Things that Could and Should have been
Well, just in case you have been under a rock, my first choice for President, Fred Thompson, dropped out today.
The most frustrating aspect of this has to do with the fact that the Thompson campaign was able to squander this opportunity. Senator Thompson took a long time to finally emerge as an actual candidate for President. When his name was first bandied about as a candidate, he had the benefit of an energetic base, and a willing conservative audience. This was an audience that was enthusiastic to endorse a candidate for President who best embodied the Republican brand of Ronald Reagan and of Barry Goldwater. I know, because I was one of many who endorsed Fred Thompson long before he began his formal run for the White House. In the end....we see what has happened.
It has been a long, frustrating road to get to where we are today. Senator Thompson had an opportunity to win, and most importantly an opportunity to lead, and it just faded away. We have seen this sort of thing before, both at the national level and here at the local level. But it is just sad and disappointing to see the kind of leader that both our party and our country desperately needed no longer in the running to serve the people of this nation based on a faulty campaign strategy.
This may be the end of the Thompson campaign, but hopefully it is only the end of the beginning. And not just because Erick Erickson reports that Senator Thompson is going to stay involved with our party. We still have a battle for the soul of Republican Party on our hands. It's true that the Republican Party will not be nominating a standard bearer who fits my preferred Conservative mold. But we have an opportunity here, first to ensure that the Democratic nominee is defeated in the 2008 Presidential Election, but also an attempt to reform the Republican Party from within to make sure that we do our party to reduce the size of government and to keep our taxes low. Just because we lost this battle does not mean that the war is not worth continuing.
If we take anything from Senator Thompson's campaign, it's that there is a base of Republican out there that believes in the things that I believe. There are others who want to continue the legacy of President Reagan and Senator Goldwater. And while it will take work and effort to cultivate that base, we can still reform our party to do great things for our country. We need to keep that hope alive, and be ready to do the job...
The most frustrating aspect of this has to do with the fact that the Thompson campaign was able to squander this opportunity. Senator Thompson took a long time to finally emerge as an actual candidate for President. When his name was first bandied about as a candidate, he had the benefit of an energetic base, and a willing conservative audience. This was an audience that was enthusiastic to endorse a candidate for President who best embodied the Republican brand of Ronald Reagan and of Barry Goldwater. I know, because I was one of many who endorsed Fred Thompson long before he began his formal run for the White House. In the end....we see what has happened.
It has been a long, frustrating road to get to where we are today. Senator Thompson had an opportunity to win, and most importantly an opportunity to lead, and it just faded away. We have seen this sort of thing before, both at the national level and here at the local level. But it is just sad and disappointing to see the kind of leader that both our party and our country desperately needed no longer in the running to serve the people of this nation based on a faulty campaign strategy.
This may be the end of the Thompson campaign, but hopefully it is only the end of the beginning. And not just because Erick Erickson reports that Senator Thompson is going to stay involved with our party. We still have a battle for the soul of Republican Party on our hands. It's true that the Republican Party will not be nominating a standard bearer who fits my preferred Conservative mold. But we have an opportunity here, first to ensure that the Democratic nominee is defeated in the 2008 Presidential Election, but also an attempt to reform the Republican Party from within to make sure that we do our party to reduce the size of government and to keep our taxes low. Just because we lost this battle does not mean that the war is not worth continuing.
If we take anything from Senator Thompson's campaign, it's that there is a base of Republican out there that believes in the things that I believe. There are others who want to continue the legacy of President Reagan and Senator Goldwater. And while it will take work and effort to cultivate that base, we can still reform our party to do great things for our country. We need to keep that hope alive, and be ready to do the job...
Labels: 2008 Presidential Election, Fred Thompson
posted by Brian Griffiths at 8:21 PM
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