The American Spectator

Both Romney and Rudy camps have put out information on their candidates' schedules for next week. Both will be in Michigan for Mackinac this weekend and then Romney heads to California. Rudy's team says he will start in Maine and end in California and be on the trail each day. Is there a campaign missing? Washington Wire from the Wall Street Journal says Thompson will "eschew most public events for another week in favor of private fundraisers." No official word yet from the Thompson camp. For Thompson, it is not unreasonable to try to get his Third Quarter number up. (Unclear is why he can't do both fundraising and public appearances as his two main rivals do.) He certainly needs to do much better than McCain and Huckabee, but appearances and press buzz aside, the race is going to get very expensive very quickly. Whatever comparisons or explanations campaigns provide for underperforming won't pay the cost of ads in Florida or a get out the vote operation in Michigan. October 15 when everyone needs to file their FEC disclosure forms will say a lot about who will be competitive and who won't.