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Thompson did appear in NH today. The initial reports sound like the local press corps was a bit huffy about his long absence. Never good to have a Union Leader story with this: "Thompson, 65, a former Republican U.S. senator from Tennessee, has been criticized for not being in New Hampshire often enough, squandering early excitement about his campaign." Nevertheless he did return fire to Romney (who earlier in the day had referred to him as a "Freddie-come-lately on the immigration issue") by pointing out that Romney had previously been more enthusiastic about comprehensive immigration reform saying: " If you want to talk about a Johnny-come-lately, I believe the governor is going to have to address that little point." The Thompson camp has yet to put out any photos or the "look at all the good coverage we got" emails yet but perhaps we'll hear more later. Just as some have echoed our doubts as to whether it is wise for McCain to remain in the race in Iowa (and suffer a blow before the more critical NH race), it may have been a wiser course for Thompson to have avoided NH and a potential distant finish (better not lose to Ron Paul) than to damage his prospects in South Carolina. But at some point if you are going to be in the top tier, I suppose, you have to play everywhere.

topics:
NATO, Immigration