IMO Thompson is delivering himself a fatal blow by missing the debate.
He has been jerking us around since the 4th of July and is getting too slick for me and I am starting to suspect his health is not as good as he said it was. He looks terrible and had to use a golf cart to get around the Fair and some of the sound bites I have seen lately don’t portray him as beeing on top of his game.
Had he taken part and dominated he would have clearly established himself as a front runner rather then playing catch up to Guliani who clearly has superior executive credentials and conservative accomplishments.
Hang it up Fred and enjoy the family for what time you have left. /sarc
These damn campaigns are starting so far in advance of the election by the time we get to them, we’re damn tired. And the candidates (Like Hillary) have told us ten different stories.
Guiliani's "conservative accomplishments?" What? Maybe I've been asleep for a while, but unless being anti-gun with a passion, pro-gay marriage and pro-abortion are "conservative" stances on those issues, then Rudy isn't so conservative.
He does have executive experience, I like his foreign policy stances, I assume he's for lower taxes and less regulation to improve economic growth - those are good things, but they fall into the catagory of "absolute minimum expectations" for a Republican candidate...along with being AGAINST gun control, AGAINST gay marriage, and at least SILENT on abortion (which isn't, for me, such a critical issue on the federal level, but that's me).
Oh, and tell me, what experience does he have in the private sector? Thompson has quite a bit, even if it is working for others. He still had to hawk his wares, and he is far more conscious of the effects of taxes and regulations on business and individuals than Rudy.
Sorry, Rudy isn't even close to being conservative. Maybe for NY and the Northeast he is, but not in the rest of the country.
Is Fred Thompson perfect. No - no one is, even Reagan wasn't. But to me, Thompson is the least imperfect candidate that actually stands a chance of being elected (I like Duncan Hunter better, but he's mostly unknown and therefore has no chance to win IMHO). You have to have a Republican in the White House to prevent foreign policy disasters (which are still possible, but which are a virtual certainty with Dems) and to have decent judges and Justices nominated (again, many Republican nominees have been outright disasters or only so-so, but virtually all Dem nominees are uber-liberal activists).
Rudy is divisive within the Republican Party - lots of folks simply won't, under any circumstances, vote for him in the General Election (including me, because of the gun issue). I don't think that Thompson has that negative, and if he selects a good Veep he'll pick up the more moderate and liberal Republicans and lots of the undecided.