Posted on 01/21/2008 9:02:41 AM PST by Cincinnatus
As if the week were not bad enough, now comes news that Fred Thompson is at his 90 year-old mother's bedside, as she fights off pneumonia. I rather suspect that politics is the last thing on his mind at the moment.
So let me do the thinking for him.
All the experts are telling him it's time to get out. The pragmatists and the realists are saying he's fought the good fight, but now the party needs to begin the process of unifying around one of the remaining candidates. They, for the most part, like what Fred had to say and how he said it. But he either didn't get his message across, or the country doesn't want his message. A graceful exit is in order.
And so it was in 1976 when Reagan had lost all the early caucuses and primaries to the pragmatic Gerald R. Ford. The country wasn't ready for a conservative. Hadn't we learned that from the Goldwater race? Reagan represented the minority wing of the minority party, as Nelson Rockefeller famously put it. We didn't need principles, we needed to show that we could govern. We had to listen to what the people were saying and by no means should we be upsetting the apple cart.
Money dried up. In the end, just about the only person telling Reagan not to give up was the guy in the mirror.
But he had something to say, and there was no one else to say it, certainly no one who could say it quite like him. He decided to stay in to the bitter end, even if he lost every primary from then until the convention. He was fighting for what he believed in, and for the soul of the Republican Party, at a time when many of us were beginning to wonder if the party even had a soul.
Eventually his message started resonating. Sure, he lost the nomination, by a hair, but in the process he restored principle to the party, and eventually to the country and the world.
Today there is only one person running for president who can keep the hope of those principles alive.
Stay in, Fred.
This is bigger than all of us.
Right on! There is no one else, so Fred should stick to his guns.
I like Fred. I find his ambivalence about becoming president to be a sure sign of sanity. And I respect that.
However, I firmly believe that the whole problem with Fred’s candidacy is that the ambivalence has been interpreted by the electorate as indecisiveness—not usually one of the top ten characteristics one looks for in selecting a president.
Yup, Fred staying in sends a message to the GOP that conservatives are NOT going to give up and let the party swing socialist. Even if Fred doesn't win, the message does. Go Fred Go!
Oh, and further sticking it to Hookerbee is a nice consolation too.
I disagree. The average person on the street would not be able to tell you who got in at what date. The media and the other campaigns (Romney and Huckabee, especially) did a phenomenal job keeping this talking point alive (both here and in the MSM). It's not a real point. (Huckabee was a no-name until a few weeks before the Iowa campaign.) It didn't matter what date you "got in." As an opponent of Fred you just have to make it appear that it's important. And they did.
Stay in Fred!
Not only stay in, but call Rush Limbaugh and announce on Rush’s show that you’re in for the good fight and tell the rest of RINOs and the media to go pound sand!
Please stay in Fred. The nation needs you.
(Me, I think this is another planted false story, akin to the Romney plant of fake-drop-out rumors at Poliico before Iowa.)
And if Fred was a go along to get along RINO this would have been described by the commie media as "likeability and easy going."
Fred is a severe threat to the RINO / stealth libs.
We see here another quality of Fred’s. He knows family is most important.
Any other candidate, especially Myth and HYuk, would have had 10 newsconferences announcing they’re “still in”.
I suppose it doesn’t matter what date you got in. But any opposing candidate would have used Fred’s tardiness against him. And yes, the MSM did help to give that perspective some legs. But everyone plays on the same field.
As much as I hate to say it, I think “severe threat” has to be weighed against poor showing at the polls.
Of course, in 1976, Fred was one of those opposing Reagan.
And again in 1980.
In 2000, he was one of 4 senators to support McCain
It would make sense if there were only two people left and Fred was one of them for him to stay in the race. After all, who would he be hurting?
In a 5-man race, if everybody “stays in” to send a message, we end up with a nominee that wins 35% of the vote, but gets enough winner-take-all delegates to actually win the nomination.
It’s bad for the party to go into the general election with a candidate who never got 50% of the republicans to vote for them.
Excellent comparison to 1976!
Is there anybody else left in this race worth stepping aside for? Hearing none, I move the question.
Of course, since Fred is known for making up his own mind, and not listening to what other people want him to do, I imagine that all of the “should he stay or go” discussion is academic.
“It’s bad for the party to go into the general election with a candidate who never got 50% of the republicans to vote for them.”
It’s even WORSE for the party to go into the general election with the WRONG candidate....
Hate to tell you, but, Rush is a sellout for Mittens.
This is my first post, so bear with me if I do anything wrong. I want to give the most succinct reason why Thompson should (and will in my opinion) stay in the race.
1. Rasmussen in Fla had Fred running at 12%. Not great, but the Huckster is only at 13%. With a little effort, Thompson will pass Huck. Even if he doesn’t, the Huckabee campaign CAN NOT sustain a 4th or 5th place finish in Fla (that would be devastating and his campaign is broke). He will be done.
2. Julie Annie is running in 3rd to Mitt and McCain. If he loses, with polls in NY having him in 2nd or 3rd, he is done. That most certainly eliminates 2 main contenders (Huck and Rudy).
3. McCain can’t and won’t sustain momentum in closed primary states (he has won largely due to Independents voting). He will be done after Super Tuesday. That leaves us with 2 viable options, Mitt and Fred.
People say Fred doesn’t have money, but he is raising money very, very quickly. One has to figure that, with his message and with the other guys soon to be dropping out, that Thompson will be vaulted to the top.
This is my hope and I am optimistic that tomorrow Fred will stay in the race. I think Jeri wants him to stay in, I don’t think he is a quitter and I think his mom will tell him the same. Don’t quit Fred. Stand strong. The race is still yours to win!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.