he’s done nothing. As a matter of fact, you never post a positive comment about him at all.
It's not about me. It's about what your average voter sees. I've seen all of the major events where Fred had his few opportunities to define himself before a large audience, and he missed them. He didn't talk about his credentials during the CNN debate, or any others. That was his best chance. People walked away having heard some statistics on social security that they didn't retain, and still not knowing about Fred's experience with terrorism and nuclear proliferation matters. Fred needed to use the opportunity of the debates to challenge Giuliani directly and hold Rudy's well known background up to his own. He didn't, and that was his chance then to define himself before America, not now, 3 days before Iowa.
Even a “sort of” supporter would find reason to praise him today on his truly excellent Message to Iowa. It’s gained attention all over the Internet and from major news outlets.
I agree, it is good he has gotten some media attention for it, but lets keep it in perspective. He's running for president. Getting media attention should not be this unusual. This is the first in a very long time for him in a race where 3 or 4 of the other candidates get this kind of exposure on a daily basis. And on top of that, his message is 17 minutes long, is slow and meandering through much of it, is fairly unexciting and doesn't even touch on the sort of issues and experience that he should be leading with until 8 minutes into it, long after the vast majority of his audience has stopped watching out of boredom. I really would like to be more upbeat on Fred, but he really hasn't given us much of a reason to be for months now.
Maybe Fred's plan was to not have to much TV exposure .. and wait at the right moment to make his case.
People do get jaded and sick and tired of seeing the politicians on TV every day.... saying the same lame stuff.
They ware out their welcome.