We all know he wasn't really a contender, but he made it official today.

http://youdecide08.foxnews.com/2008/01/22/thompson-to-drop-presidential-bid/

For many reasons, I am just fine with him dropping out. I may be overstating it a bit, but I honestly feel mildly insulted about how he ran his campaign. He made me a little angry at times for being such a drag on the Republican ticket. And I'm not even a Republican. It really was quite lazy, uninspiring and without any merit that I could find. He only ran because a few people told him to run, it seemed. His heart was never in it. He was uninspiring to a degree that I haven't seen. No passion. No drive. Nothing even that smacked of a calling. He never once elevated someissue that others hadn't already spoken and offered solutions for. When I watched him in the debates and on the campaign trail, I was often surprised that anyone regarded him as someone who would offer anything but an opinion or folksy-foghorn leghorn rhetoric. And for that and many other reasons, he would have made a bad President, I believe. We'll never know for sure. But again, I am fine with not knowing for sure on this one.

The guy seemed fine on paper, as his voting record is apparently that of a conservative.

His problem was the charisma thing. He isn't Bill Clinton, so he won't wag his finger at you and get theatrical.

In this fast-paced media age, as contrasted with the young and peppy Mr. Edwards, a slow talking Southerner has an automatic handicap...even though Mr. Thompson is a Hollywood actor!

Herb

I think it was all for publicity. More people know about him now. I had certainly never heard of the guy until he stepped into the arena.

He'll be remembered as the actor who didn't become president.

I think last Summer, when Mccain looked weak, and Giuliani looked strong but not like a "real conservative" in the view of many, there was an opening for someone like Thompson. He was supposed to contrast those on the left with a wise, confident demeanor. But with Mccain surging in popularity, Romney doing surprisingly well, and Huckabee coming from nowhere, he lost his place and identity.

I think it's a stretch to say Romney's doing "surprisingly well." He was supposed to win New Hampshire and campaigned/spent his heart out in Iowa and still got whipped. He's only won Michigan (his father's home state) and Nevada, where no one else really campaigned. He's going to have to win some competitive primaries to show he's for real - but I think the guy's a paper tiger.

Anyway, let's see how he does in the next few weeks. If McCain wins Florida I'd say McCain will get the nomination (but I've been predicting McCain for weeks now, anyway).

If Romney by some miracle is nominated, the Democrats will tear him apart. I can just imagine this campaign commericial:

"Hi. I'm John Kerry. You may remember that in 2004 I was accused of changing my position a time or two. Well, I have to tell you, this guy Mitt Romney makes my head spin. Even *I* can't tell what this guy believes today or whether he'll change his mind again tomorrow. If you think I was a Flip-Flopper, you haven't seen anything before Romney..."

Andrew

Herb. All of that was true to some degree. But none of that factored in for me. It wasn't that he wasn't media-savvy. It was that he wouldn't be a good President, to me or fo rme.

I respect your opinion, Chickenjuggler.

But for me, Gerald Ford was a pretty good president....And I think Mr. Thompson would have been a tad more conservative, but in that same mould.

Herb

Fred Thompson was a bust, just like I said he would be.

I think Thompson had a lot of people telling him last summer that he was the Golden Boy who could save the Republican Party, because none of the other candidates was exciting the conservative base. And I've heard that his wife pushed him hard to run as well. I do think he was genuinely interested in being president, though.

Andrew

Dang! She'd probably already ordered that brass pole for the Lincoln bedroom.