How about blaming your crappy candidate for once, sport?

A bit harsh, AP. Fred certainly made his share of mistakes (they all do, to one degree or another)and, regretfully, those mistakes involved form and process rather than substance and policy.

When it comes to the former, Fred’s record has been…well…crappy. He underestimated the demands of the campaign trail and grossly overestimated both the fairness of the MSM and the political awareness of the average American voter. On the other hand, Fred Dalton Thompson has done a stellar job of presenting his bona fides for the presidency of this still-great nation, with detailed policies and a rock-solid conservative platform that has appeal even for the independent voters. If anyone can unite the Republican party and peel closet conservatives away from the Democrats, it’s Thompson.

Having said that, I am nevertheless confident that events will break in his favor – history sometimes has a funny way of working out like that. If I may offer a strained historical analogy: in December of 1776 things did not look at all good for the Continental Army and were we blogging back then (with quills and parchment, no doubt) we would have engaged in a similar discussion. You would have called the cause of General Washington a hopeless one. He was in retreat, his troops were starved and freezing and they were more or less surrounded by the overwhelming might of the British Army.

Let’s be honest, AP: were we blogging back then you would have derided me as a “George-Head” and dismissed my belief that Washington would succeed as little more than desperate wishful thinking. In response I would have said then what I am saying now: something extraordinary is going to happen – something that will confound pundits and historians for years to come. I am not sure why I know this. I just know it. Perhaps it is irrational, AP. Perhaps I believe what I believe because the alternative is simply too horrible to imagine – just as I would have said the alternative to victory in our war for independence would be too awful to contemplate.

Nevertheless, Washington managed to defy the conventional wisdom and secure a hugely significant (if strategically minor) victory in the Battle of Trenton on December 26, 1776. He had only just BEGUN to fight. And he would triumph at Yorktown 5 years later. And we would become a nation, a nationed destined to be the greatest the world has ever known.

Thompson will prevail. I stand by my prediction.

NemoParticularis on January 8, 2008 at 8:42 PM

Fred doesn’t have to do anything in particular if nobody can win a decisive majority. At the moment there isn’t a clear path for anyone to do it.

You have seen the glimmer of light that others dismiss as a mirage. Sometimes the best strategy is to sit it out and let your adversaries bloody each other before you enter the fray.

Well done, Grasshopper.

NemoParticularis on January 8, 2008 at 9:56 PM