Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson’s presidential campaign fund raising effort seems to be off to an excellent start. Despite being limited basically to the month of September following his official announcement, Thompson has raised about $8 million, according to a knowledgeable campaign source.
That is approximately $200,000 a day and has thus far generated more than 70,000 individual donors, according to the source who also claims the total exceeds those compiled by the other GOP contenders during their first quarter of appeals.
Once they are officially released, the final first quarter Thompson figures will no doubt be sliced and diced by rivals and the talking heads in the media and thus may not look quite so impressive. Be that as it may, Thompson still seems to be generating some momentum despite continuing claims that he lacks sufficient fire in the belly for the long haul.
Being a veteran of the 1980 Reagan campaign, which also saw a spate of stories to the same effect – though generated then by Reagan’s age – I don’t put much stock in the current “Lazy Thompson” reporting and analysis pieces.
This may be a much bigger potential problem for Thompson and the rest of the contenders for the GOP presidential homination. This third party rumbling is serious and is NOT simply a reflection of concern about a potential Rudy nomination.
It is instead a reflection of the deep disgust across much of the “Republican base” with the idiot’s treatment they have received for too many years from Washington Republicans who talk the talk of reform, but refuse to crawl it, much less walk it.
Nor is such dissatisfaction limited to the political activists associated with the Christian Right. The GOP’s Washington leadership has all but lost its credibility with many of its most dedicated troops outside the Beltway. These folks have been lied to too often in recent years to be willing to summon the kind of sustained energy and commitment that powered the Reagan and Gingrich revolutions in the 1980s and 1990s.
The latest third party rumbling may not be the spark that, finally, ignites the prairie fire but it’s coming sooner or later. Either the GOP is going to be reformed from top to bottom and quickly or it will be discarded as a false alternative to Big Government liberalism.
You heard it here first.
UPDATE: You will hear it elsewhere, too!
Matt Lewis interviewed Richard Viguerie, one of the energizing movers behind the Third Party effort. As I reported above yesterday, Viguerie tells Matt that this effort is not merely about stopping Rudy Guliani, but rather about a fundamental change on the political scene: “If we do this, we’re going to do a very well thought-out, well-planned effort … this is not something that will be effective just for the ’08 presidential election.”
Keep a close eye on this because it could well become the most significant political story of 2008.
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