Trouble In Law And Orderland: James Dobson Passes On Fred Thompson

Former actor Fred Thompson’s campaign for the GOP Presidential nomination has either just been dealt a setback — or given a boost in its credibility, depending on a person’s political bias.

James Dobson, head of the Focus on the Family Ministry, and one of The Deciders of who gets chunks of GOP votes, has said no thanks to Fred Thompson’s candidacy:

In a private e-mail obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press, Dobson accuses the former Tennessee senator and actor of being weak on the campaign trail and wrong on issues dear to social conservatives.

“Isn’t Thompson the candidate who is opposed to a Constitutional amendment to protect marriage, believes there should be 50 different definitions of marriage in the U.S., favors McCain-Feingold, won’t talk at all about what he believes, and can’t speak his way out of a paper bag on the campaign trail?” Dobson wrote.

“He has no passion, no zeal, and no apparent ‘want to.’ And yet he is apparently the Great Hope that burns in the breasts of many conservative Christians? Well, not for me, my brothers. Not for me!”

Of course, Dobson doesn’t control every vote for every person who listens to him. But he does have considerable influence.

On the other hand some voters will now feel they CAN support Thompson (particularly some independent voters) if Dobson has turned up his out-of-joint nose and walked away.

But a bigger issue is at play now with Thompson’s candidacy: before he threw his hat into the ring in his looooooooooong build-up to announcing, pundits repeatedly wrote that he had waited so long that when he did jump in, he would have to run a campaign that truly wowed Republican voters, impressed the news media so that there was an air of inevitability about him, and he could afford few huge mis-steps. He also had to eradicate the old view of him as a politico who really didn’t like to work at politics and campaigning.

In fact, Thompson’s campaign has raised eyebrows. Conservative columnist Bob Novak is not calling it a smash. And former ABC political director Mark Halperin is already predicting Thompson is toast.

Thompson is going to need some positive news coming out of his campaign — and some future stellar debate performances that will entail more than rehearsed lines or talking points but some on-the-spot discussion that impresses GOPers and (yes) the press.

So far he seems to be emerging as one more candidate and the anti-Giuliani — but one whose campaign performance so far is unlikely to be leaving Democrats (particularly the Clinton political machine) shaking in their boots.