Steyn On Thompson

I usually agree with Mark Steyn and often enjoy his wry sense of humor. But in this instance, I wonder if he is putting the cart before the horse. In the grand scheme of things it would seem more important to have great ideas first and then campaign by talking about those ideas. Instead we are treated to a relentless 24 hour news cycle of who said what about whom, who got softball questions, who planted questions, blah, blah, blah ...

I refer you to Newt Gingrich's comment about this early, early campaign season when he pointedly said "This is stupid." After all, are you voting for the candidate with the best ideas or the one that comes off the best in some meaningless YouTube debate?

From NRO:

Fred's sails in the sunset [Mark Steyn]


I wrote about the Republican and Democrat presidential candidates last weekend, and got a lot of mail from Fredheads and others demanding to know why I hadn't mentioned Senator Thompson. The reason is I've no handle on what it is he thinks he's doing. Every time I see a Fred policy plan, he seems to have by far the best ideas, and the necessary zeal for reform, on taxes, Social Security and much else. But every time you see him in these TV debates he has the listless air of a bored grandparent at a dreary school play.

And seeing him live in person isn't that easy to do. I get campaign e-mails about New Hampshire appearances by John McCain and Mrs Clinton and lots of others. Mitt's guys clogged up my in-box with so many urgent releases in the hours after last night's debate that it's seriously impacting my ability to order generic Viagra and e-mail my bank details to Nigerian dictators' wives. But nary a word from Fred.

What's the strategy here? Why does he have great ideas but no campaign?