‘A Lackluster Candidate’

Impressed by the publicity the video generated, Thompson, his wife Jeri and a handful of aides began drawing up a game plan based less on retail campaigning than on Internet strategy: videos, blogs and other forms of online outreach. Aides set a $5 million fund-raising goal for June, built around the idea that Thompson would officially get in the race in July.

In retrospect, that may have been the high-water mark of his campaign.

Thompson gave a series of highly anticipated political speeches that mostly flopped. And donors, unconvinced that Thompson's heart was in the race, sat on their money. He raised just over $3 million—far less than aides had hoped. The candidate remained balky, repeatedly delaying his entry into the race, arguing that he still had plenty of time to consider a run. Newly recruited staffers, eager to set up a calendar of political and fund-raising appearances, ran into resistance from Jeri, who was considered the de facto campaign manager. By August, Thompson had gone through three different campaign managers, and several other key aides had either quit or been fired—all before Thompson even officially entered the race.

He turned to an old friend, former Bob Dole adviser Bill Lacy, to help right the ship. The first course change: Thompson turned away from the early strategy of reaching out to voters online in favor of a more traditional campaign—a move that prompted even more staffers to leave, including Mark Corallo, a former Justice Department aide who was one of Thompson's earliest and closest aides.

"Had Fred gotten in the race in July as originally planned and campaigned his heart out, we'd be reading about others dropping out," Corallo tells NEWSWEEK. He argues the online strategy would have worked. "The proof is in the precampaign rocket to the top," he insists. "But for reasons I still don't understand he changed course, opting for the remnants of the Dole campaign," he said, referring to the former GOP Senate leader's failed 1996 presidential bid. After that, Corallo says, "The campaign lost its energy and soul."

On the stump Thompson struggled. He was trashed for showing up to the Iowa State Fair in Gucci shoes and riding around in a golf cart instead of talking to voters. At his announcement speech in Des Moines, he appeared less than enthusiastic; he never seemed to enjoy town halls or other contacts with voters. Behind the scenes there was more drama. His staff complained about Jeri's influence and griped that the candidate refused to give up control of the little things, like press releases. Thompson, an aide grumbled to NEWSWEEK last fall, wanted to approve every news release issued by the campaign before it was sent. "He won't let go," the aide said. As a result, time-sensitive e-mails were often sent hours, even days, late—a pattern that became a running joke between some Thompson communications aides and the reporters covering him.