Don't give up on Fred, it's not over yet

Hang in there, Fred

Some people are discouraged that Fred didn't do better in South Carolina. I say with this many people still in the race, it's too early to give up. One has to take into account all the independents who were allowed to vote too. The results weren't entirely a reflection of Republican opinion. Then the bad weather also kept some people away, some polling places ran out of ballots... it wasn't an ideal situation.

"At the Last Minute, Thompson Shines"

“The Founding Fathers had it right from the very beginning,” Thompson said. “The wisdom of the ages, the fact that our basic rights come from God and not from government, the notion that a government big enough and powerful enough to give you anything is big enough and powerful enough to take anything away from you…respect for the rule of law…the institution of the market economy…[the belief] that if a person earned a dollar, that dollar belonged in the person’s pocket…” Those should be our guiding principles, he said.

“We’re having a little discussion in the party nowadays about what that means for the future,” Thompson told the crowd. “Some people think we need to get away from the Reagan coalition, because it doesn’t exist any more.” The audience erupted into boos. “Some people seem to think that we need to be a little bit more what they called progressive…Well, I reject that concept with every fiber of my being.”

[...]

Thompson, for his part, answered with Southern-fried aplomb. "Did you ever see the movie 'Walking Tall'?" he said, referring to the 1973 action flick about Buford Pusser, a Tennessee sheriff who single-handedly rid his town of crime and corruption. "You know the ax handle that old Buford used to carry? I got me one of them. I knew Buford Pusser. His daughter gave me one of those ax handles and I still got it. I thought about it many, many times. There's a lot you can do with that."

Yes, and there's a lot that NEEDS to be done like that. Read the rest for the bits in between.

Pat's also got a good summary of the South Carolina exit polls.