Mainstream Republicans begin to realize they were bidding on a slug in a sack. One frustrated Thompson supporter writes an open letter to old Fred:
You said you had the fire in the belly. You sucked all the air out of the atmosphere on the right. In doing so, you pledged to run a different kind of campaign. But if you are going to be the big man on the right, you can’t be lazy. Yet you have been so. You have a responsibility to bone up on basic local issues of national import. Any old moron should know, for instance, that you can’t go into Florida without having at least thought about what you would say if asked about Terri Schiavo or about the Everglades. Moreover, what your campaign has offered so far has been a themeless pudding….
Look, the truth is that I would like to see your campaign catch fire. Conservatives all over the country are hoping you catch fire. But you can’t catch fire if you don’t even carry a match or any kindling. You come across as unprepared, soporific, and vague.
I don’t think Thompson can win the nomination. He’s not a strong conservative nor is he really even a serious candidate, he’s a political mirage. The fact that he hasn’t been able to leave Giuliani – despised by more than a quarter of the Republican base – in the dust demonstrates the fundamentally hapless nature of his campaign.