Money, money, money

Of late a few people "in the know" had talked up former Tennessee Senator and Law and Order TV star, Fred Thompson, as a real contender for the GOP presidential nomination, going so far as to say he could actually beat Clinton or Obama.

So I raised this with a few people including a friend of mine who is based in New York and works for a polling company - he put it bluntly - "he hasnt formally announced, and he doesnt have the cash. At the moment he has nothing." My initial thought was that, well once he announces, the cash will come - its not like there is a shortage of cash in the Republicans.

Last night Thompson's "exploratory committee" (its what you set up to lay the foundations for tilt at the nomination) announced what they had raised over their first two months - USD3 million. Now by our standards that would be enormous... but when Clinton has raised USD46m and Obama is in the 40s as well, Thompson is soooo far behind that it isnt funny. This is at a time when previous GOP favourite, Senator McCain's team is falling apart having only raised USD12m!

And while time is on Thompson's side - he's going to be pushing it up hill from here and will need to quickly build momentum.

I guess this leaves one huge problem for the Republicans - who else? Giuliani is too liberal (pro-choice, anti gun, pro gay) and allegedly has soo much crap in his closet he is going to have to do extensions. Mitt Romney is a hypocrite (pro choice while running for Governor in the liberal leaning state of Massachusetts/pro life now he is trying to woo the red necks) also (with due respect to certain readers) he is a mormon which doesnt go down well with many given its minority status (he also wears the underwear). John McCain is bleeding senior staff, who seem to be jumping ship, and he is strugling to raise money.

So it may be that Thompson comes through as the best of a bad bunch, but with the huge funding headstart that the Dems have, the GOP are going to have to really pick it up and unite behind a candidate to stay in the game. As an indication of how huge the Dem war chests are - USD20m was considered a "large" campaign in the 90s and early 2000s - as I said, both Clinton and Obama are plus 40m.