Blogs for Fred Founder Jumps to Mike Huckabee

Blogger friend and founder of Blogs for Fred Joe Carter has shifted his support to Mike Huckabee. He explains why in this post:

In June I bought into the hype surrounding the former Tennessee Senator. Having surveyed the field of GOP candidates and found that Rudy Giuliani (shudder) was at the leading contender, I was willing to support almost any conservative that could knock the Mayor from his perch atop the polls. Thompson appeared to be poised to do just that so I started Blogs for Fred in anticipation of the political equivalent of an IPO--an official announcement of his candidacy.

The site was launched the first week of July but the candidate was nowhere to be found. That was the first sign that something was wrong. Nevertheless, I remained optimistic, believing that Thompson needed the extra time since he was preparing to run a "different kind of campaign."

Eventually, he did get in the race. And the campaign is definitely "different." In fact, it's almost like Thompson isn't campaigning at all. Defending his campaign work schedule on Monday he said, "I'm going to do it the way I want to do it." That's precisely the problem, doing it "Fred's Way" means not doing much at all.

I've been frustrated with his campaign even before it launched and have grown increasingly tired of having to justify to myself why Thompson deserves my vote. I won't waste time elaborating all the reasons for my decision, but they are many. Still, I hung on until this past weekend. After seeing his sloppy, lackluster, uninspiring speech at the Washington Briefing I realized I couldn’t do it anymore.

Like Joe, I can also find a great deal of agreement with Huckabee's platform, but I have a problem throwing my support to someone who I don't think can win in November. I'm not interested in "fighting the good fight" - I'm interesting in fighting a winning fight.

Andy Jackson of SmartChristian is taking a bit of a different approach to the primary:

I have recently decided to take the “cluster approach.” That is, I know the cluster of candidates that I am supporting (McCain, Thompson, Huckabee), and the cluster that I am not (Guiliani, Romney, and the others). This provides me more flexibility to allow the race too fully unfold, and I will make my final decision when primary vote time actually arrives. In other words, the cluster approach allows for a little more grace for me and the candidates.

Although I still have my "I Blog for Fred" coffee mug (which the campaign sent me for free), I can understand Joe Carter's disappointment with what passes for Fred's campaign. At the current pace there's no way he'll overtake Rudy Giuliani, mainly because he's not giving anybody a reason to believe he'd be a better candidate. Rudy seems to be a natural campaigner, very comfortable on the stump and even has done well in front of somewhat hostile audiences such as the Values Voters bunch. Like him or not, he's probably going to get the nomination, and if he does, I'll support him.

Anything is better than Hillary.