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Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Rich Galen :: Townhall.com Columnist
Thompson Campaign Ends
by Rich Galen
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Who won Tuesday's presidential debate?


At about 2 PM Eastern yesterday, Fred Thompson made it official when he had the campaign press shop issue the following statement:

"Today I have withdrawn my candidacy for President of the United States. I hope that my country and my party have benefited from our having made this effort. Jeri and I will always be grateful for the encouragement and friendship of so many wonderful people."

Like the campaign itself, the statement was brief, unambiguous, and dignified.

At the time, I was having lunch Christine Byun. the ABC producer who had followed the Thompson campaign from the beginning. Our Blackberries began to wheeze and buzz at the same time with the news of the statement and we swung back into full work mode immediately: She calling her desk for instructions, me answering calls from reporters demanding to know why I hadn't told them in advance.

The answer was: I didn't know in advance. Fred Thompson is a private man who makes decisions on his own schedule. Following Saturday's third place finish in South Carolina, I was beset by calls about what he would do and when he would do it.

I had the same answer for all: You have a deadline to report his decision. He has no deadline on which to make it.

The next question I got was: Who will he endorse and when will he do it?

Same answer.

Thompson never got more than 16 percent of the votes in any of the primaries or caucuses, so his endorsement would not seem to be crucial to any of the remaining candidates. Nevertheless, two of them were gracious in their comments.

According to Associated Press reporters Dave Espo and Liz Sidoti, John McCain said:

"Fred Thompson ran an honorable campaign. He and I will remain close friends, and I wish him and his family the best."

Mitt Romney responded to the news of Thompson's exit:

"Throughout this campaign, Fred Thompson brought a laudable focus to the challenges confronting our country and the solutions necessary to meet them. "He stood for strong conservative ideas and believed strongly in the need to keep our conservative coalition together." Continued...
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About The Author

Rich Galen has been a press secretary to Dan Quayle and Newt Gingrich. He currently works as a journalist and writes at Mullings.com

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(38 comments so Far)
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Reply # 1
Date: Jan 25, 2008 - 3:33 AM EST
Subject: Fred should have waited..
His numbers were gradually rising. The only real reason he suffered in South Carolina was because of the independents. If after Super Tuesday results still didn't look favorable, then it would have made sense. It was very depressing to see him go.

I will now throw all my support to Romney and encourage others to do the same. He has presidential written all over him and was my second choice all along. Perhaps Fred will be considered for the VP side.
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Reply # 2
Date: Jan 25, 2008 - 2:56 AM EST
Fred and Ron
Having expended virtually no effort to win our votes, I can't imagine why Fred put his hat in the ring to begin with. Too tired. Too sick. No energy.

For those of us who are true conservatives, however, there has never been any other candidate than the conservative of conservatives, Ron Paul. His is the only philosophy of government that is set firmly and deeply in the principles of our US Constitution. There is no greater degree of conservatism than that, and it can be plausibly argued that there is no other valid definition of conservative than that. Dr. Ron Paul wants to "conserve" the governmental principles loved and enshrined in the Constitution by our Founding Fathers.

Ron is also the only proponent of honest money. The gold standard is the only proven way to keep thieving politicians from robbing us blind. In case you hadn’t noticed, they are now doing that very thing and have been since we went off the gold standard. Honest money means they cannot steal from us surreptitiously by using the Federal Reserve to counterfeit money to pay for their drunken, vote-buying spending orgies, thus devaluing funds already in circulation (our money) and causing inflation that robs us with every purchase we make.

Ron also wants to rid us of the jack-booted oppression of the IRS. That is not a pipe dream; it is a real possibility. But only RP can or would do it.

Should the convention fall into gridlock, Ron could well be the likeable man with what it takes to get the Republican show on the road. In any case, I’ll be voting for Ron Paul or write in my Bolonese dog, Pinky, who would be vastly superior to any other candidate in either party.
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