Gives a gracious speech saying everything but “I’m outta here.” If indeed he’s a distant third or fourth that’s understandable. Who does this help? You can argue it’s a wash and his vote gets divided up but given that he focused attacks on Huckabee it is likely that they share the voter pool and Thompson’s departure minimally aides Huckabee. That could be critical in the long list of February 5 Red states. UPDATE: McCain seems to be holding on. If Thompson comes in third and leaves the race what does it say about the guy who came in behind him?
