Posted by
Chikeluba Kenechukwu on Wednesday, September 05, 2007 10:21:56 PM
Former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson is reportedly going to make his long-awaited presidential bid official tonight . Thompson's entry into the GOP nomination race is expected to shake things up quite a bit. For months now former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani has been the frontrunner. Giuliani has high favorability ratings among Republicans, including their conservative base. However, despite being in the good graces of so many of the party faithfuls, there remains a sense of unease about his candidacy. This is largely because of the perception that he's liberal on social issues such as homosexuality and abortion.
That sense of unease about his liberal leanings has worked to diminish his ability to break out as the clear-cut favorite --- a sharp contrast with the situation in the Democratic Party where New York senator Hillary Clinton has steadily and solidly established herself as the frontrunner.
Thompson's official entry into the GOP race could change this dynamic. Thompson has been running neck and neck with Giuliani in some polls or slightly behind him, and if his official entry provides him the sustained traction he's looking for, he could overtake Giuliani in the weeks ahead and establish himself, like Hillary on the Democratic side, as the clear GOP frontrunner. But that's a big if. For it looks as if Thompson has missed his moment, and it appears as if the wind on his back has been softening recently. The spate of news reports about the unprofessional running of his preparatory organization, the persistent reports that his wife is meddling too much in the campaign and the incessant sniping against him by the big liberal media machines such as New York Times have undermined his image.
But if Thompson gets his act together, if he runs a more professional and effective campaign organization, if he can talk his wife into operating more discreetly and less intrusively in the campaign and if he can sell himself as a genuine social conservative, then he might indeed get another powerful blast of wind behind his back and surge ahead of Giuliani and the rest of the pack.