And The Winner Of The Louisiana Caucus Was ... Fred Thompson?
A very special event happened for the Fred Thompson campaign on Tuesday — besides his official withdrawal from the race, of course. It turns out that after he withdrew via a press release that afternoon, he effectively won something that same night.
National Review reports that the winner of the Louisiana caucuses was an uncommitted slate running under the title of "Pro-Life, Pro-Family," followed by John McCain, Ron Paul and Mitt Romney. In fact, the organizers of that "Pro-Life, Pro-Family" slate were almost all Thompson supporters who decided to take that name a few weeks ago, when it became a distinct possibility that he would drop out before the caucuses — which he did that very afternoon.
If Thompson had still been in the race, a Louisiana political source explained to NR, his state delegate strength in Louisiana would have been enough to potentially get him all of the state's 47 national delegates. The one big problem, though, is that he dropped out only hours before he finally won something.
Oh, well. As the late, great Hank Williams would say, Fred's victory came just in time to be too late.
Comments (18)
awrbb wrote on January 23, 2008 11:30 PM:Eric, Greg, Josh:
You have to start policing the comment section.
People are posting some vile shit that you do not want associated with the TPM brand.
Nick wrote on January 23, 2008 11:33 PM:LOL, this is the most ridiculous assessment I have ever read. Get over your candidates departure and try to pick a contender this time!
hello_world wrote on January 23, 2008 11:37 PM:Thompson hadn't been running for a very long time. He was just playing blocker for the GOP leadership to soak up Huckabee's support for a bit. The timing of Fred's drop wasn't a coincidence.
Marcelo wrote on January 23, 2008 11:38 PM:Not Fred Thompson supporters, but also McCain, Romney, and Huckbee - they could not field a full slate so they joined together. McCain also had delegates run in multiple slates so that helped him.
So, it was Dr. Paul vs. everyone else....not a bad result for the good doctor.
hmmmmm.... wrote on January 23, 2008 11:46 PM:This article is just idiotic.
A.J. wrote on January 23, 2008 11:50 PM:FWIW, I second awrrb's complaint. Perhaps you could consider disemvowelling idiotic comment?
Abe wrote on January 23, 2008 11:50 PM:Fred Thompson was running? LOL
Wait wasn't he the guy laughing at Ron Paul because economics just didn't make sense to him?
Michael Jones wrote on January 23, 2008 11:54 PM:Geez...dude can't even quit right.
MS in NV wrote on January 24, 2008 12:11 AM:Uncommitted is now 2nd in the Republican race... I thought the Dem side was a clusterfuck.
Jay Chawla wrote on January 24, 2008 12:12 AM:Aren't the delegates determined later at a vote of the people selected at the 11 caucus sites? I suspect that Ron Paul won the LA caucuses. Why don't we wait to see who gets the delegates? They're not going to Fred Thompson, so one of the viable candidates will get them.
Vote for Ron Paul! The Federal Reserve and George "The era of big government is back!" Bush got us into this mess, and Ron Paul will get us out of it.
WSD wrote on January 24, 2008 12:22 AM:So wait - if Thompson had stayed in, he would have been leading in the delegate count (http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/primaries/results/scorecard/#val=R)
Doh!
(And not to rain on TPM's parade, but this move by Thompson puts Rudy in fifth place. He's moving up, according to plan.)
Winghunter wrote on January 24, 2008 1:29 AM:Now, due to our own stone ignorance in listening to the MSM we have four RINO's left to choose from;
Candidate Research - Know Who You're Voting For ( The Easy Way )
http://candidateresearch.blogspot.com/
Anonymous wrote on January 24, 2008 7:53 AM:Looking at the field and the argument that Fred was a firewall vote to prevent Evangelicals to get traction in the election cycle seems conspiratorial, but ignores the organization and money that Fred didn't have. That theory has to be right there along side of Roger Stone was hired by Obama to slander Hillary.
What I'm going to find interesting is the count of votes and possibly delegates that Fred gets from write-ins on Super Tuesday if states do not remove the name from the ballot.
Dee Illuminati wrote on January 24, 2008 8:17 AM:Free Republic Opinion Poll: (1/23) If it's McCain vs Hillary in the general, how do you vote?
This is hysterical and Rush is doing more to damage the GOP than these clowns.
This is too damn funny
Jeremy Trudell wrote on January 24, 2008 8:47 AM:Wow, even with all the shenanigans, the media has been forced to give Ron Paul second in the LA straw poll. You can bet he won the vast majority of delegates and will have all of them by the time they get to their state convention.
Ron Paul 2008!!
Dee Illuminati wrote on January 24, 2008 10:09 AM:Jeremy Trudell wrote on January 24, 2008 8:47 AM:
Come back here and search my name, and here is a bet when FL counts are in.
Fred Thompson has more votes than Paul in FL.
Two things to gather from this, you combine the Paul and Fred votes, the Obama opposition to Hillary, and you factor the evangelical/mormon issue, and the hesitancy to support McCain by hardcore GOP, and my bet??
There is a third part run.
But my bet is that Paul gets less votes than Fred, who isn't even running.
Nick wrote on January 24, 2008 1:46 PM:Well, Paul isn't campaigning in Florida currently, and for good reason. Florida serves one purpose right now, to break Guiliani. This will be fun to watch, whether Mccain or Romney wins won't be the big story, Florida was Guiliani's state!
Look for Rudy to drop out the 30th, as for Paul, he is sneaky and highly intelligent, his campaign is building some serious momentum right now. As the other candidates drop out, look for this field to emerge: Romney & Paul, or at best, Romney, Paul & Mccain.
Tojo wrote on January 25, 2008 6:41 AM:Somebody wake Freddie up and tell him the news.
