Thompson to Drop Presidential Bid
(Fox News) - Fred Thompson plans to drop his presidential bid, FOX News learned Tuesday.
Thompson has begun calling friends, family members and supporters to tell them his campaign is over. He left Nashville Tuesday afternoon for McLean, Va., where he is expected to make an announcement about his campaign as early as Tuesday night.
The former Tennessee senator and actor has not won any early primary or caucus contests and finished third in the South Carolina primary Saturday.
UPDATE: McLean, VA - Senator Fred Thompson today issued the following statement about his campaign for President:
"Today I have withdrawn my candidacy for President of the United States.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."
Thompson has begun calling friends, family members and supporters to tell them his campaign is over. He left Nashville Tuesday afternoon for McLean, Va., where he is expected to make an announcement about his campaign as early as Tuesday night.
The former Tennessee senator and actor has not won any early primary or caucus contests and finished third in the South Carolina primary Saturday.
UPDATE: McLean, VA - Senator Fred Thompson today issued the following statement about his campaign for President:
"Today I have withdrawn my candidacy for President of the United States.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."
posted by BP News Bureau | 2:34 PM
2 Comments:
From National Review Online:
There will be a lot of post-mortems written about the Fred Thompson campaign, an effort that put together a lot of bright, hardworking people.
But for now, a variation of something I said to some other conservative bloggers earlier today: Thompson more or less “debuted” with the 60 second video responding to Michael Moore, one of the most brilliant media messages we've seen in a long while from a conservative.
I think one of the reasons that video struck a chord with so many righty bloggers was because we're constantly seeing, and confronting, insane political rhetoric from the left. It's maybe even a an obsession of righty bloggers, or perhaps we give it more attention than it deserves. But every time Michael Moore, Rosie O'Donnell or Cindy Sheehan spout off, or Charlie Sheen goes off on his 9/11 conspiracy theories… every time Nancy Pelosi goes to meet with a dictator, or a prominent Democrat refuses to acknowledge progress in Iraq, or somebody on either side of the aisle suggests that wanting immigration law enforced is inherently racist, every time somebody puts out some insane conspiracy theory that suggests President Bush is behind terror attacks…
We on the right hear it, we get driven up the wall by it, we try to push back in our own limited way, and we're waiting for somebody with a bigger megaphone than us to push back. Very few high-profile Republicans give a full-throated pushback because A) they don't see it if they're up to their noses in legislative work on Capitol Hill or in the White House all day and B) they probably see responding to some fat propagandist or screeching antiwar widow-turned-celebrity as beneath them. (I realize this is a separate issue, but this helps explain some of Ann Coulter's appeal even when she goes too far - there is nobody on the left she won't take on).
Along comes Fred, who doesn't act as if rebutting Moore's propaganda is beneath him, and he points out that Moore likes to snuggle with censoring, brutal dictators, he suggests Moore is mentally unstable... and we loved it. We've been looking for this combativeness from a conservative for years, and it makes Giuliani's “I don't need Michael Moore to tell me about 9/11” sound like Marquess de Queensbury rules. To quote Frank J, we've been looking for somebody to “punch the hippies.”
Alas, there was little to none of that from Fred once he became a candidate. It became a fairly ordinary campaign, despite having some good folks around him.
From American Thinker:
The autopsy on the Thompson campaign will find that it succumbed to a host of -ion diseases: equivocation; expectation; communication; and perception.
Equivocation: Last summer the "will he or won't he" saga of Fred's potential entry into the presidential race was the political version of the play Waiting for Godot. Speculated deadlines came and went, and still no Fred. The summer storyline was a tease that became a snooze. Anticipation built, subsided, and built again - several times. And with each run-up to his possible entry into the race, the voting public cared just a little less. Equivocation does not play well with voters.
Expectation: Thompson's popularity as a TV and movie personality had us primed for a superstar candidate. We expected a real-life version of his portrayal of the confident and decisive D.A. on Law & Order. Of course, this was unfair of us, but not unexpected. Instead of standing behind a bank of microphones and boldly announcing his candidacy on the front steps of President Andrew Jackson's Hermitage Mansion, he filled a deep-sunk lounge chair on the Jay Leno Show and announced in a style meant to be laid-back. Instead, it played as laid-down.
Communication: After seven years of a President whose strength, even as his supporters will acknowledge, is not public speaking, we expected and hoped to be impressed with Fred's speeches. This, too, was unfair. In most of his acting roles, Fred was only called upon to deliver relatively short monologues. And even then, retakes were always an option. On Law & Order, Fred's character would typically listen to lawyers postulate, ask a question or two, and then render a concise and insightful judgment. In real-life, this is a skill valuable to any occupant of the Oral Office. But he didn't often display it on the campaign trail.
Fred was a disappointment as a platform speaker. He often held his hands in the classic "spiders-doing-pushups-on-a-mirror" position that conveys nervousness. He voiced frequent "hums" while he searched for his next words. And, when he was using a manuscript or notes, he looked down while saying the final (and often most important) words of a sentence while looking for what came next. In short, if he got professional presentation skills coaching he didn't heed it. Instead, he opted for his natural style, and natural didn't work.
Perception: Voters perceived Fred as a lethargic candidate. Sure, the media helped build that perception, but so did his behaviors. In the debates he engaged only intermittently. When he did, he was great! But he more often appeared disinterested. Perhaps it reflected his distain for the sound-bite addicted media. The reason is not important, only the impact. And the impact was that voters perceived him as detached from the fray. Not aloof or arrogant, just not engaged. As he failed to garner support, his unaltered laissez faire style deflected voters, who wanted to support him, toward other candidates.
Senator Fred Thompson was like a gifted sprinter who didn't seem to like running.
So he's left a race he never really entered.
The GOP will now pause for brief melancholic moment as the man who might have been an historic candidate goes home to Tennessee.
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