Fred Thompson isn't participating in this weekend's Iowa Republican Party straw poll in Ames.
But The Washington Times' Ralph Z. Hallow has learned that the former Tennessee senator is trying to elbow his way into an appearance at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines this week -- to the consternation of Iowa Republicans who want their famous straw poll to be center stage.
Mr. Thompson draws attention because he is still firting with a presidential bid but keeps putting off taking the jump. He has formed a testing-the-waters committee to gauge running for president, but apparently has put off making a final announcement until September.
Meanwhile, Arizona Sen. John McCain's nomination campaign suffered yet another setback when the deadline passed a week ago for making any changes in California's Feb. 5 presidential primary rules.
Mr. McCain's supporters had visions of changing it from a closed primary in which only registered Republicans can vote to one in which voters who "decline to state party affiliation" --independents -- also can participate.
Independents are the ones who accounted for his New Hampshire and Michigan primary upsets of George W. Bush in the 2000 nomination contests.
But it's unclear how much the move would have helped him anyway: Mr. McCain, an Iraq war supporter, has little of the appeal he once had with independents, particularly when former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani is also on the primary ballot.
-- Stephen Dinan, national political reporter, The Washington Times
Comments (1)
Thank God for small favors! Senator McCain is a very learned and knowledgeable man, but he is unqualified to be president in a representative republic; he is too easily angered when the people expect to be represented and their opinion is different from his own. The difference between President Bush "name calling" the faithful members of his own party and his supporter, as opposed to Senator McCain is that President Bush is not running for office. It is quite an insult for Mr. McCain to insinuate that we are stupid enough to promote him, as if we don't have other and better choices. It's not the war, it's illegal immigration and his constituents were on the wrong side of the names being called!
Posted by Dale | August 8, 2007 3:05 AM