D'oh

This was just poor timing:

Louisiana's social conservatives created the winning "Pro-life, Pro-family" slate in early January largely because we didn't know if Fred was still going to be a candidate at the time of our caucuses (turns out that he wasn't, by a few hours). Because we had almost all the state's social conservative leaders for Fred, we were also able to stave off Huckabee by use of this "pro-life, pro-family" slate. I was really pleased with the win last night, as it's not easy to beat McCain, Romney, and Paul without a candidate, but that's what we did.

About 90 percent of the pro-family slate was actually Thompson supporters. If Fred were to jump back into the race, he would almost certainly pick up all 47 of Louisiana's delegates (the whole point of LA's complicated system was to have an early vote while still not losing half our delegates like all the other early states have). That would put him AHEAD of McCain in the delegate count and only narrowly trailing Romney.

Unfortunately, that sums up the Thompson campaign...

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...

Fred's Closing Argument in Iowa

This is fantastic....

Fred's First Ad...

More Fred...

Awesome (H/T Erick Erickson):

Awesome....

Click the picture to see the video.

Here Comes Fred!

Mark your calendars for next Tuesday, as well as Thursday, September 27th:

Sources tell numerous outlets that Thompson will announce his campaign September 4th, and that he will participate in his first debate on September 27 at Morgan State University in Baltimore. His first major appearance at a GOP event will be at the Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference in Michigan around a week earlier.

Fantastic. And about time. And what a fantastic way to kick off the Senator's participation in the Republican debate process then by joining in right here in Baltimore. Let's get it on.

Incidentally, this is my 1,000th post on this blog. I'm not exactly sure what to say about that...

Huckabee feels the heat

Looks like Mike Huckabee is going to fight for the conservative turf, after all:

Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee says Fred Thompson, who is expected to jump into the 2008 race next month, will have trouble meeting expectations about his candidacy.

Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor, finished second in this month's Iowa straw poll but lags nationally among his rivals in fundraising and public support. Thompson, an actor and former Tennessee governor, has polled well in the crowded field despite his unofficial status.

"Let's just hope Fred decides it's just too hot this summer to even do this. Maybe he won't get in," Huckabee said in a broadcast interview Sunday.

"But if he does, I think he's going to suck a lot of the oxygen out of the room when he first comes in. But I'm not sure I'd want to be in his position where the expectations are simply just sky-high for him to be able to perform," Huckabee said.

Sounds like a candidate who is desperately, desperately hoping that Fred Thompson changes his mind. Though I admit, trying to fight the Senator's campaign on the expectations turf is a pretty sounds strategy for Huckabee's campaign, given how much the campaign exceeded expectations at the Iowa Straw Poll...

There's Dumb....

...and then there's this guy. A Democratic donor/lawyer/operative who bought up a domain similar to Fred Thompson's website, and forwarded domain to the KKK. More from Moe Lane here.

I'd call the guy pond scum, but I don't want to insult the pond scum...

Just Like the Old Days

Awesome:

Fred Thompson, the actor and former Tennessee senator who is expected to announce next month he is running for president, flew to London on Monday to meet Margaret Thatcher and deliver a foreign policy speech, his advisers tell The Politico.

Thompson's advisers aim to use the London events to bolster his foreign policy credentials and elevate him above the increasingly contentious fray of the GOP race.

On Wednesday, he will pose for photos with Thatcher, which his advisers hope will enhance his support among devotees of former President Ronald Reagan.

Thompson will deliver the foreign policy speech, "Strengthening the Transatlantic Alliance," on Tuesday at the Policy Exchange, a conservative think tank based in London.

It will stress the importance of American alliances abroad, his advisers said.

What better way to strengthen foreign policy bonafides and get into the good graces of the conservative base. Also of interest:

Liz Cheney, the former State Department official and the vice president's elder daughter, is consulting on foreign policy. Longtime GOP guru Mary Matalin, a friend of Thompson, will help shape the campaign's message.

Interesting indeed...

Our next President also used Harry Reid as a piñata, like any reasonable person would, for his cozying up to the extreme left of the extreme left.

Sen. Thompson is doing all of the right things as he builds towards his formal announcement, hopefully sometime next month.

Fred Speaks

An interview with, good Lord willing, our next President....(H/T Instapundit and RedState)



I wish that Giuliani, McCain, and Romney would entertain the idea of answering some of these questions...

