Free Republic

Much chatter among Republicans within the Beltway that Fred Thompson, who was the Great White Hope a couple of months back, might be fading in the 2008 stakes even before his presidential bid has officially begun. Having intimated he would announce around July the Fourth, it seems he'd not now going to commit until September. That's leaving a summer vacuum for the press to pick apart his lobbying and legal careers - and for stories to circulate about discord within his campaign and his wife being controlling. The problems are stacking up: Resignations Slow fundraising Sniping against his wife Questions...

"....Has the presidential campaign of Republican Fred Thompson gone off the rails before the candidates has even declared he is running? ...[snip]? CARL CAMERON, FOX NEWS CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it looks like there is a bit of a mutiny starting on Fred Thompson's campaign ship even before it leaves the dock. Another staffer resigned today. That is three in three days, with more expected, over what insiders call the haphazard, unfocused and undisciplined way things are being handled or not handled and over the candidates' wife. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) CAMERON (voice-over): On the surface, Thompson is soaring. Before even officially...

(AP) WASHINGTON - Bowing to political realities, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry has canceled plans to begin broadcasting television commercials in Arizona, Arkansas, Louisiana and the perennial battleground of Missouri. The decision to shrink his political playing field reduces Kerry's strategic options — at least for now — in the homestretch of the campaign. George W. Bush won all four states in 2000, and Kerry can't win the White House without taking a state or two from the Republican incumbent. While pulling back from some states that Bush carried, Kerry is still strongly competing in several GOP-leaning battlegrounds, including Ohio,...