The Dream Shall Never Die
Like Tinkerbell, like Lazarus, like E.T., the Fred Thompson campaign is being wrenched back from the darkness by the prayers and applause of the devout. David Jeffers, author of Understanding Evangelicals: A Guide to Jesusland, thinks Fred can win a brokered convention if we just… believe.
"Many evangelicals have contacted me and have either or are planning to vote for Fred Thompson. I have cast my ballot for Fred Thompson… I've been told by many that I'm dreaming if I believe the GOP convention will be brokered, but do they know that for sure? Can we evangelicals say that God cannot work in that way? Please understand that I am not speculating nor predicting; I would not presume to speak for God. I'm merely reminding the flock that we still serve a mighty God…So I'm going to walk in the light I have now and know that God will provide more light later. That light is showing me to go with what I had planned all along."
Bill Quick, who took me to the woodshed for doubting the Big Voice, is leaving the responsibility with us mortals: we must stage a write-in campaign.
I'm pretty sure that if this notion starts to get traction, Fred Thompson will publicly oppose it. Don't worry, and don't listen to him.
(Didn't Republicans already agree to do that?)
This isn't really about Fred Thompson. It's about the future of the Republican party. Fred ran because he hoped to influence that, but he failed. Now it's time for the rest of us to take a crack at it. So remember: Just write in Fred Thompson's name when it comes time to cast your vote. (There's nothing stopping you from writing it in for other offices, either).
The sad fact of the Fred campaign is that he influenced the rest of the field… not at all. He hardly creased a corner of the GOP platform. Perpetual third man John Edwards, via his early health care plan and his bullying the rest of the field to boycott Fox News and support the FISA filibuster, has had infinitely more impact on the presidential race.
The best argument I've read for Fred came, too late, in Andrew Ferguson's brilliant wrap-up of the campaign. Ferguson argues, correctly, that people didn't use to demand their presidential candidates jump through flaming hoops and give pony rides to Iowans to demonstrate their bona fides. Two centuries ago candidates were seen as craven and unseemly if they campaigned at all. It's a good case, but Thompson and his allies (like Zach Wamp) didn't make it. They argued that he was tall and had a deep voice and reminded everybody of Reagan, and they died on that hill.