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Thompson's chance to make a difference: Bow out, endorse McCain (read the comments from S.C.)
The State ^ | 05 January 2008 | Brad Warthen

Posted on 01/05/2008 8:29:07 PM PST by Jet Jaguar

Eight years ago, Fred Thompson came for an editorial board visit after we had already endorsed George Bush, to tell us how wrong we were. We should have backed John McCain, he told us. I knew that, of course, but I sat still for his gruff advice as a sort of penance for my failure. I had tried hard (more about that in my Sunday column), but the consensus on our board had gone against me.

As futile as his gesture was at that point, I still appreciated Sen. Thompson's position, as bad as it made me feel. McCain had been the man, and it was the nation's loss that he was not elected in 2000.

Since he knew that then, and Sen. McCain is the same man he was, I've wondered all year why in the world Mr. Thompson even thought of running. As I said back in this column, he forgot to do one thing when he jumped in late: Tell us what it was he brought to the campaign that the candidates already running did not already offer.

Now, it's my turn to return the favor and tell Fred Thompson something that he should already know: It's time for him to do the principled thing again, and assert what he knew to be true back then: He should bow out, and support McCain. And he should do it now; now is when he can make a difference.

Sen. McCain is tied for first place in New Hampshire polls with a damaged Mitt Romney; Mr. Thompson is in single digits. By the time he comes South, all he will be able to do is be a spoiler, to pull just enough voters away from another candidate (and I suspect that candidate would most likely be his longtime ally McCain) to throw the victory to the surging Huckabee.

Nothing against Huckabee on my part; I just don't see him as the alternative Mr. Thompson himself would prefer. Meanwhile, he has continued to express his continuing respect for Sen. McCain; this would be a chance to show he means it.

Speaking of Gov. Huckabee, his victory is his own. But he was not in a position to begin that rise, he was not in striking distance, until Sam Brownback gracefully departed from the race. They had both been drinking from the same well of voters, and Sen. Brownback clarified matters for them.

Quitting when he did was Sen. Brownback's greatest contribution to this campaign, and was the best thing he could have done to serve the values and ideas he espouses. If Sen. Thompson wants to advance his own values, if he wants to make a difference and serve the country -- or if he simply wants the gratification of being a player at all -- he should get behind McCain now.


TOPICS: Politics/Elections; US: South Carolina
KEYWORDS: elections; fred; fredthompson; mccain; mcinsane; thompson
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To: imahawk

Maybe the Swamp Fox will be looking on, for enjoyment?

(I don’t mean Lee Atwater, I mean the original. Lee repented. ;-)


101 posted on 01/05/2008 9:17:10 PM PST by unspun (God save us from egos -- especially our own.)
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To: All
Thompson endorsing anyone is nonsense.

It implies that he’s not doing well enough. He gets a A+ being where he’s at now with the media blackout.

And, he gets an A+ for is debate performance tonight.

It’s time for Thompson to get some endorsements from the other candidates! :^)

102 posted on 01/05/2008 9:18:10 PM PST by msnpatriot
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To: Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus

>>
The problem with CA is that the GOP is tiny compared to the preponderance of Dims and Dim influence from LA and SF?
>>

Completely legitimate point, as well as the others, but Pete Wilson was hardly conservative. Nor were the other primary winners running against Gray Davis.

But that aside, I am not thinking which direction the party leans in those states so much as what happens when ads portraying Guilliani as a staunch conservative hit the airwaves unopposed in the hugely expensive LA, NYC and Chicago media markets of those states.

He has to be stopped THERE. Only money will do it, and there is no time for the unfunded campaigns to find that money, get it collected, get the media buys reserved and deposits put down and, in a word, compete for the huge number of Super Tuesday delegate count on the line, most of which are not in the south. I still wince to realize NY is a state wide WTA state. That is going to be very hard even for a Romney to equal in delegate count.

It simply comes down to work. Being a hard worker is not defined by spending 2 weeks in a bus going across Iowa trying to replace media buys with visits to diners. It is defined as spending an entire year in airplanes sleeping in unfamiliar beds in hotels trying to talk to people who want to ignore you. It is putting into place the necessary funding and support network via that grinding schedule of months and months of hard work. Thompson hasn’t done that and that’s why he can’t fund Illinois, California and NY.

Even if Thompson won a glorious, overwhelming, crushing victory in South Carolina (which btw is only district wide WTA, not statewide), Nevada caucuses the same day and their delegate count is oddly MORE than SC’s. The reaction from the pros would be a yawn and a glance at the calendar to see that Miami’s media market is calling just 10 days later, as is Tampa’s and Jacksonville’s. Guilliani will already be there, pounding out the advertising.

I just don’t see a path around the need to stop Guilliani from amassing a huge delegate lead on Feb 5. Only money can do that and not money sent now — money raised 6 months ago.


103 posted on 01/05/2008 9:18:24 PM PST by Owen
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To: Candor7

McCain was very bad in the debate.

His immigration plan kicked him in the butt.

He tried to weasel his way out, but Fred and Mitt called him on it.

He still does not think his plan was amnesty.


104 posted on 01/05/2008 9:20:54 PM PST by Jet Jaguar (Who would the terrorists vote for?)
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To: eyedigress
Why do folks think Thompson should drop out?

I'm starting to suspicion that this whole thing about the idea of Fred dropping out is the new stealth-mantra of the press now that the 'lazy/no fire in the belly" has gone flat.

