As of now I’d probably vote for thompson if he wins the (r) nomination. However, I wouldn’t campaign or volunteer to help Thompson’s campaign. Unlike RP’s which I am putting in a good number of hours a week right now. If someone other than Thompson wins, it would be very a hard decision... I’d have to look at their platform at the time, might vote 3rd party, or maybe write in Ron Paul. I dunno.
If RP does win the GOP nomination, the GOP will have the added help of hundreds of volunteers in each major city/town across the country and, of course, free internet advertising (so called ‘spamming’, lol). I doubt too many of the RP supporters will be even mildly enthusiastic about supporting any of the other nominees, perhaps a trickle of support for Thompson. I was a poll watcher in 2004 for Bush, won’t make that mistake again. :)
And voting for a third party isn’t ‘throwing your vote away’, unfortunately, people seem obsessed with voting for ‘winners’, as if their self esteem is reflective on voting for a winning candidate. If everyone just voted for whom they most agreed with we’d be a lot better off, IMO.
funny, publius, we had the same answer. :)
I just read what I wrote and I think I should add that, at least among the RP supporters I have met, there are many lifelong republicans and I think most of them will end up voting for the republican nominee. I think in my answer, I was projecting my personel opinion onto them. :)