Republican Fred
Thompson, the actor-politician who attracted more
attention as a potential presidential candidate than as a
real one, quit the race for the White House on Tuesday
after a string of poor finishes in early primary and
caucus states.
''Today I have
withdrawn my candidacy for president of the United States.
I hope that my country and my party have benefited from our
having made this effort,'' the former Tennessee
senator said in a brief statement.
Thompson's fate
was sealed last Saturday in the South Carolina primary,
when he finished third in a state that he had said he needed
to win.
In the statement,
Thompson did not say whether he would endorse any of
his former rivals. He was one of a handful of members of
Congress who supported Arizona senator John McCain in
2000 in his unsuccessful race against George W. Bush
for the party nomination.
Thompson, best
known as the gruff district attorney on NBC's Law &
Order, placed third in Iowa and South Carolina,
two states seemingly in line with his right-leaning pitch
and laid-back style, and fared even worse in the four
other states that have held contests thus far. With
money already tight, he ran out of it altogether as
the losses piled up.
Thompson, 65,
exits the most wide-open Republican race in half a century,
with three candidates each having won in the six states that
have voted.
In Florida,
McCain, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, and
former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani are battling
for the lead in advance of its January 29
primary, while former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee
evaluates his next steps amid money troubles.
In an interview
Tuesday, Huckabee suggested he would have beaten McCain
in South Carolina if Thompson had dropped out earlier.
''The votes that
he took essentially were votes that I would have most
likely had, according to the exit polls and every other
analysis,'' Huckabee said on MSNBC.
Despite initial
impressions that Thompson could garner strong
conservative support, it never materialized. He never won
backing from more than one in five conservatives in
any of the earliest primaries and caucuses, including
the 19% who exit polls for the Associated Press and
television networks showed supported him in South Carolina.
His showings were similarly weak with white born-again
and evangelical Christians.
In New York,
McCain told the Associated Press, ''Fred Thompson ran an
honorable campaign. He and I will remain close friends, and
I wish him and his family the best.''
In a statement,
Romney commended Thompson's candidacy.
''Throughout this
campaign, Fred Thompson brought a laudable focus to the
challenges confronting our country and the solutions
necessary to meet them,'' Romney said. ''He stood for
strong conservative ideas and believed strongly in the
need to keep our conservative coalition together.''
Thompson's
withdrawal capped a turbulent 10 months that saw him go from
hot to not in short order.
He began toying
with a presidential run last March, emboldened by a fluid
Republican nomination fight and a restive conservative GOP
base. He also was charmed by resounding calls for him
to get into the race -- and his meteoric springtime
rise to the top of national and state polls.
Fans trying to
draft him as a candidate launched an online effort,
seizing on his conservative Senate voting record as well as
his lumbering 6-foot-5 frame and deep baritone as they
argued that he was right out of central casting. They
painted him as the second coming of Ronald Reagan and
the would-be savior of a Republican Party demoralized after
electoral losses in 2006 at all levels of government.
Expectations rose
higher -- and his standing in polls started to fall as
he failed to meet them.
Thompson played
coy about his intentions all the while taking steps to
prepare for a formal entrance into the race with a flourish.
He cut ties with NBC, visited early-voting states, and
delivered high-profile speeches. And, he started
raising money and set up a preliminary campaign
organization.
He delayed his
expected summertime entrance in the race until fall,
perhaps missing an opening created by McCain's near campaign
implosion.
As he prepared to
officially join the race, Thompson was plagued by
lackluster fund-raising; high-profile staff departures,
including some prompted by his wife Jeri's involvement
in the campaign; and less-than-stellar performances on
the stump. Thompson also endured repeated questions
about his career as a lobbyist and his thin Senate
record.
Thompson formally
announced his bid in early September, but hit a rocky
patch from the get-go. He skipped a Republican debate in New
Hampshire, annoying some in the state, to announce his
candidacy on NBC's Tonight Show With Jay Leno.
His easygoing
style and reputation for laziness translated into a light
campaign schedule that raised questions about his desire to
be president. A spate of inartful answers to
campaign-trail questions -- on everything from the
Terri Schiavo case to Osama bin Laden -- didn't help
matters.
Though his star
had faded, Thompson earned positive reviews for a series
of debate performances last fall and won an endorsement by
the National Right to Life Committee.
Thompson first
made a name in Washington politics three decades ago, when
he served as minority counsel to the Senate Watergate
Committee. Thompson, who was 30 at the time, was
appointed to the high-profile job by his political
mentor, then-senator Howard Baker of Tennessee, who was
the top Republican on the committee. Thompson had managed
Baker's reelection campaign and had been an assistant
U.S. attorney in Nashville.
Thompson asked
one of the key questions of the Watergate hearings: ''Mr.
Butterfield, are you aware of the installation of any
listening devices in the Oval Office of the
president?''
White House aide
Alexander Butterfield's reply was the first time the
public learned that President Nixon had been secretly taping
his conversations. But Thompson, who knew the answer
before he asked his famous question, had tipped off
the White House before the hearing that the committee
had discovered the existence of the tapes.
Several years
later while practicing law in Tennessee, Thompson
represented Marie Ragghianti, the head of the Tennessee
Parole Board who was fired after exposing a
pardon-selling scheme involving aides for
then-governor Ray Blanton. Thompson played himself in the
1985 movie Marie, based on the episode, and got
generally positive reviews.
The film launched
Thompson's acting career. Among his many characters, he
played President Ulysses S. Grant in last year's made-for-TV
HBO movie Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee and the
fictional President Charles Ross in the 2005 film
Last Best Chance.
Thompson was
elected in 1994 to the Senate to fill the unexpired term of
Al Gore, who had been elected vice president. He easily won
reelection in 1996.
During his eight
years in the Senate, Thompson was considered a reliably
conservative vote.
A couple of
months after his 38-year-old daughter died of a heart
attack, Thompson announced he would not run for
reelection in 2002.
In April of last
year Thompson disclosed that he was diagnosed in 2004
with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a highly treatable form of
cancer. (AP)