Tommy Thompson’s Last Legs
Earlier tonight, Greg Borowski over at All Politics Watch posted an interesting entry about polls showing Tommy Thompson continuing to trail his opponents in the race for the Republican presidential nomination. Saturday’s Iowa Republican Party straw poll looms over Thompson’s campaign like a black cloud, because Governor Thompson has made it abundantly clear the straw poll is a “make or break” event for his campaign. Thompson has said he needs to finish first or second in order to be able to continue his campaign, and the polling I’ve seen shows Thompson finishing well out of the top three.
Tommy Thompson’s based his whole campaign around Iowa, and while he’s got a low-key, down to earth speaking style that could really resonate with Iowans, he suffers from being the less charismatic than Mike Huckabee, who has a really similar style of speaking. Those the same conservatives who would probably support Thompson for his down to earth speaking style and personality are instead flocking to Mike Huckabee, who has that “aw shucks” thing down pat, with the main difference between him and Tommy Thompson being that Huckabee doesn’t seem like as much of a boob as Tommy Thompson. I think it’s safe to say Tommy Thompson won’t finish in the top four in the Iowa straw poll, and I expect to see him drop from the race shortly after the results are announced.