Althouse: How boring is he?

February 12, 2008

How boring is he?

The endorsement nobody heard. Poor Fred!

9 comments:

Paddy O said...: Funny, I heard about it.

It was on yahoo news.

I think CNN needs to turn the channel from MTV every once in a while to hear what's going on in the world.; 2/12/08, 9:03 AM
Bob said...: It happened just as the weekend was commencing, as I remember. No one much bothers with news then, and it was just one in a line of endorsements McCain received.; 2/12/08, 9:05 AM
Ann Althouse said...: Typical Fredheadism: He did it on purpose.; 2/12/08, 9:23 AM
Amexpat said...: The fault here is with the McCain campaign for not publicizing this properly.; 2/12/08, 9:36 AM
Kevin Brancato said...: Many political bloggers appear to have learned about Fred's endorsement from Michael Shear at The Trail, a WaPo blog. He posted about this at ~7PM on Friday.

Somebody needs to show these CNN reporters how RSS feeds work.; 2/12/08, 10:08 AM
Paddy O said...: Typical Fredheadism: He did it on purpose.

Fred's endorsements start off slow and no one knows they are there, but by the time of the election Fred's endorsements are leading other endorsements by 20 or more points and clinch the election for the endorsed candidate.; 2/12/08, 10:08 AM
Jonathan said...: He's boring? Good. I'll take boring, thoughtful and substantial over charismatic, handsome and shallow any day.; 2/12/08, 11:26 AM
Michael The Magnificent said...: Just depends on where you get your news, I suppose. I heard about it.
Over 1500 posts on the subject here; 2/12/08, 4:49 PM
Terrie said...: Yes, Yahoo carried the endorsement on Friday and the Washington Post on Saturday. As a Fredhead, I notice such things.

The endorsement was not made before the cameras but released as an official statement since Thompson is reportedly still with his critically ill mother, according to a former campaign volunteer who blogs at Red State. Although it seems like many months, it was only 3 weeks ago Fred left the race to be with his mother in the hospital.

With typical Thompson class, he waited to endorse until the day after Romney dropped out, in part I suspect out of consideration for his supporters and staff who had migrated to Team Mitt, and then it was overshadowed by the more surprising endorsement from John Bolton. Had Fred endorsed McCain sooner or more forcefully, the MSM would have said, "See? We knew he was McCain's stalking horse all along."

More importantly, Fred waited to endorse until after the Tennessee primary, when it would have had maximum impact. That delay would seem to make Thompson an unlikely V.P candidate on the McCain ticket, darn it, although I don't think he was ever running for second place.; 2/13/08, 1:06 AM