Got a Feeling '07 Is Gonna Be Bad Year

Curious: Tommy Thompson is telling everyone that he's about to ditch the presidential race.

Without your help and support this week, Tommy Thompson's campaign cannot go on.

Tommy Thompson has made it clear that if he doesn't finish first or second this week in Ames, Iowa at the straw poll, he will not go on in this race.

To date he has outworked every other candidate running for president in Iowa. His ideas on ending the war in Iraq, fixing America's ailing health care system and finding a cure for cancer are being heard, but not by enough people.

There is no way Thompson will finish first in Ames. His e-mail doesn't even promise to pay the $35 fee voters need to fork over. It doesn't even mention it. Republicans win Ames by buying up thousands of tickets, not half-heartedly asking supporters to drive over and letting them discover they need to pay a few hours' wages to back their man.

I'm not really surprised Thompson will go down complaining about his lack of media attention, as he was raging about that in the spin room after the last New Hampshire debate. If he'd run in 1996 or 2000 he might have grabbed more attention in a weaker field.

Join Michael Cannon and cast the Wayback Machine back to the first Bush term when Thompson was a similarly-electrifying HHS secretary.

(Hat tip: Mickey.)