So What Have I Missed...

...while I've been too ill to blog?

Well, I guess I missed the whole Fred Thompson thing. Not really missed it, I read about it, I just have not yet commented on it; and yes I am about to do so here.

Big Deal! Whoopee. It is about time; actually about time would have probably been this November or later, but you know what I mean with them all campaigning early. No I am none to impressed by his announcement to run, or his little website speech. First of all, why demean a campaign for the presidency of the United States of America by announcing your campaign on the Jay Leno show? I think that was disgusting, a move that an uber liberal would take to impress those who are easily impressed by the glitz, a Clintonian move of the first order, when there is not much substance. Hopefully substance will follow. Hmm, what about the website speech? Well there was a bit more substance there, but still not more than self promotion in front of a camera. I would have been much more impressed had Mr. Thompson had the balls to jump into the campaign by jumping into the other night's Republican debate. He certainly has shown his ability to hem and haw; I hope he has more than that.

Now I am not a totally naive kind of a guy. I understand there could be, and likely are many clever reasons he has waited until now. The main one is probably something to do with campaign finances, both his and other candidates. My bet is he will now try to outspend those republican candidates who are not doing as well as the front runners in the campaign like McCain, Tancredo, Huckabee, Hunter, Brownback. In doing so, he may gain the impetus needed to gain in the polls, and if he gains in the polls he may just do it enough to bring him right up there with Giuliani and Romney. Still though he is going to need substance instead of just all the fluff before serious voters would vote for him; I would hope so anyway.

Right now, Romney and Giuliani have that substance, and I think of all the candidates Giuliani - so far has a lot of it as he has proven himself a capable leader under the most trying of times. Others have it too. I believe that Tancredo has the most substance issue wise, but Hunter and Huckabee have a good deal of it. The thing these last guys do not have that the front runners have is popularity or fluff. Fred Thompson has that, the popularity or so it seems, so at least that is going in his favor (yes you still need the fluff along with substance). Now one thing that really helps out on substance and popularity is your stance on the issues. Here is where candidates like Romney and Giuliani are truly lacking when it comes to that stance relative to the party under which they are running for office. As Independents they would be fabulous candidates. Either one of them shines as middle of the road candidates with platforms that are of an Independent nature, ergo not being either strongly Republican or Democrat. I am hopeful that a candidate with popularity, who is more Republican in nature regarding the issues, will come to be the front runner in the Republican convention. So far I believe Tom Tancredo is the man who has got the issues right, but he certainly is not among the most popular probably only because of lack of recognition, he does not have the fluff. Not many knew who he was before the campaign. Fred Thompson, on the other hand has lots of fluff, he was very popular before the campaign thanks to the television series he was in. Now if he can prove himself on the real issues, he may yet prove to be the candidate of choice for Republicans. I still keep hoping that Tancredo does it, but if not, then Thompson might well be acceptable to me, but he has a long way to go to start proving himself as a worthy candidate capable of being a leader, that is, as far as I see it. Now that he is officially in the race, I hope he starts racing.

All the best,
Glenn B

PS: some may note that I never mentioned Ron Paul above. While he maybe running on the Republican ticket, he is not a Republican by any stretch of the imagination. He is, as far as I can tell, an extremist, a crazy one at that, but those are my personal opinions of him.