The post-Thompson era

It happened with Sam Brownback, and now Fred Thompson … the game to gather the supporters of a withdrawn candidate. I mention those two, and not Duncan Hunter or Tom Tancredo, because the race wasn’t the same.

There are some who wanted to see Fred Thompson as the perfect all-around conservative. I’m not sure where they will go, since they condemned every other candidate for one failing or another.

One thing of note … there are those who loved Thompson but are highly critical of John McCain. (The Limbaughs, for example.) It’s worth noting that Fred Thompson had chaired John McCain’s 2000 Presidential run. For all the talk of the night-and-day contrast between the two,  there they are.

Thompson has support from social conservatives whose natural new home is the Huckabee camp, defense conservatives inclined toward McCain, fiscal conservatives who might go to Romney, and Federalists who might well head toward Ron Paul.

I suspect that the big loser is Rudy Giuliani … there will be less division now in the social conservative vote.

How this plays out from here, I don’t know. We shall see.