Almost immediately following the launch of Fred Thompson's long-anticipated presidential candidacy, important neutral Republicans decreed privately that it had crashed and burned on takeoff. Many of these critics had wanted to board the Thompson campaign but were repelled by his "gatekeepers." That helps explain their attitude now, and not merely because of any bruised feelings caused by their exclusion. Thompson's late start is not in itself a fatal flaw. Still, it had been conceded in party circles that when Thompson finally became a candidate, his beginning needed to be memorable. It was not. While Thompson offered obligatory conservative slogans in...