Quitting The Race

Former District Attorney Arthur Branch has seen the writing on the wall and has dropped out of the campaign. When asked for comment, Fred Thompson stirred from his La-Z-Boy and said, "Huh? I did what?"

Ditto + 3%

16% of Goppers in South Carolina voted for Arthur Branch. A higher baseline of idiots than turned out in Iowa.

Iowa The Day After - Goppers

Huckabee and Romney were a pretty easy guess yesterday. And I thought McCain was a gimmee pick as well. Who the hell are these people that voted for Thompson? The man has said nothing. The man all but slept through the debates. Yet 13% of the people still voted for him. It proves that there are a group of people who aren't paying attention any more than what they hear on the Tonight Show and 3 minute blurbs on the nightly news.

Rudy, who ignored Iowa* was only able to beat Duncan Hunter. Ron Paul doubled Rudy's vote total. Rudy is toast.

According to NPR this morning, 112,000 people voted in the GOP caucuses. That is up from 87,000 in 2000, the last contested GOP primary.


*Or pretended to ignore Iowa. Another item on NPR this morning said that Rudy spent a fair amount of money and had a lot of operatives on the ground.

Low Expectations

I watched Fred Thompson's recorded interview on "This Week" yesterday. For the most part there was nothing memorable other than he seemingly had no idea what to say in response to any question. At times he seemed to contradict himself multiple times in the same sentence but since he was saying so little its hard to say. The last question, though, was telling. Stephanopolous asked him what he would want his biggest accomplishment to be after 8 years of a Fred Thompson administration. Big Fred hawed for a moment before responding that after 8 years he would like to say that the U.S. had not been attacked and that we were not at war.








Think about that for a moment.

This was the proverbial, "Why are you running?" question and Fred's best answer is "I want to keep the U.S. from being attacked." This is the absolute lowest bar of achievement one could set. He has no other goals? Here's a couple of ideas for you Fred:

• Economic growth.
• Increased home ownership.
• Lower taxes.
• Higher taxes.
• Winning the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
• Increasing/decreasing our military strength.
• Alieviating poverty.
• Reducing carbon emmissions.
• Saving social security
• Expanding medical insurance
• Solving illegal immigration issues

Pick any three. Oh hell, Fred, don't hurt yourself. Choose one! I don't even expect specifics. Just have a vague goal to do something about something.

So why is it you're running? That's right. You don't have a reason. You were just courted by some people that didn't like the 2008 crop of goppers and they thought NYC District Attorney Arthur Branch would make a good president.

Fred Thompson, Slow Runner

The guys is fine in The hunt For Red October and Law & Order. I'm fairly sure I wouldn't want him in the White House. But honest answers to some questions is refreshing.

"I was single for a long time, and, yep, I chased a lot of women," Thompson replied, chuckling, according to an attendee who took notes. "And a lot of women chased me. And those that chased me tended to catch me."