Chicago Daily Observer

The news that Fred Thompson has pulled out of the race for the Presidency leaves me with a decision to make, You see, I was for Thompson and although he wasn’t perfect, to me he was the true “conservative” in the race.

The one problem I had supporting Fred was, the American people and me like governors or vice presidents as president. He was neither. His dropping out didn’t come as a surprise, he was not doing as well as some of us thought he would; whether he was too deliberate or didn’t have the fire in the belly the campaign never overcame the “Lazy” label given to it right from the start. So now people like me have to go back and choose another candidate.

When this primary field was announced I wasn’t crazy about the people who were in it (that’s why I went for Fred) I had ... Read More...

For Illinois Republicans used to coalescing early around an easy presidential winner, 2008 is turning out to be a different kind of year.

Even before Mitt Romney’s win in Tuesday’s Michigan primary, Illinois’ business and GOP establishment was dividing its money and support among no fewer than four candidates, with a fifth, Mike Huckabee, appealing to social conservatives, if not LaSalle Street lawyers and bankers.

Every day I meet Republicans who believe somehow that things are as good for them today as they were in the hey-day of the Reagan years…so they allow that if McCain is nominated, they would “hold their nose’ and they cannot abide Huckabee and Romney is a issues shifter.

They should understand that 2008 may well be 1974, the Watergate year, and they shouldn’t be so cocky but be glad that anybody of any quality decided to run for president on their party’s line. Americans regard the Democrats as more competent than the Republicans by a margin of 5 to 3, more ethical by 2 to 1. They prefer Democratic policies to Republican ones from healthcare to taxes. The economy may be tailing south. The Republicans have a Rudy Giuliani with too much personal baggage plus prostate cancer. Fred Thompson is the first actor candidate to pout people to sleep ... Read More...

It’s a current cliché to opine that Republicans aren’t happy with their field of presidential candidates, but the Iowa results reinforce the concept, regardless of what happens in New Hampshire. The Republican Party is perilously fractured.

Out went Mitt Romney, one of the important establishment guys—and in came Mike Huckabee, the most outsiderish of the lot. Even if Romney recovers in New Hampshire, a die has been cast that suggests even more problems for the Grand Old Party.

To wit: all the candidates were either badly wounded or exposed serious sores that will be rubbed raw in the general election to come.

Huckabee’s incredible gaffes and displays of ignorance will not garner him the independent or crossover Democratic votes he would need in what is already an unlikely year for Republicans. Yes, he was able to inspire evangelicals and just enough traditional Republicans in Iowa to make the numbers look ... Read More...