Thompson responds to his critics

He's running it the way he thinks it should be run and isn't too interested in the criticism:

Earlier in the day, Thompson visited a flower shop in Celebration, Fla., and defended his campaign work schedule in an interview with The Associated Press. He said his strategy is working and "I'm going to do it the way I want to do it."

His absences in early-voting states have been noticed. Thompson hasn't been in South Carolina in more than a month, he scrapped a recent trip to New Hampshire and then canceled a news conference Saturday in Florida.

"You can name a lot of places that I haven't been, and you can name a lot of places that I have been several times," Thompson said.

"I've been to Florida three or four times," he said. "The mainstream media, with all due respect, likes to concentrate on the process game on a daily basis, and I can't get caught up in that. I'm going to do it the way I want to do it."

Thompson pointed out he comes in second among Republicans in most national polls and has more than 100,000 contributors despite making some decisions that defy conventional wisdom.

In the interview, as he traveled from Celebration to Tampa, Thompson said he has never behaved as candidates traditionally do.

"Some experts, I think, probably expected me to be slicker and better-scripted than I am," said Thompson, a TV and movie actor. "Ironically, I don't follow a script well."

It makes me nervous but I think he knows what he's doing since he's run successful campaigns in the past. His campaign for Senate was unorthodox and left him open for criticism and yet he prevailed. I hope he can do so again.