While the other Republican candidates maintain busy schedules, criss-crossing the country at a frenetic pace, as if they were running for President . . . Fred Thompson canceled his only scheduled appearance since the debate last Tuesday. They've noticed in New Hampshire, reports Philip Elliott for the Associated Press:

Besides participating in his first presidential debate in Michigan last Tuesday, Thompson was missing from the campaign trail. The former Tennessee senator and star of NBC's "Law & Order" was scheduled to be in New Hampshire this weekend, but canceled.

New Hampshire voters noticed.

"He's a late entry. That will probably hurt him," said Geri Gormley, of Bow, who visited with McCain but remains uncommitted. "We're grass roots. Candidates come up and pick our brains, one on one. We had (Barack) Obama's staff come to our door today. That's good strategy."

Thompson was supposed to visit a fundraising breakfast for Manchester Mayor Frank Guinta on Friday. But on Thursday afternoon, Guinta's campaign e-mailed guests to let them know it wasn't happening. The note cited "scheduling conflicts for the senator."

Read the whole story at the link above. It's hard to claim a "scheduling conflict" when you have no events scheduled at all. Thompson's campaign floated such a strategy before formally entering the race, that he might do one or two events per day, plus perhaps a fundraiser. In contrast, at this time in 1999, frontrunner George Bush, despite being the prohibitive favorite with a record-breaking bankroll, was attending an average of five events and two to three fundraisers every day of the week except Sunday. Thompson had ONE event scheduled in six days, and couldn't make that one.

The case against Thompson as a candidate in those long months of uncertainty before he finally joined the race was he is lazy, and not willing to do the things one must do to be a viable candidate. The naysayers may not have been right, but Thompson has done nothing to prove them wrong.