Des Moines Register, IA
06-30-07
Thompson pinning his hopes on Aug. 11
By JASON CLAYWORTH
REGISTER STAFF WRITER
Aug. 11 - the Ames straw poll - is a make or break day for Tommy Thompson.
Thompson, a former Republican Wisconsin governor, vowed Friday night that the
mid-August day will be the driving force that leads him to become the next U.S.
president.
"I expect to come in first on the straw poll in Ames," Thompson said during a
taping Friday night of Iowa Public Television's "Iowa Press." ". . . and I think if I
do that, I'm going to shake up a lot of people and especially the Romney people
who are the only ones left in it."
He acknowledged after the taping that "if I don't win, I'm out," but declined to say
whether he would drop out of the race at that time.
Thompson is a relatively unknown candidate. He said Friday that he will change
that with "plain old-fashioned retail politics," not based upon high-dollar
donations. Next month, for example, he plans to campaign in around 100 Iowa
towns.
The straw poll at Iowa State University, in past campaigns, registered as one of
the most significant early campaign events. The 2008 race, however, is on a
super fast track, partly because there's not an incumbent candidate. There's also
been a lot of concentration of caucuses and primary elections in the early part of
the nominating schedule that GOP strategists say has given candidates other
chances to prove themselves.
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Arizona Sen. John McCain, who
rank among the leaders in national and Iowa polls, have decided to skip the
Republican Party fundraising event. Other candidates, including Massachusetts
Gov. Mitt Romney, do plan to participate