Because he's killing the potential of the other candidates. It's all well and good for him to freeze the race if he's going to enter, but it will stink if he's just playing games. Look at what he's doing to Romney (who I was thinking about voting for), Romney supporters are getting ready to jump ship and even if they say they'll stay, they don't inspire confidence in Romney's candidacy.
But now we have a man described by the Hotline as "the most powerful Republican fundraiser in the South," currently in the Romney camp, speculating openly about his candidate dropping out of the race.Romney was slowly moving up in the polls but now he's knocked down to 3%. He may have raised a lot of money but that doesn't mean it will translate into real support. Phil Graham raised plenty of money but dropped out early because he saw he wasn't gaining traction. If Thompson doesn't run it makes it look like Romney's a second choice, I think it kind of taints him.
What's more, he's even naming the candidate whose team he wishes he could join — if only he hadn't committed too early to Mr. Romney: Fred Thompson.
In other news:
Now that Pajamas Media finally put Fred Thompson back on their Straw Poll, we can see who the Internet really wants as the candidate and we see that it's Fred Thompson and Ron Paul:
The tenth week saw a large shift in the poll. On the Republican side, newcomer Fred Thompson emerged in first with 34.9% followed by Ron Paul at 29.00%. Previous winner Rudy Giuliani fell back to third with 12.7%. (On the Democratic side, results remained the same: Bill Richardson far ahead of runner-up Barack Obama.This precinct went for Thompson all the way! A complete shut out
OUR EDITORS’ TAKE: What does the ascendancy of Fred Thompson and Ron Paul mean? Is this an Internet (early adopter) harbinger of things to come? In the case of Thompson, we think this is indeed a possibility. The former Tennessee senator-slash-prosecutor-slash-movie-and-television-star has… despite being undeclared … fared quite well on other polls. On the latest Fox News Poll he is ahead of the declared Romney and the undeclared Gingrich, ditto on the Gallup Poll.
Ron Paul is a different matter. The paleo-libertarian seems to be a purely Internet Phenomenon. He has yet to score significantly on any national poll, his best being a mere 3% on Zogby.
And what is it about Thompson that the religious right doesn't like? Do they have a candidate standing in the wings? That's what it sounds like because they don't like any of the current front runners and they don't think any of the second-tiered candidates can win. So, what the heck do they want?
If you didn't know any better, you would think from all the press attention that Thompson was Ronald Reagan's long lost younger brother. The headlines scream "Fred Thompson" to the rescue." I'm not convinced...yet....that he's going to be the winning ticket for conservatives. He's conservative, yes but he backs campaign finance reform which is troublesome to conservative groups everywhere.Could you get any deeper in the barrel? Listen, you Christians, here are you choices: a conservative who has thrown his party under the bus numerous times when it met his mood, a liberal who says he's fiscally conservative and who now says that the states should decide the abortion issue, or a candidate who was pro-choice and is now pro-life.
He then goes on to state that Thompson's lack of support for a "constitutional amendment that would clarify what religious liberties could be allowed in public places" would be a problem.
Here is a candidate who has a conservative voting record, name recognition, who's articulate and likable. Why the heck wouldn't he make a great candidate? He's not perfect and we're not saying he is, all we're saying is that he has something that's been missing in our party since Bush has been it's leader: a voice for the conservative movement. He could be that voice. Don't take my word for it, listen to him yourself:
(via)
Related posts:
Dobson does not speak for all Evangelicals
Are Thompson supporters being emotional?
More on the fate of Thompson's soul....
Novak makes the case for a Thompson presidency
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