I just got back from Vacation a few days ago. Spent some time in California visiting my family and Southern Utah visiting my wifes family. I quickly realized that my family is in fact better. Just Kidding. But it did give my mind the much needed break from hounding the Google pages and looking for anything about 2008. No matter how hard the first couple days were.

When I came back it was hard to get myself back to blogging, because the freedom from the computer, bought with a price, was a special prize. But I am back, and ready to shove Romney down your throats.

Now on with my post...

Since I left things seem to have taken a dramatic turn for Fred. Is he done? Not even close. Is he wounded? Yes. But it's no real surprise. There are two reasons in my book why the Fred Thompson's campaign seems to be suffering right now, and frankly it will continue:

1. His supporters have made Fred the God of all things conservative2008, and he gladly accepts it.

2. His lack of an official campaign gives some credence to the laziness charge, but more importantly it has turned him into a paper tiger.

I will address the first, first.

1. It is not unusual to go to Free Republican or Redstate.com and hear the constant streams of Run! Fred! Run! The constant theme from these supporters is that Fred is invincible. "He will slay the Dems with a glance of his eye." The ironic "His southern charm is a breath of fresh of air no one else can compete with." and the most precious one of all "Fred will suck all he air out of the room." It's really unfortunate, because face it, no one can live up to these expectations. When the Editor of Redstate tells everyone Fred will make all the other candidates look small and swallow up all the money, it doesn't leave much room for error in his first month Fundraising. When we are told every one will jump ship to Fred! and instead he has people leaving him, it's even worse.

Fred hasn't helped himself. Fred likes the compliments. How do I know? Just listen to his interview on Redstate.com where he thanks Chief Editor Erick for really covering the Fred story right. In other words, he likes the shilling, he likes the flattery, his ego is happy. If he wants to say that in a private note, or conversation fine, but to do it publicly said a lot in my mind.

Fred's multi-use metaphor of gnats swatting at a horse is really a killer: He is positioning himself as a the dark horse, or the white horse or something equestrian- candidate and everyone else as bugs. That is setting up a situation where everything now expected out of him is huge and the others can't compete. He will squash us when he wakes up.

2. Fred's lack of campaigning has it's positives and his negatives. He doesn't have to debate, or earn a lot of money, or spend a lot of money but then again he cannot offer substantive specifics since he is not a candidate. And how is he going to raise money to compete with Hillary or Obama in 3 months? Every choice comes with a sacrifice, and Fred has made his sacrifice. He is not a candidate, but everyone knows he his. Therefore, the expectation of him is that of a candidate when it comes to policy, probing his past, etc. but he hides behind a lack of candidacy as an excuse for every deficit, yet trumps it for every victory. Do you think 3 million was his goal for June? It wasn't.

It's very disingenuous for his supporters to say he's getting knocked before he is out of the gate. He is out of the gate. He has been since April. The guy has put himself all over the net, he is running a campaign and he has no other job. Is busy dealing with Boss Hog and the Duke boys? No, he's running a campaign that does/does not exist.

Equally so, Fred supporters have a paradoxical claim when they tell people he is not lazy, but the reason for small results is because oh yeah, he's not doing anything. That's like saying I am not fat, but hey guess what I can't ride the rides at Disneyland because I am so spectacular in waist size.

Now, I know I am a Romney supporter, and Fred is bottom of my list, (well not bottom- a step above Brownback.) But believe me, when I say it, if Fred should win I will support him just a strongly as I have Romney. But he has got some serious problems/dichotomies in his campaign - many of which are self imposed. I am not writing him off, but part of Fred's credibility as a candidate has certainly been diminished, and only time will tell if he can rebuild it.