All the Reasons in the World

Professor Bainbridge runs down the reason he's pleased Fred Thompson is in the race. My personal favorite:

Unlike say Hillary or Romney, he hasn't been planning to run for President ever since s/he got elected President of the 9th Grade class and the senior football players ran his/her underwear up the flagpole, as illustrated by his famous comment that "After two years in Washington, I often long for the realism and sincerity of Hollywood."

Game On

Finally!:

Former U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson will take a major step toward a 2008 run for the White House by "testing the waters" -- beginning to raise money and hire campaign staff as early as Friday, several sources close to Thompson told CNN.

While the former senator from Tennessee is not an official candidate for president, he is acknowledging interest in the race for the Republican nomination.

Let's go to work.

Time to Get Into the Game

It has been a long time since I started thinking about the 2008 Presidential Campaign. Which candidate to support. Which candidate ultimately would be the greatest vehicle both for the Republican Party and for common-sense conservative ideals. To make that decision, you have to go all of the way back to the beginning.

You have to start thinking about Barry Goldwater.

Sen. Goldwater is the godfather of the modern conservative movement. His Presidential Campaign of 1964, while disastrous at the time at the ballot box, led directly to the Reagan Revolution and the Contract with America. His brand of Republicanism was founded on the principles of strong national defense, fiscal conservatism, and smaller government. Somewhere along the way, the Republican Party got away from those concepts as our first principles. I have said it before, and I will say it again; victory in November was used to justify a lot of unpalatable things. Expanded social spending. No Child Left Behind. More and more pork barrel spending. What we need in 2008 is a candidate for President who understands these principles. The three "front-runners" for the Presidency on the Republican side, as defined by the media, all have flaws that get away from those core principles;

• John McCain helped pass the greatest restriction on political speech in generations through the McCain-Feingold Act. Additionally, he opposed the tax cuts proposed by the Bush Administration early in his first term (though he had a come to Jesus moment recently on the issue).
  
• Rudy Guiliani, despite all of his efforts in cleaning up crime in New York City, is strenuously opposed to Second Amendment rights and, until recently, had been vague about his idea of federalism as it relates to abortion..
• Mitt Romney is an enigma; is he or is he not a conservative, at any level? Regardless of whether or not the Mitt Romney ca. 1994, Mitt Romney ca. 2002, or the Mitt Romney of present day is the real Mitt Romney, that does not even begin to address the issue of his term as Governor of Massachusetts, particularly his "RomneyCare' health care package that forces all businesses to provide health care.

And while I will support our GOP nominee in the general election, there is no possible way that I can support their candidacies in the primary. Their positions just are not there for me, whether it be on taxes, guns, or health care, to support them this early in the process. And that is why I am supporting this man:


Fred Thompson is my choice to be the next President of the United States. Sen. Thompson espouses the conservative principles of a strong national defense (including securing the borders), reducing the size of government, and fiscal responsibility. Additionally, he just has the kind of conversational, common sense demeanor about him that will be necessary to connect our conservative ideals with the electorate. None of the other candidates in the race have the broad conservative platform and issue positions as Sen. Thompson does.

Is he a perfect candidate? Of course not, who is? He did vote for McCain-Feingold, but at least has the sense to realize that he made a mistake in voting for it. We don't need a Presidential candidate who is infallible. Just one who is committed to conservative Republican principles and understanding the role of government in a Republican administration.

That is not to say that this was an easy call. For a long time I waited to see what Newt Gingrich would do. Nobody can think and speak as articulately on Republican issues, and can come up with ideas that fit within the Republican worldview as the former Speaker. I see no other candidate in the race who can offer the range of solutions that Speaker Gingrich could as President. However, the fact that the Speaker has spent over two years talking about running for President without taking affirmative steps toward that goal are puzzling and gave me great pause. And the likelihood of Speaker Gingrich winning the nomination are not so good at the moment, particularly given the fact that he is not formally in the race and seems to be stalling until November, barely two months before Iowa and New Hampshire to announce. I am not certain that he is going to ultimately decide to get into the race at that late of a date and be able to succeed.

Now, it is time to finally nominate a conservative Republican candidate for President for 2008. This is Fred Thompson's moment.