Posted on 11/13/2007 11:13:48 AM PST by pissant
The American electorate is a fickle mistress. Just ask former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.).
When Thompson announced his candidacy for president just after Labor Day most national polls showed him running a close second behind former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and the majority of state polls had him in the top three.
No longer. Thompson's campaign has yet to take off as expected and voters -- especially in crucial early states like Iowa, New Hampshire and Florida.
The most recent data comes from New Hampshire where two surveys were released over the weekend. The first, conducted by theUniversity of New Hampshire for the Boston Globe, put Thompson in sixth (yes, SIXTH) place with just three percent of the vote. (Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney led the way with 32 percent.) In a Marist University poll Thompson again took sixth place with just five percent support. To be clear, Thompson was never a frontrunner in New Hampshire but polls conducted in the run-up to his announcement and just after he formally entered the race show him regularly polling in double digits.
Thompson's shrinking support is apparent in other early states as well. The last three polls taken in Iowa put Thompson in fourth, fifth and fourth place, respectively, and his high water mark in any of those surveys is 11 percent. In Florida, too, Thompson appears to be fading. A new poll conducted for the Miami Herald and St. Petersburg Times showed Thompson in fifth place (eight percent) behind Giuliani (36 percent), Romney (19 percent), Arizona Sen. John McCain (12 percent) and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (nine percent).
(Excerpt) Read more at blog.washingtonpost.com ...
The smell of fear is thick with you.
Post of the day! Bears repeating.
The smell of fear is thick with you.
Post of the day! Bears repeating.
I don’t understand it...
It seems to me Fred is getting his share of face time. I’d like to see him or Hunter in the Oval Office.
Heh heh, the boy does spin don’t he...
Is Bush a no-compromise Israli supporter who adamently opposes carving up existing Israeli land to build a "Palestine state" inside? Huck is.
Is Bush a hard core supporter of the FairTax and working tirelessly to lobby that the national income tax be abolished and replaced with a retail sales tax nationwide? Huck is.
Is Bush a no-compromise huge second amendment supporter who has pledged to never sign an assault weapons ban into law? Huck is.
Is Bush loudly and publically denouncing the L.O.S.T. treaty as an assault on American soviegnity? Huck is.
Did Bush personally welcome an invitation from FreeRepublican and appear as our guest of honor to support this forum during his inagural? Huck did.
Sorry, the argument that Huckabee is a clone of Bush just doesn't hold water. The argument that "the same people" who hyped Bush are hyping Huck doesn't hold water. The type of "religious right" voters that like Huckabee were drawn to Gary Bauer in the 2000 primary, NOT Bush.
Personally, I think the oh so great annointed conservative savior Fred Thompson's adminstration would reselmble "Bush III" more than Huck ever would. Fred was definitely a go-along, get-along status quo guy in Washington who enacted McCain-Feingold and the rest of that stuff into law. I can't think of a single area where Fred and George W. would differ, except Fred supporters get us vague promises of "federalism" over and over again and pretend Fred's immigation polices are different (even though both Bush and FDT have happily supported amnesty in the past but always claim to be adamently against it and for "securing the border" in public speeches)
And you come back with a condescending, insulting Kiss, make up, and start attacking Mitt and his family ... lest you find yourselves cast out of the Kingdom.
Granted, I may have entirely misinterpreted your post -- maybe you're being sarcastic or something. But I did not nor have I ever attacked Mitt or his family. I've attacked Mitt's politics and his record, and will continue to do so because I think it would be terrible for the Republican party if he didn't lose the primary to Fred Thompson.
I think I'm a Christian; I'm CERTAIN that there are many who think they're Christians who would disagree, rather the way Dobson "disagrees" that Thompson is a Christian. Only God knows for sure whether or not I'm a real Christian. I do know that many self-described Christians I've met have been hard, bitter, cold people with stilted, sheltered lives who bring little warmth, love, or goodness to their fellows. And likewise, I've known many, many sinners whose lifestyles and transgressions would make many "upright" Christians shudder -- and I've seen those same sinners bring enormous love, warmth, hope, life, and joy to their fellows, and often to those who are lowest, the least of us.
How can anyone not love God in such a world? He is marvelous in what He brings to us all and in such unexpected ways and places. I love God and am thankful every day for Jesus and the Bible. And for Free Republic!!! :^)
Fred is going to suprise folks.....I like Hunter too but he’s stuck so far.
Wow, a post about me without pinging me. Are you gutless?
Good grief, have you really jumped from TommyBoy to Huckleberry?
Next I suppose John Cox will seem irresistible to you.
That was an excellent summary of the problem Fred has with a good number of social conservatives.
How would you cover Romney’s relgious tracks? He’s clearly a Mormon, he professes to be a Mormon, he attends church as a Mormon, his family is Mormon, he was an officer in the church, and he has expressed that his faith, and the fellowship of his religion, is important to him.
Nobody is trying to cover that up. There’s never been any question about what church Mitt Romney belonged to. I can’t imagine having multiple threads of people trying to guess what church Romney belonged to, or whether he ever attended church.
And how did that work out for Fred? The social conservative vote is fleeing him and running to Huckabee.
All because he wouldn’t spend a little time talking to an important person in the religious right?
I bet Fred met with the officers of the NRTL.
I never understood how a politician looked better by ignoring an important person to his base of support. Of course, I can’t imagine a single Fred supporter who would have complained if Fred had had a meeting with Dobson and gotten his endorsement.
And if Fred ever repeats that we can all get used to saying “President Hillary”. There is a large group of people out there who disagree with your assessment of James Dobson, who has done much good in this world, probably more than most people who attack him could dream of.
That doesn’t make him the all-knowing oracle of the religious right, but he has earned some respect through his words and deeds.
When he attacks your candidate, the appropriate response is to fix the problem, not make it worse. You do your candidate no favors by continuing to antagonize the social conservatives.
We win elections by bringing people together, and I see little evidence the Fred Thompson supporters on this board understand that concept.
If Fred ever repeats what?
Can you read?
Kevmo is a Duncan Hunter supporter. That’s pretty clear, he’s got it in his tag line. Nor is he Mormon, at least revealed.
But you managed to make a false personal attack against another freeper, attack him for not answering a “discussion point” that wasn’t a discussion point at all, engage in childish name-calling against other people you don’t agree with, AND take a swipe at a major religion full of people who are conservatives who are on our side on many of the issues we care about.
All to what, “defend” your candidate? Couldn’t you just mention why the attacks are false, or provide good reasons to support him?
The problem is the pretension of Dobson's "not a Christian" epithet.
AFTER Big Jim pronounced him non-Christian?
I bet they didn't cast filthy aspersions on his faith.
Of course, that hasn’t stopped any number of Freepers from posting that Romney is not a Christian.
In neither case can man know the hearts of God and man on the issue. We can speak to what we believe is God’s word on the subject, and evangelize based on our understanding, but in the end it is not our place to mark who is saved and who is not.
So far as I can tell, Fred does not LIVE life like a committed Christian. He shows little interest in his faith as it applies to life, or to the fellowship of his fellow believers. Or at least he wishes to keep quiet about it. And the admonition in the Bible about entering your closet is not applicable to the idea of sharing your faith, which is a public acknowledgment and outreach to nonbelievers and believers alike.
Many of us who wanted to support Fred, and who defended his church affiliation back when others tried to falsely malign him, were taken aback by both his cavalier attitude toward basic values of the Christian faith (like fellowship), and moreso taken back by the ready acceptance of that non-biblical action by many Freepers.
Yes, in the end Fred doesn’t have to be a practicing Christian, or even a Christian at all, to be President. But we were sure hoping he would be.
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