Thompson’s fundraising suffered from the outset. Since his campaign’s late start last fall, he has raised only $12.8 million, placing him a distant fourth behind McCain ($32.1 million), Giuliani ($47.2 million), and Romney ($62.8 million).

Of course, fundraising doesn’t tell the whole story. Giuliani’s $47 million hasn’t bought him a strong primary showing yet (to be fair, he has focused primarily [no pun intended] on Florida), and Huckabee’s tiny $2.3 million earned him at least a short moment in the sun. So let’s take a look at Thompson’s performance in the primaries thus far:

• Iowa: His 13% support wasn’t necessarily a disaster. After all, he tied with John McCain.
• Wyoming: With 25% of caucusgoers’ support, he came in a distant second behind Mitt Romney’s 67% finish. But since only Romney and Thompson contested that state, it was a sound defeat for Thompson.
• New Hampshire: Thompson’s last-place finish, with just 1% of the vote, was another tough loss for a candidate whose fiscally conservative message should have resonated with New Hampshire Republicans.
• Michigan: More bad news for Thompson here, another state in which his ‘Reagan conservatism’ should have played well. He finished fifth among the Republicans, with only 4% of the vote. Only Giuliani, who did not seriously contest the state, did worse.
• Nevada: Again, only Giuliani, who was absent from the state, scored lower than Thompson’s 8%.
• South Carolina: Thompson’s third place finish here was good news, but only comparatively. He garnered 16% of the vote, about half of what second-place finisher Mike Huckabee received.

With consistently poor election results and little money coming in to fight the big states of Florida (January 29), California (February 5), and New York (February 5), the time had simply come for Fred Thompson to call it quits.

…And if Giuliani’s relentless pursuit of Florida doesn’t earn him a stunning victory next week, he may very well be next.

Post from: EveryJoe

No surprise – Fred Thompson is out

But, as everyone of CNN’s political analysts managed to say during last night’s coverage, you really can’t buy an election.

What factors let Mike Huckabee win without running money through the campaign machine?

A big one seems to be simple word-of-mouth. Public relations specialists love WOM campaigns: basically customers (or voters) sell themselves the product (or candidate). Huckabee got his message out to Iowa’s evangelical community, and BOOM! they spread it amongst themselves. It seems like other candidates put a big emphasis on getting voters out to where they could hear the candidate talk, like at big rallies.

Even though I already got to stick my foot in my mouth last night by basing my expectations on budget alone, I’m going to make a similar prediction: Huckabee just doesn’t have the budget to get the nomination. His PR tactics will get him plenty of voters in the Bible Belt, but he’ll still have to buy ads, stage rallies, etc. on the coasts. A candidate may not be able to buy an election, but it still costs money to just be in the race.

Post from: EveryJoe

Can’t Buy An Election