The Big Fizzle

Fred Thompson's fundraising is unimpressive. Not disastrous, mind you, but unimpressive.

That's pretty consistent, actually, with the entire Thompson campaign so far. Not disastrous, just unimpressive. The problem, of course, is that Thompson partisans pumped their guy as the second coming of Ronald Reagan -- and that's a standard that the former senator has been unable to meet, either in the charm or the policy departments.

Thompson has done little to dispel the misgivings that even loyal Republicans have about him -- that he's not totally committed to winning the presidency, that he's light on issue and detail knowledge, and even that he's perhaps not entirely healthy (he needs his doctors to come out and give a no-holds-barred press conference . . . otherwise, how can voters be assured that he isn't going to experience a relapse immediately after winning the nomination?).

Maybe Thompson can turn it around, but first perceptions are hard to break -- and in both the "first primary" (fundraising) and his personal appearances, the reviews are far from glowing.

Maybe a stratospherically amazing performance at the first debate he participates in would do the trick. Maybe. But it will take something dazzling for him to regain his lost momentum.