Thompson's Thompson Envy

With the Iowa straw poll hours away, Tommy Thompson's frustration with his home state is showing.

Des Moines, Iowa -- He's got a stubborn cough, he's lured a scant 16 people to a cold buffet lunch at a private club, and he's found another Thompson's name splashed across page one of the local paper.

Fred's.

"Ex-Sen. Thompson to mingle in Iowa," The Des Moines Register blared in a banner story Thursday, announcing the unannounced candidate's visit next week.

It's not that newspaper that gets Tommy Thompson's goat.

He said that "negative stories" the Journal Sentinel has carried about his presidential quest have "dried up the money" in Wisconsin.

"I expected to come out of Wisconsin with the media behind me," he said, "raising the dollars so I could get through Iowa."

How did the press in Iowa treat him? Well, he said.

How did the national press treat him? "The national media looks only at dollars. . . bank accounts," said Thompson, who never cracked the million-dollar mark in fund raising.

...He won't say how much he had hoped to raise in Wisconsin, but he allowed that it "didn't come anywhere near my target."

As governor of Wisconsin, he said, he could raise $100,000 a night; now, he's lucky to collect $5,000 a night.

I get the sense that Tommy feels betrayed by his fellow Wisconsinites, as if he believes they owe him their support in his presidential bid.

He's angry with the Wisconsin media for their negative reporting and the way they've mocked his presidential aspirations.

I don't think it's legitimate for Tommy to blame the lib Wisconsin media for drying up the money.

Conservatives certainly aren't swayed by the idiocy put out by the lib media.

Perhaps Tommy would have received some positive press in Wisconsin if he had spent time in his home state convincing Wisconsinites that he should be president.

Instead, I think he assumed they would support him. He took Wisconsin for granted.

...This time, absences mark the straw poll race. Hopefuls such as former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Arizona Sen. John McCain are sitting the contest out - though they'll be on the ballot.

Tommy Thompson said he remained "cautiously optimistic" that he'll place first or second. Thompson repeatedly has pledged to reassess his candidacy if he doesn't finish in the top two spots. In truth, political analysts said, he needs simply to do a lot better than expected.

Who knows what the straw poll results will be?

Mitt Romney is expected to run away with it.

Given Romney's standing behind Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson in national polls, he needs a boost like a big win in Iowa.

If a Thompson places first or second in the straw poll, I think it will be Fred.