I Question the Timing

Well, this certainly couldn’t possibly depress his vote in Iowa and become a self-fulfilling prophesy, now could it?

DES MOINES, Iowa – Several Republican officials close to Fred Thompson’s presidential campaign said they expect the candidate will drop out of the race within days if he finishes poorly in Thursday’s Iowa caucus.

Take it with a grain of salt. This is the Politico in which staff the pugnacious Roger “I hates me some Fred Thompson” Simon lurks, so one wonders if the timing of the story was just the teensies bit contrived.

UPDATE: Michelle Malking caught Thompson on Fox News refuting the story. She calls it a “non-denial denial”. Meanwhile, one of Thompson’s top advisers has denied the story about as strongly as it can be denied short of setting yourself on fire, naked, in the center of Des Moines.

I just got off the phone with Rich Galen, a top adviser to Fred Thompson, and it would be an understament to say that he is strongly denying the Politico story reporting that Thompson “will drop out of the race within days if he finishes poorly in Thursday’s caucus.”

The story cites “several Republican officials close to Fred Thompson’s presidential campaign.” Galen told me, “I’m a Republican official in the Thompson campaign, and I’m denying it.” Galen also said that no one inside the campaign was a source for the story. “I can’t put enough adjectives in front of the ‘deny’ to accurately describe how vehemently I’m denying the story,” he said.

So take it as you wish. I think that the story, and the resulting blogging thereof, is much ado about nothing. Thompson has no real reason to drop out now or even after New Hampshire. He can raise enough money to do what he needs to do and he’ll know better where he stands after he has a couple of actual elections behind him.