Word: thompson
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...have been exchanged between practically every Republican candidate at one point or another on the campaign trail, the aversion to Romney seems to go beyond mere policy disagreements. It's also a suspicion of what they see is his hypocrisy and essential phoniness - what one former staffer for Fred Thompson called Romney's "wholesale reinvention...
...sure, the candidates' staffs do seem to have bonded in their dislike of Romney. "It was very common for e-mails to be flying around between the Thompson, McCain and Giuliani campaigns," says the former Thompson staffer, "Saying, 'No matter what happens with us, we all need to make sure it's not him.'" The staffer says that campaigns would share opposition research on Romney and offer each other tips on how best to undermine him: "Like, 'Hey, I saw you hit Mitt on immigration - have you thought about going after him on this issue?" In some cases, the attitude...
Meanwhile, the G.O.P. race is too close to call. Expected to endorse McCain, Fred Thompson has not yet done so, and the latest Rasmussen poll, released Saturday, reveals a tight race between McCain, with a 32% lead in the Republican primary; Mitt Romney, with 29% of Republican support; and Mike Huckabee, with 23%. That is a significant change from polls conducted immediately after Thompson's withdrawal, which gave Huckabee, who has the support of former state Republican Party chairman John Saltsman and of Tennessee Right to Life, up to a 37% lead...
...voters appear evenly split between the three major presidential candidates, so too are the state's Republican leaders. Romney has the support of one former governor, Winfield Dunn, and McCain that of another, Don Sundquist. State legislators and other party leaders have similarly split their loyalties between the two. Thompson, widely expected to endorse McCain at a Nashville rally on Saturday...
With his name still on the ballot, Thompson is likely to win delegates from Tennessee even after his withdrawal. In 1996, Lamar Alexander - former governor and now a U.S. Senator - withdrew as a candidate for President under similar circumstances and, despite his endorsement of Bob Dole, got 11% of the vote. Tennessee is not a winner-take-all state, and under party rules a candidate needs 20% of the vote statewide, or in a congressional district, to win delegates. Thompson may well reach that threshold, leaving delegates committed to him for two ballots at the convention - unless he releases them...