Thompson's campaign in Iowa received a harsh assessment by the New York Times yesterday. It's well deserved. I was starting to be skeptical of Thompson in early July, after his poll numbers started moving up a few weeks earlier. But it was the Midwestern Republican Leadership Conference in late August really crystallized it for me. Thompson was so shaky, and Huckabee so charming, that I understood why Huckabee had placed second in the Iowa straw poll.
This shakiness has continued. Thompson can't connect with people. If he had come out of the box and declared his candidacy in July or August and sparkled in debate, he would have raised a ton of money and been the front-runner. But running for president is hard! You can't do it in a laid-back fashion. You have to know your stuff. You have to show people that you want the job and that you can handle it.
This is Huckabee's problem--is he up for the job? He hasn't convinced the donors that he is. Here's the report on third quarter fundraising from the WSJ:
[Ron Paul's] $5 million is half the approximate $10 million that Messrs. Giuliani and Romney each are expected to report, although neither candidate has officially released numbers. Former Sen. Fred Thompson is expected to report around $8 million in third-quarter fund raising.
[John McCain] has struggled financially and is expected to report numbers on par with Dr. Paul. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee also leads Dr. Paul in the polls, but raised an estimated $1 million in the third quarter.
House GOP loses key fundraising advantage
1 week ago
1 comment:
9.3 million and none of it his own money…..hhhhmm Fred is definitely in trouble if all he could raise was that paltry sum and having been officially in the race for over a month he has no chance! Yeah right Fred is like a train and every one else are sports cars, he isn’t flashy and he isn’t fast, but try and beat him to the crossing and see what happens!
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