Fred Thompson may drop out (For any latecomers, it's baloney)

The Politico ^ | January 02, 2008 | Jonathan Martin and Mike Allen

[camerakid400]

DES MOINES, Iowa – Several Republican officials close to Fred Thompson’s presidential campaign said they expect the candidate will drop out of the race within days if he finishes poorly in Thursday’s Iowa caucus.

[corlorde]

The “Fred crystal ball”.

[toomanygrasshoppers]

Fox and Friends “unscientific” poll this morning has Fred running 2nd. Interesting.

[toomanygrasshoppers]

Fred’s now in 1st in their “Fox and Friends” poll this morning. FredHeads are up early today.

[stocksthatgoup]

What a slime!

[LowCountryJoe]

They’re really close on many different issues. McCain is wrong on environmentalism and on trying to get money out of politics through legislation that runs counter to the first amendment. McCain is also not the champion of federalism that Thompson is. While these items are huge, other than those items, the two are really lock-step on everything else...including immigration (recent pandering by Thompson aside).

[LinnKeyes2000]

This idea is inconsistent with itself.

Fred's not in this for personal ambition, as all the media loves to quote and some mis-quote. If he thought Mclame was good enough to endorse, he'd have never started this in the first place.

Fred is not dropping out and he's not endorsing Mclame.

[P-Marlowe]

What a shame. You have no personality. Not even one.

Wow... One of your personalities has a nasty disposition.

[ejonesie22]

Heh heh, you nailed it...

[truthteller223]

Fred debunked it himself last night... This is a dirty trick from a rival campaign that wants to stop Fred’s surge in the polls.

Here’s what Fred said last night:

“Thompson also denied that he or anyone on his staff said he would drop out of the race before New Hampshire if he finished lower than fourth place tonight.

‘Absolutely totally made up, out of whole cloth,” he said of such reports.’

[ejonesie22]

Yeah well you know how the Thompson campaign made that fake web site about Mitt.

Oh wait, it was the other way around.

We state facts and say nothing about Mitt’s wife, they call Jeri a whore...

BTW I see that Mittchick Shenns26 is gone now...

[prairiebreeze]

Wow, first CBS and now Politico are judged as credible sources.

I remember the days when real FReepers shown the light on the deception of rags such as these.

Actually, I think those days are still present on FR and it’s just Mitt-mutts covered with the stench of fear that are clinging to these leftist rags in desperate hope.

LOLOL!

[ejonesie22]

That is the key to the whole equation right there bud. Several key factions are not happy.

The “Grassroots” drive that brought in Fred Thompson was actually begun a little deeper in the party.

Two main factions that hold several GOP cards are very uncomfortable with the rest of the slate. There also maybe others.

[CharlesWayneCT]

Please try to read more carefully next time:

That presupposes Fred would drop out, which I’m not predicting,

I think that is a pretty clear statement that is the opposite of what you claimed I said. There's no reason to be putting words into other poster's mouths, especially when they said the opposite of what you claim.

[counterpunch]

If you really believe that, then withhold your negative comments.

That would be basic common sense, would it not?

No, that wouldn't make sense.
Not pointing out the campaign's problems won't make them go away. Fred is already tanking. I'm just identifying why. If I didn't, he'd still be tanking.
Nothing I can say in here is going to impact Fred's support out there.
But what it can do is contribute to the conversation of "what went wrong" after the smoke clears from Iowa. Perhaps if enough people come to understand where Fred has been going wrong, his campaign might make a course correction before it's too late. Foreign policy, national security, credentials, experience, resume. Ditch the "clear conservative" nonsense. People already know Fred's conservative. They're just not sold on him being qualified.
Make that case forcefully and Fred wins. That's his winning strategy.
 

[magritte]

What else was he going to say when asked about it?

"Oh, that report is absolutely correct, I'm out of money and if I do poorly, I'm dropping out and endorsing my buddy John McCain."

C'mon, Thompson is much more savvy than that. He HAS to deny it whether it is true or not. We'll see how it plays out...if he comes in third, he'll hang tough til SC, but realistically, if he does fourth or worse, why would he want to keep at it? He doesn't want to get thrashed badly...that would not be good for conservatives in general...

[Conservativegreatgrandma]

That’s just what I was thinking.

[longtermmemmory]

This is about search engine manipulation.

Thus the pathetically few caucus goers who do a google search will see only thise pathetic headline. No Barf alert, no left wing wet dream alert.

Most people do not know the institutional bias of politico.

[kabar]

but realistically, if he does fourth or worse, why would he want to keep at it?

Because Iowa is not where his strength lies. Why would he drop out of the race because he finishes fourth in Iowa? Giuliani isn't dropping out. McCain didn't put any effort in Iowa until he received the endorsement of the Des Moines Register.

In 1992 Bill Clinton came in fourth in Iowa with 3% of the vote. In 1988 Dukakis came in third and Bush 41 came in third behind Dole and Pat Roberttson. In 1980 Reagan came in second behind Bush 41.

[brothers4thID]

Bookmarking this for tomorrow morning.

[Madame Dufarge]

It does have that stench about it.