Big Trouble for Fred Thompson

It appears Fred Thompson is having huge trouble raising money, so much so that he is unable to run ads in Iowa in the runup to the Iowa Caucuses! This is amazing for a candidate thought to be one of the "top-tier" just a few short weeks ago. Here is a post from over at PoliPundit.com detailing the trouble:

Just when you thought Fred Thompson was turning things around with 9 days to Iowa, the campaign took a few steps back by announcing they are broke:, not broke, just not enough money to air any TV in the last 9 days before the first caucus in Iowa:

When I got a generic fundraising e-mail “from” Fred Thompson campaign manager Bill Lacy last night offering “a quick update” on the effort to get “on the air statewide in Iowa,” I didn’t take it literally.

I should have.

Fred has gone dark in Iowa.

With not enough cash to buy ads, he’s doing all the free media he can on his bus tour. But it’s a remarkable indicator of just how topsy-turvy the GOP race has been that the man once viewed as the party’s savior cannot even afford to buy TV time in the final days before Iowa.

This couldn’t have happened at a worst time for the campaign that continues to experience growing pains and show signs that it’s not quite ready for primetime.

We can argue all we want about whether the “fire in the belly” is there or not, or whether missing the Delaware and DC ballot are meaningless or signs of a bigger problem. We can talk about his low-key Southern demeanor and how that will come off to “big City folk", but you can’t sweep under the rug the fact that a major top-tier candidate can’t raise money and can’t run TV ads the last week before the first and all important Iowa Caucus.