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At the risk of sounding like I am in the tank for Thompson (anybody who has seen my praise for Hunter, Giuiliani and Romney as well would not think such a thing), I am firmly convinced that Fred Thompson still has a real shot at the nomination. (I actually have an ego enough that I think I could personally do a lot to turn around his whole campaign in two weeks if I were running it, but that's another subject.) I watched him with Wolf Blitzer just an hour or so ago and he came across very very well indeed. He really is hitting on ALMOST all cylinders now, more so every day since beginning to really engage about December 1. He also benefits from Romney's poor showing. There is a real chance that conservatives could again coalesce behind Thompson as an alternative to McCain (for his many heresies), Giuliani (for his social-issue liberalism), and of course Huckabee (as an unethical liberal on everything BUT a few social issues). They could figure that if Romney, with all his money, couldn't buy Iowa, he is not viable no matter what. It would help Thompson, of course, if his campaign showed a bit of imagination.... Now, it is also worth noting that the utterly scurrilous Politico story yesterday almost certainly depressed Thompson's vote in Iowa. As I said on Fox News yesterday, for a news outlet to publish a story with UNNAMED sources that is clearly damaging to a particular campaign, on the very day of (or eve of) an election, is just unethical journalism. This is the same organization that many many months ago reported that John Edwards was dropping out of the race. Yeah, right. Anyway, DESPITE the Politico story, Thompson still finished third in Iowa. There's no telling how much stronger a third-place finish he would have achieved without the story. The Politico story said that Thompson would almost certainly drop out by THIS WEEKEND if a) he finished third only by a small margin; b) ESPECIALLY if he received less than 15 percent of the vote. Well, he finished third by a tiny margin, with just 13 percent of the vote, but the man is firing away with guns ablazing right now. And parts of the conservative blogosphere are again on fire for him. Some withdrawal. Why hasn't the Politico retracted its story? All that said, I wish all four conservatives good luck from here on out. It's just that Thompson is the only one who seems to have no real vociferous enemies in any conservative camp, or for that matter any GOP camp. He might be the only remaining declared candidate who can unite the whole party for a fall campaign. That is reason enough to hope that he does well enough to stick around a good while longer.