The largest presidential field in Republican Party history got a little thiner last night when Tommy Thompson withdrew from the race. “I want to th
August 12, 2007

The largest presidential field in Republican Party history got a little thiner last night when Tommy Thompson withdrew from the race.

“I want to thank the people of Iowa who were welcoming and supportive as well as my volunteers and contributors from around the country,” Mr. Thompson said in the statement. “I have no regrets about running. I felt my record as Governor of Wisconsin and Secretary of Health and Human Services gave me the experience I needed to serve as President, but I respect the decision of the voters. I am leaving the campaign trail today, but I will not leave the challenges of improving health care and welfare in America.”

Thompson, the four-term governor of Wisconsin and former secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, said he needed to finish in the top two in the Ames Straw Poll to keep going, and he finished sixth.

He left his mark, though, making the dumbest comment of any candidate this year: “I’m in the private sector and for the first time in my life I’m earning money,” Thompson told the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. “You know that’s sort of part of the Jewish tradition, and I do not find anything wrong with that.”

So long, Tommy, we hardly knew you.

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