Posted on 01/19/2008 12:42:00 PM PST by pissant
COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Fred Thompson, trailing Mike Huckabee and John McCain in the polls, will continue his presidential bid even if he finishes third in today's South Carolina primary, his campaign said.
Thompson, who had talked of South Carolina as his last stand, appeared this afternoon at a gun show in a suburban Shriners' auditorium -- a natural fit given his strong support of the Second Amendment right to own firearms. Several patrons wore "Fred '08" stickers on their clothing; as Thompson swept into the packed hall he was greeted by a modest round of applause.
"Go, Fred!" one woman shouted.
"How we doin'?" Thompson asked, greeting passers-by as he walked along the narrow aisles displaying hunting scopes and high-tech shotguns. He shook hands, paused for autographs, and posed for photos snapped on cell phones.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
“It’s early yet, snarky.”
Yes it is. However given the gap between the top 2 and where Fred is now the very best he seems to be able to do would 2nd, and more likely 3rd, and nowhere near 1st.
Sorry but Fred is a bust. He’s polling single digits in FL
McCain may be one of the bigger rivals in SC, but so is Huckabee. However, McCain won’t be as much of a threat in the rest of the South. Fred and Huckabee are going after the same voters, and they are not McCain voters, so why should Fred spend the time on McCain? He’s made it clear on which issues he differs from McCain.
I am Fred supporter, but I might have to vote for Romney to stop McCain and Huckabee.
My support is still for Fred Thompson, and if I have to I’ll go down with the ship....
Fred up to third with 43% reporting...don’t count him out yet!!!!
Third may not be what any of us wanted, but Fred knows the truth as well as the rest of us. He has to continue fighting.
Look at it this way, if Republicans are so out of touch that McCain is winning states... then Fred really needs to give it everything he’s got now. It’s for the country’s sake. We have to stay the course here and keep fighting for Fred. Being depressed over the results today will not solve any of the problems we are seeing.
Anyone could still take this nomination. Fred still has a few more potential openeings as we go. We all know the media is going to pump Giuliani up hard as Florida comes up. They are going to want some more “comeback kid” excitement to throw our way. This might dilute the vote down again amongst the candidates and open it all up again.
Also, if it does come down to the dreded brokered convention, it would be in Fred’s best interests to see it through with conviction all the way to the end as he might be the only man everyone can agree on.
McCain... I never thought I’d see the day... What are Republicans thinking?!?!
GO FRED!!!
Fred didn’t sound like a man excited about continuing to try during his talk a bit ago.
That's what we've been saying all day.
Advil1000,
I think your line of reasoning is correct, I still think that Fred would have the best shot at bringing in all types of voters from all corners of the country in the general election...Fred hasn’t disappointed me, the “conservatives” voting for Huckabee, McCain are the dissappointment to me.
Let’s face a strong dose of reality. If Fred can only finish a distant 3rd in S.C. where can he win? He has finished 3rd or 4th in every race so far. He is not connecting. Fred can’t win the nomination based on TN alone, can he?
Even the fools on FNC this week agreed Thompson is the only one who can unite all conservatives. And we know how FNC feels about Fred.
Do you think the Hunter supporters will support Fred ? and do you think Hunter will endorse Fred ?
Not surprising, since he hasn't really started campaigning there.
No, you are correct it would take more than that. But as Flashback said it is not Fred that has disappointed us, it is the voters choosing non-conservative candidates in some vain attempt to find electability.
It is now a desperate need to keep a solid conservative (Fred) in the race beacuse we have no idea if Huck or McCain can keep it together through the primary nor do we know for sure what would happen if we go to a brokered convention. We NEED to keep Fred alive through the entire primary. Winning would also be good. Things don’t look good today, but they are still far from over. We don’t know if Huck will stick his foot in his mouth again tomorrow, or if McCain will do a “Dean Scream” and lose all his support overnight.
The point is that we just don’t know. Fred needs to stay in so that conservatism has its shot and is heard!
Go Fred!
South Carolina is not the whole South. Georgia for instance has a CLOSED primary. Whether or not he wins Georgia or other states with CLOSED primaries, Fred is like salt and light shining on the deep divisions in the Republican party. I hope he stays in for that reason.
“Fred up to third with 43% reporting...don’t count him out yet!!!!”
Don’t count him out of what? 3rd place. He needed at the very least to finish a close 2nd. He even said he needed to do well in SC. How is 3rd place double digits out of 1st considered doing well. Jeez he’s only a point or so ahead of Romney, and Romney didn’t set foot in SC, while Fred has been there for 2 weeks, and already said it was where he wanted to show strong. At the pace he’s on he won’t even break 20%. Sorry but his bid for the nomination is DOA.
“Not surprising, since he hasn’t really started campaigning there.”
Was he planning on starting soon. I know he skipped NH & MI to get straight to SC, a state BTW where he should have won easily. Rudy has backloaded his campaign, he’s been camped out in FL for months, spent tons on TV ads. With Fred running behind all the other candidates at the moment when exactly does he win one? Or is this just more Go Fred Go?
If we can’t nominate a real conservative the Republican party will be DOA come this November.
“If we can’t nominate a real conservative the Republican party will be DOA come this November.”
You may be right. But that’s still not going to help Fred.
So it’s probably getting close to the time when we pick a candidate that has a real chance in Nov. Sorry but fred is for all practical purposes done.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.