Fred Thompson Withdraws from Presidential Race

D@mn. My wife said I was throwing a vote away. What are we going to do now? The country is definately going to hell now. Just kidding. Its already there.

Stared late, quits early. Does appear like someone who really wanted this.

I guess "acting" as a presidential candidate wasn't as easy as acting on "law and order".

I hate this. He seemed like a 'down to earth' kinda guy and he had my vote.

he is a great person and would have been a great president but dont give up if he is the vp candidate on the republican ticket it will make the ticket even stronger

President McCain. Arab terrorists, make out your last will and testament. Enough BS is enough. Pray to the mushroom cloud. And after that, all you commie liberals will have to get a job.

That Fred Thompson’s candidacy did not prosper is a great disappointment to me and, I assume, other true conservatives. Compared to the others in the GOP field, he was the only real conservative (who ever seemed to have a chance). The others seem to be Johnny-come-latelies, at least as to some important conservative positions.

The country and the party may well have benefited from Thompson’s effort in that other candidates have moved in a conservative direction, perhaps in part to capture votes that otherwise would have gone to him.

I appreciate Thompson’s staying with it this long, and not bowing out without giving his candidacy a full chance. I also appreciate his leaving now, while the semi-conservatives still have a chance.

Thompson’s pro-life position reflects American principles in their most traditional and compassionate senses. The principles he espouses–Individual Liberty, Personal Responsibility, Free Markets, Limited Government, Federalism, Protecting our Country, Traditional American Values, the Rule of Law, Conserving Our Nation’s Resources (as defined at fred08.com ) are the principles that made this country good and great. They are still necessary to the maintenance of our country’s goodness and greatness. We deemphasize or neglect them at our peril.

One thing I really like about Thompson is that he, unlike most if not all of the other top-tier presidential candidates, understands the centrality of the principle of the rule of law to the American system of free government. As he said in a book published eight years ago (“The Rule of Law in the Wake of Clinton”),“The importance of the rule of law cannot be overstated. In our country the rule of law is the foundation for every institution. In many countries the chief drawback to the formation of a prosperous and civil society is the absence of the rule of law.”

Thompson’s “Border Security and Immigration Reform Plan”(on his campaign web site), with its equal treatment of all immigrants and no-amnesty policies, reflects a true belief in the rule of law, and is an excellent program for reducing immigration lawlessness and restoring the rule of law in our country.

Thompson seems more concerned with real, workable policies, even if painful, than the meaningless slogans that are propelling some of the other candidacies. If the voters had put in the thinking time that their country deserves, I suspect that Thompson would have done much better.

The conventional wisdom seems to make “fire in the belly”–driving ambition–a requirement. Thompson seemed to be running on the basis of his patriotism rather than ambition. At times in our history we have had some pretty good presidents whose ambition and personal desire for glory ranked well below their love of country. I hope the pundits will let us go back to the attitude of those times. Politics is, of course, necessary for both becoming and being president. But maybe someone who is not the best politician would make the best president.