It’s official now: Fred Thompson ends his campaign
- Posted by Beth on January 22nd, 2008 filed in 2008 election, Candidates, Fred Thompson, Politics
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“Today I have withdrawn my candidacy for President of the United States.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.“
Well, I guess we knew it was coming.
Thank YOU, Senator Thompson, for pulling the remaining candidates back toward conservatism with your presence in the campaign.
Beth says:
:sob:
Stix says:
It is a sad day. It is a shame that the supposedley conservative party couldnt get behind Fred.
Now what do us Fred Heads do?? It looks like many of us are going to go in different direactions. I am for Rudy now. And looks like you are for McCain. Both are better than anything the Defeatocrats have.
Slobokan says:
Now what?
Seriously. Now what are we supposed to do? There are no more conservatives in the race.
PaulW says:
Please define “conservative”. If you’re looking for a religious conservative, well gosh there’s Huckabee right there. If you’re looking for a paleoconservative there’s McCain. If you want a neocon there’s Rudy. If you want a plastic pal who’s fun to be with… well that’s Marvin the Paranoid Android (hope ppl here are HhGg fans). Otherwise there’s Mitt. If you’re looking for a fiscal conservative… I’m sorry, but the GOP did *nothing* to balance the budget and control spending from 2001-2006, all they did was massive tax cuts that look pretty on paper but don’t do anything without combined cuts in spending, so nobody fits the description of Fiscal Conservative anymore.
I do feel bad about Thompson dropping out. But he had been more aggressive in campaigning, more focused on getting a message out there, if he had played to the issues that matter (fixing that budget, controlling spending, bringing efficiency and accountability back to gov’t and business, keeping warm the engines of industry), then I think he’d have had a better shot.
Vinnie says:
Sob.
Janette says:
Oh, is that what he did? Silly me, I thought that Fred had distracted the media and the voters from paying attention to candidates who were actually interested in the job (like Duncan Hunter). Not to mention the siphoning of funds from campaigns that were, well, actually campaigning.
Yeah, I’m bitter. B I T T E R
Beth says:
Me too, Janette. I’m just trying to be nice. ;-)
PaulW, don’t make me hafta kick your ass for calling McCain a paleoconservative. Pat Buchanan is a paleoconservative. George Will is. John Derbyshire is. I detest them.
;-P
(But at least you called him a conservative, which is better than what some other conservatives have called him.)
I’d call McCain a fiscal conservative, though, as he’s a big-time anti-pork balanced-budget guy. And of course, a national security hawk. You know, all the stuff conservatives have traditionally been for (plus being pro-life). So I guess that’s probably why you say he’s a paleo-con…? By that definition, I probably am too. (I’m definitely not new or “neo” to conservatism!)
Beth says:
Well, I know this much: Fred Dalton Thompson isn’t gonna sit home on election day. Fred wouldn’t vote for a liberal, either. I’d say if you don’t know who to support now, let someone like Fred convince you to vote for his guy, I guess.
Just so you know, though…it will probably be John McCain. He was his 2000 Presidential campaign co-chairman, after all. I’d consider that a pretty good endorsement, even if it was eight years ago (although that’s not my reason for switching to McCain). Fred never really came out swinging against McCain or Romney, though, so you never know. Maybe he’ll wait until a nominee is chosen to endorse someone.
Anonymous,Somewhere,MI says:
Fred backed a bad strategy, so did Rudy. Both of them are paying the price, which is the political graveyard. The sad thing is Romney should have gone with them since his strategy (a much better one at that) failed. The only reason he’s still around is that he doesn’t have to fund-raise, just dump more of his personal fortune on the race. Too bad Fred dropped. He wasn’t my first choice, but I could still have voted for him. Romney is a different story.
Dr.Dipwad says:
What To Do Now?
I don’t know, it’s tough.
I was so SOLD on Fred Thompson. Every word that came from his mouth or pen was so exactly right.
The only person saying the right things who remains in the race is Mitt Romney. But I fear he only says them; I doubt a Thompsonian set of core principles is present behind all the varnish.
But at least Romney says the right things.
Then there’s McCain. After the fourth…or was it the fifth?…time he backstabbed the GOP or loudly defended non-conservative policies or perspectives, I got so disgusted with him that I said to myself, “I will never ever vote for this clown.” I still nurse a very large grudge against him for his persistent undercutting of his own party.
But I have to admit, if it’s him versus Hillary, I’ll actually get out to vote for him. Holding my nose the whole way there, to be sure, but very few things are more distasteful than the thought of the Permanent Juvenile and the Democrat Answer To Richard Nixon back occupying the White House again.
McCain versus Obama? Hard to say. I’d rather the first black (okay, yeah, I know: Obama’s more of a dark tan) man elected President be a Republican. Heck, I’d rather it be a black woman named Condi. But there remains societal advantage in (a.) proving to the disaffected urban black population that you really can grow up to be anything, and (b.) forcing the Democrats to finally either deal seriously with terrorism, or face the results of not doing so.
McCain can’t select strict-constructionist justices for SCOTUS; they’d throw out his precious Incumbent Protection Act. His philosophy seems persistently to be “to hell with a consistent governing philosophy, just find the moderates in each party, split the difference, and label whatever policy that results the Wisdom Of The Ages Which Shall Not Be Questioned.” He seems…how to say it? He is one of the few non-Democrats who has that lefty knack of self-righteously proclaiming his obvious correctness of opinion in a fashion which suggests that any dissenter is not only wrong, but either benightedly ignorant or knowingly evil.
It is the attitude of the (self) Annointed, the body-language of Those Who Know What’s Best For Us who think they must Rise And Save Us From Ourselves. That attitude irritates me enough coming from the left, where it is perennial; it makes my skin crawl when the person using it calls himself a Republican.
Rudy has authenticity. He’s an authentic libertine in his personal life, unfortunately. But I can get over his serial polygamy (and I think the cross dressing was in jest rather than an indication of psychological illness). I’m convinced he’d fight the good fight in foreign policy. But would his domestic policy be a tragedy?
And then there’s Ron Paul. Domestically, he’s only slightly more libertarian than I. Foreign policy? Ye gods. And his choice of friends back in the late 80’s and early 90’s leaves much to be desired.
Oh, I almost forgot Father Coughlin; uh, sorry, I mean, Mike Huckabee. I love that he supports the FairTax, but as he’ll never in eight years manage to get it passed, I’m disregarding that. And I find there’s not much else to like: A lot of lefty nanny-state sentiment that he’s trying hard to bury now that he realizes that we realize how unconservative it all is. And what is it with him and John Edwards railing against corporations en masse? (One can scarcely distinguish between their rhetoric.) Did a middle manager steal his lunch money when he was a kid?
Fred is gone, and I’m left politically homeless.
Nice Deb says:
I’m a reluctant Romulan, now.
Oh well, at least the guy’s squeaky clean, has a nice family, seems conservative enough….if only he didn’t come off like such a stiff.
Beth says:
No bimbo eruptions with a President Romney. ;-)