It’s Official: Fred Drops Out
Via Holly, Fred Thompson has indeed dropped out. “I hope that my country and my party have benefited from our having made this effort,” he said. “Jeri and I will always be grateful for the encouragement and friendship of so many wonderful people.”
His was an awkward run: many people, myself included, thought that he wasn’t truly in it to win. He was running, yes, but one got the impression that he ran because people asked him to, not because he had the ambition to become president.
Now, I know that many people consider that to be a good thing, but I disagree. Ambition isn’t a bad thing. It’s not a bad thing at all. In fact, you need ambition if you want to be successful. Not only that, you also need the ambition – in politics – to push through reforms you consider good for the country.
Again, you need ambition.
And in politics, a whole lot of it.
That doesn’t mean, of course, that the impression so many people had was correct. Perhaps he did want it. Perhaps he just came across as not wanting it. No one can look inside his heart; only Thompson knows for sure.
What we do know is that Thompson was probably the most conservative (for American standards) candidate in the race. His supporters were, and still are, real American conservatives. And they’re quite some of them. Not enough to make Thompson win, but if they turn to another candidate now they will be the decisive factor.
So where will they go?
As I see it, the most likely candidate for them is Mitt Romney. If true, we’ll see a Romney surge in the coming days.
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I see so everyone who didn’t support Thompson is a fake American conservative. What a load of crap.
As for Flip Flopping Rom, I just don’t see Thompson supporters flocking in mass to him. I think they will splinter into various candidate’s camps. Or none at all.
But if they all do, yes that could help Slick Mitt.
I agree with Bob about the Thompson voters splitting between other candidates, particularly if it’s true that he won’t endorse anyone. If his supporters wanted Romney, they would have backed him to begin with; instead, people practically begged Thompson to run because they weren’t happy with the initial slate of candidates.
Christine: read some blogs by thompson supporters or blogs where they comment. They’re not going to flock I think. It’s clear that they despise McCain and Huckabee, and aren’t too fond, mostly, of Giuliani either. Holding nose, supporting Romney seems to be the mantra.
Hugh Hewitt: "This cannot be good news for McCain who needed the conservative vote to stay fractured."
Rick Moran: "Thompson was only pulling 6% in Florida but I think most of that will end up in Romney’s column. I wonder if Thompson’s national security conservatives who refuse to vote for McCain will end up in Rudy’s corner? That’s got to be a fairly small number of voters, however, and Rudy must be hopng that Huckabee discovers some cross over appeal to traditional conservatives in Florida."
However, Power Line: "the Miami Herald reports that Huckabee is "skimping" on his Florida campaign. His present plan, according to this report, is to campaign in that state for a while on a shoestring budget and to pull out of Florida altogether if things don’t look promising."
"fake American conservative"?
No, just one who is more willing to play politics than hold on to principles. I mean, if that’s waht brings you the victory you want, then hokay-fine. Me, not so much.
As I said at my place, I think the "fire in the belly" thing is a bunch of nonsense. More than one President has done well without being as ambitious as we seem to want. George Washington managed a good term. Lincoln did okay, I thought, too. Coolidge wasn’t exactly a ball of fire. Y’know, it’s possible to make a very good President without wanting it more than anything else in the world. I should think that conservatives would admire someone like that.
Good riddance. I never could figure out why he ran in the first place, he never seemed particularly interested in the job. Or maybe he thought it was just another role?
Michael: Hugh Hewitt could (and would) spin anything as an indicator of McCain’s demise. He quite transparently attempts to write of every new event in that way, in the hopes that it will be self fulfilling prophecy.
And Rick Moran had something else right above the part you quoted; talking about Allah’s comments on the subject, the main idea was that no one really likes Romney but the alternative (that conservatives have to accept a realignment that’s in order because of the effects of the Bush presidency) is too unthinkable for them. This may be so- but it still stands, that no one really likes Romney nor believes in him. He inspires no one even though most of his platform is grudgingly acceptable to all coalitions (a bit like Kerry in ‘04, I think- and since Kerry couldn’t win an election that was highly winnable for him, the results of the GOP picking someone like that in ‘08 seem pretty obvious to me.)
If you want a decent sample size poll of where the fredheads will go, check out the similar FDT thread over at LGF. Based on 975 posted comments, there is a statistically valid conclusion that they’re going off in many different directions.
That’s interesting, casualobserver, and it’s what I would have expected. Is there any sense of whether it will make a difference if he does decide to endorse?
Thompson was the furthest away from me on those Presidental Match questionnaires I did, so good riddance.
After several years of reading lizardhead comments, cs, I can tell you that they rarely post long, elaborate comments…..so no, they didn’t really say.
What I do sense is a growing, pervasive attitude that all the R-players have defects and nobody warrants enthusiasm (side note, I do envy the Obama-girl for having that this year).
CO: Yeah, I just headed over there and I see what you mean. Pithy, aren’t they?
The only actual conservative, american standard or not, since you are either conservative or some weak offshoot in the race is Ron Paul. I think he the closest to Burke in philosophy out of the GOP canidates, and the rest are sad excuses for conservative.