There may have been the assumption that Thompson had name recognition, but I believe it was only an assumption. That, plus his ineffectiveness as a campaigner sunk him. The 2 most conservatives guys that ran--Hunter (My #1) and Tancredo--polled less than 1% combined. That should show you how far left America has gone even within the Republican Party.
I don't see this as America having moved that far to the "left" as much as I see two candidates with zero name recognition on a national level, and zero zest in their campaigns.
So the fact that our only candidates is McCain, Hillary, and Obama (and Obama is the likely overall winner) doesn’t indicate to you that the populace hasn’t moved left? 25 years ago Republicans wanted to repeal wasteful departments like the dept of education. Now we are increasing it more than Democrats did. You are simply being blind if you don’t think we’re moving left.