Newt Gingrich has announced he'll enter the race in November if supporters pledge $30 million, and that doesn't seem like the kind of thing you say unless you're thinking you'll get the money. You don't want people to look at you afterwards and think, 'Hey, there's that schmoe who wanted to run for president but couldn't raise the money... remember when he was a big deal?' Before, Newt said that he'd only run if Fred Thompson flopped. And now James Dobson has announced that he won't support Fred -- let's roll tape:
"Isn't Thompson the candidate who is opposed to a Constitutionalamendment to protect marriage, believes there should be 50 differentdefinitions of marriage in the U.S., favors McCain-Feingold, won't talkat all about what he believes, and can't speak his way out of a paperbag on the campaign trail?" Dobson wrote. "He has no passion, no zealand no apparent 'want to.' And yet he isapparently the Great Hope that burns in the breasts of manyconservative Christians? Well, not for me, my brothers. Not for me!"
Apparently Dobson doesn't regard his sisters as worth discussing politics with. Anyway, the raison d'etre of a Thompson candidacy was to unite GOP base voters who didn't feel comfortable with the heterodoxies of McCain, Giuliani, and various stages of Romney. If Dobson's not on the team, it's hard for me to see how that's going to go forward. Which sets the stage for Newt Gingrich, cutter of Medicare and divorcer of bedridden wives.
