So, Fred Thompson, squandering his early high poll numbers and even an invaluable endorsement from RWB, appears to be out of the race for the Republican nomination for president, after failing to exceed expectations in South Carolina. He could hang around, but it seems like he’s the last candidate who would be inclined to overstay his welcome. This provides a dilemma for the editorial board around here, i.e.: to whom to award the obviously potent endorsement of this website? We’re not ready to answer that. But the endorsement won’t go to the current candidate of momentum — at least as the mainstream media defines it — John McCain. Although we think he would likely be hard-nosed and wise on issues of defense and foreign policy, there is little else we would trust him on. McCain is benefiting from the split field, and from a sense of “the devil you know” being better than the somewhat half-baked conservative you don’t know. We also think that if he does manage to grab the nomination, it will be somewhat of a Bob Dole in 1996 type of situation; the guy has wanted it for so long, he just won’t go away, so let’s give it to him. The difference is that Bob Dole was quite a bit more of a conservative than McCain. But like Dole, we also think that McCain would fail to win in November.

Well, time to head back into the smoky boardroom on the 32nd floor where we make these kinds of important decisions. (Is that Mitt on the phone again?? Tell him it’s a holiday for Pete’s sake!)

…

Addendum: The opinion below at expressed at IMAO seems to me to be pithy and on the mark, and perhaps one that FDT ought to consider as an epitaph:

I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like Fred Thompson (other than trolls, whose opinions never count), and the reason I’ve seen Republican primary voters give for not voting for Fred Thompson is that he didn’t come to their state and do a silly little monkey dance to prove how much he wanted to be president. This makes these people too dumb to live.

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