It may be the new Pied Piper tune to lead the sheeple away from Fred - whom they now see is a real threat

105 posted on 01/05/2008 9:22:11 PM PST by maine-iac7 (",,,but you can't fool all of the people all the time" LINCOLN)
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To: Flintlock
If McNut gets the nod, I’m going fishing.

You and me both.

106 posted on 01/05/2008 9:22:30 PM PST by SIDENET (Hubba Hubba...)
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To: Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus

California had their delegates halved for moving up. This was a major blow to Rudy’s strategy. The article I read today seems to think that the rural counties seemed to be leaning to Thompson. If this is true, he should do alright there.


107 posted on 01/05/2008 9:22:49 PM PST by Ingtar (The LDS problem that Romney is facing is not his religion, but his recent Liberal Definitive Stands.)
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To: SIDENET

I’ll bring the beer if you bait the hook.


108 posted on 01/05/2008 9:24:41 PM PST by rintense (Thompson/Hunter 2008!)
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To: Ingtar

The GOP Primary Wiki shows no indication of California losing any of their 173 delegates. And they are not statewide WTA. The media markets there are lethal, but if you don’t compete in them, you don’t win.


109 posted on 01/05/2008 9:26:05 PM PST by Owen
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To: Shortstop7

“You said it. McCain should drop out and endorse FDT!”

Same with Myth.


110 posted on 01/05/2008 9:26:25 PM PST by Rick_Michael (The Anti-Federalists failed....so will the Anti-Frederalists)
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To: qman
McCain will not win SC. Especially after tonight’s debate, he looked spiteful and angry.

Yeah, he came off the worst tonight. At one point he kept on with a low ominous mumble even though the issue had moved on. Bad show.

111 posted on 01/05/2008 9:27:38 PM PST by hinckley buzzard
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To: Ingtar

Rural CA is conservative, In 04 I saw only Bush signs throughout CA farmland. In fact, if you look at the CA map by county, with red = Bush and blue = Kerry, California is a red state, sprinkled with blue here and there.


112 posted on 01/05/2008 9:29:42 PM PST by HerrBlucher (Fred will crush the beast and send her back through the gates of hell.)
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To: Sunnyflorida
McCain = Z Card. ‘nough said.

At the break Snuffalupagous observed that every minute spent om immigration was a bad minute for McCain, and he was right about that. How do you say "wishy-washy" in espanol?

113 posted on 01/05/2008 9:30:18 PM PST by hinckley buzzard
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To: Jet Jaguar

McCain should drop out and endorse Fred. Fred Thompson is our only hope of saving the America we know. Just look at the crowds for Barak Hussein Obama. Young inexperienced easily led voters signing up by the hundreds. Older african americans who have never voted before signing up by the thousands all of a sudden its important. Even suburban white women formerly known as soccer moms now Oprah fans. I suppose all of these new or nearly new voters are really going to bone up on the issues before the election. And lets not forget the left wing media being in love with Barak Hussein Obama. He wont need campaign donations. The news coverage he is getting comes free. Show your support for Fred now before its too late.


114 posted on 01/05/2008 9:32:32 PM PST by cquiggy
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To: khnyny

“I have a strange suspicion (and voiced this in an earlier post months ago) that the deal is for Fred to bow out and support McCain.”

I remember that someone said that awhile back. I wondered about that, too. I believe that Fred getting into the race kept Newt Gingrich from joining the fray. Could it be that Fred has been running interference for McCain all along? That would explain his lack of intensity. Time will tell if you were right.(bookmarking)


115 posted on 01/05/2008 9:34:25 PM PST by upsdriver (Duncan Hunter: For those who demand the very best!!)
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To: Jet Jaguar

Two things:

1. The story on the Politico about Fred dropping out and endorsing McCain if he didn’t win in Iowa was obviously a planted story by somebody in the McCain campaign and not Freds campaign. They ran with it despite emphatic denials from everybody who is provably in Freds campaign. The media WANTS McCain and they think the GOP should want him also.

2. McCain has never (yes, I’m saying NEVER) won a GOP primary with GOP votes. The GOP has already decided that they DO NOT WANT MCCAIN! They don’t want Amnesty, Campaign Finance ‘Reform’ or anything else which is bipartisan with 90% Dem support. McCain is dead to conservatives.

The media has been pitching this McCain comeback story since the day before Iowa. They have been repeating it literally word for word channel by channel. If there is such a thing as ‘the Republican establishment’, it IS the McCain backers. And that is who is getting thumped the worst right now.


116 posted on 01/05/2008 9:36:12 PM PST by bpjam (Harry Reid doesn't even have 32% of my approval)
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To: cquiggy

I have no fear of Obama or Edwards getting the nod.

Hillary and Bill made a deal with the devil and they still expect it to pay off.

It may.


117 posted on 01/05/2008 9:36:40 PM PST by Jet Jaguar (Who would the terrorists vote for?)
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To: Jet Jaguar

And just why should Fred drop out? I am not a Fred supporter; but I find it a rather stupid remark to make.


118 posted on 01/05/2008 9:37:17 PM PST by freekitty ((May the eagles long fly our beautiful and free American sky.))
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To: bpjam

The MSM is hoping for a McCain or Guliani, or now since they are falling, a Huckabee.

McCain is not Conservative.


119 posted on 01/05/2008 9:39:24 PM PST by Jet Jaguar (Who would the terrorists vote for?)
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To: freekitty

Read the title and (the parentheses)
And the comments from South Carolina at the link.


120 posted on 01/05/2008 9:41:03 PM PST by Jet Jaguar (Who would the terrorists vote for?)
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