Republican and Conservative political analysis and commentary

The Politico is reporting that Fred Thompson may end his Presidenitial campaign and throw his support to his friend John McCain if he has a poor showing in tonight's Iowa caucus:

“Without a solid third-place finish, there’s no point in going on,” a Thompson adviser said Wednesday. “It was an honorable race, and he turned out to be a good candidate. The moment had just passed.”

A Thompson campaign source said there is “a strong likelihood” that if Thompson comes in a distant third in Iowa, with less than 15 percent of the vote, he would drop out soon—most likely before this weekend’s New Hampshire presidential debates.

 

Thompson lately has been dropping clear signals that he has reached an up-or-out moment of his own. On Wednesday he took the unusual step of raising expectations for himself at a time when most other candidates are trying to lower them.

When asked what Iowa results he’d be happy with, Thompson held up two fingers, indicating a second-place finish, according to reporters who were with him.

He did something similar on Sunday, when Thompson—apparently in a semi-jocular mood—dismayed his staff by telling reporters that he needed to finish second in the caucuses, a bar that nobody here expects him to cross.

His war chest was so depleted that he was unable to advertise on television after Christmas, and was only able to back on the air in Iowa by blasting a stream of e-mails pleading for contributions.

Advisers to Thompson described his campaign as “broke” and said that without a shot of momentum from Iowa, continuing the campaign would be pointless and impractical.

I will avoid wild speculation for now (a lot could still happen tonight), but Thompson's departure would put one important February 5th state (and all its elected officials) back into play: Tennessee