The latest edition in the The latest edition in the Washington Post series on the front-runners for president focuses on Fred Thompson, and why his campaign has been pretty much a non-starter. He started too late. His campaign announcement was too "flat and vague." He's too much of a "a policy wonk" to jump into the fray without careful consideration (which is funny, since he's released very little in the way of policy thus far). He annoys some religious conservatives by not supporting a federal amendment to ban same-sex marriage.
The Post piece seems to blame his timing and sees his candidacy as a "perfect opportunity squandered." Or maybe he's just a bad candidate. He's done little to prove to Republicans he'd make a good president, and all the problems described in this piece would make it easy for the Democrats to annihilate him in the general election.This is why I'm hoping that the deep splits among Republican voters will lead to some fluke Thompson win in the primaries. He usually ranks third in national polls in the top three in South Carolina, despite being perpetually in fourth in Iowa and even worse off in New Hampshire. But the lack of consensus still leaves the GOP side pretty wide open.
--Kate Sheppard
