Has been removed from his site. I’m thinking that he means he’s packing it in? I know there are some Fredheads who think he should continue but I don’t see him catching on. The narrative of this race is that he got in too late and no amount of campaigning will shake the narrative. It seems that it doesn’t matter if your policy is more brilliant, your principles more firm and that you’re the most conservative of the pack, the narrative is set and there’s nothing you can do about it. Even the fact that you beat the guy who has been in the race since, what, January and who has been to 52 events in SC, doesn’t seem to matter.
And if he just stayed in to move the field right, it still wouldn’t do us any good because he would get less traction as his numbers dropped and it became clear that he was no longer relevant to the race (how much impact did Duncan Hunter have on the race?).
We asked Fred Thompson to enter the race because we thought he had what it took to lead this nation in a more conservative direction after all these years of wasteful spending by our own party and the out of control growth of the federal government’s intrusion into our lives. The party decided it didn’t want him and thinks it can win with someone like McCain. It probably can’t and may find that out soon enough (he got way less than a plurality in every state he’s run in so far — a majority of our people do not want him, does that tell you something? But I will never again underestimate the fickleness of the American voters, so who the heck knows?). We should be thankful Thompson listened and entered such a crowded field. He probably thought his message would resonant and it did with many of us but it did not rise above the din of those who lack the wisdom to understand the principles the president and congress need to adhere to in running this nation. The people chose pragmatism (electability) over principle and the result in the short term may be a defeat in the fall and in the long term further erosion of conservative principles in the Republican party. If this is the current crop of Republicans after 8 years of “compassionate conservatism,” I hate to see what it looks like in another 4 to 8 years under a moderate (Rush certainly has his work cut out for him).
If Fred Thompson decided to continue in the race, I would support him by voting for him in Feb (I’m probably going to still vote for him as a protest vote) because I’m with him until the end. He’s the best man for the job and I can’t bring myself to actually vote for any of the other candidates until I click through the Republican column in November (and yeah, I’m voting for the Republican candidate because whoever it is will be infinitely superior to Hillary).
Maybe in another 4 to 8 years the nation will realize that the framers had it right and that limited federal government beats tasking the government to control our lives, that we really know best how to spend our money and that collectively we in the private sector can solve our problems if we put down the joy stick, keyboard, TV remote, cell phone, iPod, etc. long enough to do something.