Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Fred Thompson Bows Out

by Brent Moritz

Fred Thompson, actor and former Senator from Tennessee, has exited the race for the Republican nomination. You can read more about it here in the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/23/us/politics/23thompson.html?ref=politics

This comes as no surprise to the Mitt Rockers, who have been speculating as to Mr. Thompson's demise for some time. Still, what is interesting is that the Times and other sources point to the potential positive impact for Mitt Romney. Clearly Thompson was a favorite of the conservative wing of the party, yet he could not win in any of the primaries and was not relevant in many of them.

Thompson supporters are likely to select one of the remaining leading candidates. This makes Romney's wins in Michigan and Nevada even more important, as Romney has established himself as one of the leaders. It is unlikely many of the Thompson supporters will move to Giuliani, as he clearly holds more liberal social positions than the other candidates. So this makes Florida a tighter race between Giuliani, Romney, Huckabee and McCain, with each of the latter three gaining some Thompson supporters. In addition, Huckabee appears to be conceding Florida, so more of the Conservative voters (there and elsewhere) have to chose between McCain and Romney, and McCain has never been the favorite of the Republican right.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

It was an interesting interview right after Fred dropped out, with a reporter sticking a mic in Mitt's face and asking what he thought of him as a potential runningmate...I thought Mitt handled it well...and that he showed some interest.

Perhaps Fred will abstain from throwing his support to anyone in hopes of landing the No. 2 slot.

Anonymous said...

Romney is not only going to win in Florida, it's going to be a sweeping victory. I found an interesting website of polling of Fred supporters done two days ago...

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1957876/posts

With the economic news, I can only imagine all those retirees in Florida watching their 401K's melt away. Mitt will win decisively!

Anonymous said...

Fred was a solid warrior, but it just didn't work out for some reason. Mitt Romney is the next best choice...by a long shot. Never in a million years could I vote for McCain, Rudy, or Huckabee, none of whom are true conservatives. In addition, McCain and Rudy have led horrible personal lives, cheating on their wives...disgusting. Romney's my man now!

MPH said...

I could bite the bullet and vote for Mitt, but I am holding out hope for a Giuliani/Thompson ticket. While he had arguably the best platform and ideas, Thompson just didn't have the outward drive and dynamism that Rudy can bring to the top of the ticket...

But can't you see Thompson embarrassing the hell out VP candidate John Edwards in the summer debates?

Giuliani is hardly out of it (assuming he wins in Florida) and I believe a Giuliani/Thompson ticket has the best shot at winning in November.

This country needs serious tax and spending cuts -- and it needs them now.

And is there anyone who doubts Rudy would be a great diplomatic leader and a excellent Commander of Chief of the US Military?