So Long Tommy, We Barely Knew You
After tonight, anyone writing about a presidential candidate named Thompson will not feel forced to use his first name. Tommy Thompson, the former Wisconsin governor and Bush administration official, has withdrawn from the race tonight after a disappointing result in the Ames straw poll:
Former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson dropped out of the race for the 2008 GOP presidential nomination tonight, a day after he finished a disappointing sixth in the Ames Straw Poll in Iowa."I have no regrets about running," Thompson said in a statement released by his campaign. "I felt my record as Governor of Wisconsin and Secretary of Health and Human Services gave me the experience I needed to serve as President, but I respect the decision of the voters."
Thompson is the first casualty of Saturday's Straw Poll. He had pledged to leave the race if he didn't finish first or second in the non-binding vote, which is seen as the first serious test of the 2008 Republican race.
I received the same press release. Thompson thanked his supporters, but acknowledged the obvious -- that his campaign had generated no traction at all, anywhere. The sixth-place finish in a race in which the top three national candidates did not participate in a state bordering on his own made it clear that he had no future as a candidate.
John Podhoretz says that anyone thinking the Ames poll has any significance needs to put the bong down and back away, but that's not entirely true. It doesn't mean much for Mitt Romney, I think, who is an excellent candidate but clearly underwhelmed by picking up an entire two percentage points when Rudy, McCain, and that other Thompson fellow didn't bother to contest the straw poll. It does mean something to the second-tier candidates because of the near-total absence of the first tier, though, and Thompson got the correct message from it. Coming in fifth place among the second tier candidates says, "Get out," Amityville Horror style.
Let's face it ... Tommy Thompson mostly looked painful on the stump. I met several political reporters and pundits in Madison earlier this year, and one told me that Tommy gets stage fright and freezes in appearances like the presidential debates. That doesn't mean Tommy would make a bad leader -- by all accounts, he was a good Governor -- but it does make him unelectable in a presidential general election.
Thompson says he will return to the private sector and his non-profit work as well. I wish him well, and perhaps he can find a role in the next administration. I'm hoping that a couple of more Republicans will hear the same message from their finish at Ames.
Posted by Ed Morrissey on August 12, 2007 8:58 PM | Comments (10) | TrackBacks (5)
Comments (10)
Posted by brooklyn | August 12, 2007 9:55 PM
Former Governor Tommy Thompson is a fine Man, a sound Conservative, who has helped this Nation a great deal.
His efforts in Welfare Reform were simply outstanding.
Never understood his desire to be President, and feel he could easily be elected a fine Senator, crushing Kohl or Feingold.
Anyway, best wishes to him and many thanks for his fine service to this wonderful Country.
Posted by The Practicalist | August 12, 2007 10:13 PM
It's good to see someone got the message, finally. Hopefully, a couple others will realize they left the parking brake on and they're already lapped.
Hope you don't mind that I linked to your post.
Posted by RBMN | August 12, 2007 10:30 PM
Next to go: Duncan Hunter
Not because he deserves to go more than some others, but because he's more realistic than some others.
Posted by Bill Faith | August 13, 2007 2:00 AM
RBMN, unfortunately you may well be right. In my mind Duncan Hunter would be the best President of anyone who's running or considering running, but there's no chance of him actually winning the nomination. Add in the fact that if he drops out he can start devoting more time to helping get his son elected to the House seat he's vacating and quitting now starts to look like the thing he should do. With his son taking care of business in congress he'll be free to be a great SecDef in a Fred Thompson administration. Come to think of it, maybe it might make sense for him to put off officially withdrawing from the race for a little longer so he can withdraw and endorse Thompson all in one speech. I excerpted and linked.
Posted by Rose | August 13, 2007 2:22 AM
Now if half dozen of the bloody RINOS would take a hint - and a hike!!!
Posted by Rose | August 13, 2007 2:28 AM
Posted by: Bill Faith at August 13, 2007 2:00 AM
*****************
I've been hugely successful lately in making sure some Conservatives who have heard all the HYPE about Fred but NONE OF THE FACTS, other than he has a great TV SERIES CHARACTER that does NOT match his own....I've acquainted them with Fred's BUTT BUDDY activities with McCain and Bill Clinton, and they won't be voting for Fred.
We'll be looking for someone who can be trusted with Judicial decisions.
Posted by Rose | August 13, 2007 2:31 AM
Come to think of it, maybe it might make sense for him to put off officially withdrawing from the race for a little longer so he can withdraw and endorse Thompson all in one speech. I excerpted and linked.
Posted by: Bill Faith at August 13, 2007 2:00 AM
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Maybe Duncan ought to consider making a brilliant career move by making a bad joke about rape and wet saddles in the rain, too!
haw haw haw!!!
Posted by CausticConservative | August 13, 2007 7:24 AM
One interesting thing about the straw poll is that the people there now what it's purpose is, even if JPod does not.
People at the straw poll knew, in the absence of the top candidate, that they were voting to provide momentum to one person in the second tier. Huckabee won that one, big time. The big loser was Tancredo. He spent LOTS of money here in Iowa on direct mail and radio advertising and should have expected to do much better. But he's a single issue guy, and that didn't play as well here as he thought it would.
Romney's win was a foregone conclusion, you could tell by the way they were organized, so don't put too much stock in his performance against the rest of the field--the rest of the first tier wasn't even there, and drew few votes, even though one of them will get plenty on caucus night. Many people were voting for their "best of the rest" to give that guy a boost into the fall.
Good luck Gov. Huckabee--I hope your straw poll success helps you out!
Posted by firedup | August 13, 2007 4:17 PM
Interesting developments, but we have a long way to go.
I don't agree with you, Bill Faith, that FT will be the nominee, but I do sadly concur with you and RBMN that Duncan Hunter has no chance now, none at all. And, I think he needed to make a better showing in order to have a chance at the No.2 spot as well. It wouldn't suit him anyway.
He has a lot of the right answers on the issues, but has not held a leadership position. Romney, Giuliani and Huckabee have.
Well, as I said, there is still a ways to go.
Posted by jaeger51 | August 13, 2007 9:09 PM
Media world strikes again. I was living in Wis when Tommy was governor. He did a great job. Welfare reform, held taxes down as much as he could, no real scandals...BUT...whenever he was on TV he sounded like a dope. He would have been a great president, just the sort of figure that everyone claims they want, non divisive but somehow getting the conservative ideals done, that is if his Wis. resume has any meaning...but he always was the opposite of Slick Willie, who knows how to use the media but nothing else. Thompson never had a chance in the media world, and the country is worse off for it.