Devastating reviews on Thompson …

… from L-dotters who have been following him. These are just two comments, but the entire thread is unanimous that Thompson is not the one, which I was saying back when the Thompson boomlet started at the beginning of the year.

Reply 5—Posted by: Ribicon, 8/28/2007 12:55:25 AM

#2, Fred’s long been a favorite guest on conservative talk radio here in Nashville, where we have a number of strong conservative hosts (Phil Valentine and Steve Gill to name two).

Despite being in the friendliest of forums (the guys naturally enjoy having access to a “name” regular on the air) and with a very receptive audience listening, Fred cannot (or in my opinion will not) give straight answers to direct questions on tough topics such as what to do with illegal aliens (“they shouldn’t be here, but we need that labor force”), why he belongs to the Council on Foreign Relations (“I belong to a number of organizations I don’t necessarily agree with”) or, most recently, the Security and Prosperity Partnership (“never heard of it before I started this campaign”).

Were he the real deal I’d imagine that with as much exposure as he gets in an area utterly starved for conservative leadership, he’d be rolling in contributions from his home base.

Reply 20—Posted by: dches, 8/28/2007 8:50:11 AM

As soon as he formally gets in (if he ever does) it will be so over for Fred Thompson. The sad effort of people trying to make this guy some kind of legend will get the bare lightbulb treatment and it will not be pretty when it happens. He has been wandering around all summer, mumbling about nothing and I am so tired of it and these polls that show his popularity and not much else. Would I vote for Fred Thompson if he were the Republican candidate? Of course. But the sad fact is that he won’t be. Not in a million years will this guy be the candidate and certainly not President of the United States. It lended a quirky twist to the campaign when this guy was more popular in the polls than some people who were actively campaigning, but now it has lost its luster and he should just quietly go away. The more time that passes, the worse it gets.

LA adds:

I’ve been saying all along that Thompson is a dullard and mediocre. It seemed that everyone had forgotten that there had been a previous “Thompson wave” in the mid ’90s after he entered the Senate, and at that time it soon became painfully clear then how little there was to to the man. But there’s such a need for someone other than the present GOP candidates that these false hopes were put on Thompson, and he fell for it himself.

A friend tells me we should talk up Thompson and other decent alternatives to Giuliani, trying to create positive thoughts about them so that they or someone better than Giuliani will emerge. I sympathize, and I know we desperately need an alternative to Giuliani, but I can’t do what my friend asks, at least regarding Thompson. I have to call things as I see them.

David B. writes:

By coincidence, I talked to my high school math teacher this afternoon, and we discussed Fred Thompson’s campaign. I said that Thompson had blown it by not announcing when he had the momentum several months ago. By delaying, he has fallen well behind Romney as the first-tier alternative to Giuliani.

My ex-teacher knew Thompson and his first wife. I showed her your post asking if Thompson was “thick in the head” when he made Spencer Abraham his campaign manager. This had disheartened conservatives looking for a candidate. She said, “Yes, he’s thick in the head. Fred isn’t smart enough to see that he would make people mad by appointing Abraham.” She insists that Fred Thompson is not very smart, but has had several lucky breaks along the way.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at August 28, 2007 06:14 PM | Send