In 1992, Clinton lost both Iowa and NH, as well as Maryland, Connecticut, Arizona, Washington, and Utah. He won everything else after that.
Clinton had national fund raising and faced opponents who did not have funding networks that drained the donors. This is a year when the GOP donor base in general has closed its pocketbooks — and no, it doesn’t matter why. All that matters is that they are closed.
Thompson is late to the party. This means the top quality staff was already divided among the well-funded competition. They have drained all available donors.
Talk of what states to pass by and what states to work for based on where one thinks one’s chances are best is meaningless if you have no money and can’t survive until those states arrive on the calendar.
The decisive state this year is Michigan. Thompson can’t afford Detroit or Grand Rapids media buys.
But did he intentionally skip these them or was there another reason he was not campaigning there?