Thompson Withdraws From Presidential Race

Fred Thompson, the former Law and Order actor who never quite managed to deliver on the anticipation of his run for the White House, withdrew from the race for the Republican nomination today.

Thompson, a former senator from Tennessee, announced his departure barely three days after his disappointing third place-finish in South Carolina's primary election.

In a statement issued from Florida, Thompson announced that he was quitting, and added: "I hope that my country and my party have benefited from our having made this effort."

He gave no indication of whether he would be endorsing any of his former opponents although he is known as a close friend of John McCain.

Thompson's exit now leaves five candidates in the Republican contest: the two frontrunners, McCain and Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Ron Paul and Rudy Giuliani.

The exit of the former actor came as little surprise to those who had taken notice of his speech on the night of his defeat in South Carolina, when the normally laconic Thompson talked at length, and with an air of nostalgia, about his campaign.

"We will always be bound by a close bond because we have traveled a very special road together for a very special purpose," he told supporters.

As a social conservative and a southerner, Thompson had been looking to the contest to make his breakthrough and revive a campaign that had been widely criticized for its semi-somnabulent pace.

Thompson was an early favorite when he first raised the idea of a possible run for the White House in March last year, largely because of his name recognition from his role on the hit television show.

But his campaign, which did not really come into being until the autumn, never got off the ground. Thompson was widely blamed for his reluctance to plunge into full-time campaigning. He often scheduled only one public appearance a day. In Iowa, he told voters that if they wanted a driven, type A president, they should vote for someone else. In the debates, he was notable for an extremely laconic style. His poll numbers dropped from the low 30s into the single digits.

Thompson made much more of an effort in South Carolina, admitting that he needed a win to continue.

But in the event, he won just 16% of the vote despite his efforts, finishing a distant third behind McCain and Huckabee, and barely a point ahead of Romney, who scarcely campaigned in the state.