-
BREAKING: Fred Thompson Visits New Hampshire
That shouldn’t be news. But it
is, seeing as it was only his second time there.
Fred Thompson is sticking with his “Southern Strategy,” the Wall Street Journal reports
today. In other words, he’s largely bypassing Iowa
and New Hampshire in favor of early southern states like South Carolina
and Florida instead of :
It's not a conventional presidential strategy to play down Iowa and New
Hampshire. Candidates who have tried skipping them
generally haven't fared well. And Mr. Thompson said during his visit yesterday
that he's planning on spending enough time and money in New Hampshire to at least make a respectable
showing before the vote heads South.
Is he serious? It’s not just that Iowa
and New Hampshire
have been important in the past. They’ve been essential. In the last 28 years,
the only presidential candidate to win his party’s nomination without winning one
of those two states has been Bill Clinton. And, to borrow a put-down, Fred Thompson
is no Bill Clinton. Sure, he’s faring better in South
Carolina and Florida—second
place behind Giuliani. But even Giuliani knows that’s not enough.
Giuliani, who initially planned to focus on the February 5 “Tsunami
Tuesday,” has decided to go all in in the
Granite State. You don’t want to risk going into
Feb. 5 having already lost a handful of states—Iowa,
New Hampshire, and Michigan being the riskiest. He has recently
seen a jump in the polls there—although
Romney still leads—and he plans to start
airing TV ads as well. Without a victory, or at least a respectable showing, in
NH, he would have trouble stopping Romney’s momentum.
Thompson has yet to face this fact. It’s one thing to
recognize your limits in the early states. It’s another to pretend they don’t
exist.
Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum
What did you think of this article?