I am increasingly convinced that Fred Thompson is the best candidate. However, I am increasingly afraid that he has no chance, and that by the time I get to vote he will no longer be a candidate.
Why did the Republican establishment (not in the Rockefeller sense, but in the machinery sense) jump on the Romney campaign so early? It is unfortunate and mind-boggling that the Republican primary would come down to Huckabee, McCain, and Romney. As I reflect on 2000, though, it was not so unpredictable or inexplicable. Romney now is playing the part of Bush back then. One wonders if Americans can have serious political discourse in a presidential campaign anymore (see the link above). In 1858 people turned out in droves to witness the Lincoln-Douglas debates, and they couldn't even vote for either of them because state legislatures elected U.S. Senators (damned 17th amendment). Now a couple hundred people turn out to see presidential candidates and wave signs and cheer at platitudes and vulgar one-liners.
