by WonkoKevin

Having decided that New Hampshire was a losing proposition, Fred Thompson’s campaign announced today that it would be pulling out of NH and concentrating solely on Iowa.

The former Tennessee senator is planning to begin a bus tour of the Hawkeye State next week that will run through the end of the year, with a brief break for the Christmas holiday, campaign spokesman Jeff Sadosky tells CNN.

A “strong finish” in Iowa “will allow us to springboard into South Carolina, Florida and the rest of the February 5 states in a very strong position,” said Sadosky.

The move represents an about-face from Thompson’s position as recently as last month, when the New York Times reported that he responded to complaints from New Hampshire voters that he hadn’t spent enough time there with promises to visit “early and often.”

Thompson is running fifth in New Hampshire in the latest Mason-Dixon poll of GOP primary voters, released Sunday. That same survey showed him in third place in Iowa, with 11 percent of the vote, and fourth in a very competitive South Carolina race, with 14 percent.

Can he pull of a third place in Iowa?  Yes, given that Giuliani is now concentrating on NH.  Will it make much of a difference though if Thompson, Giuliani, and McCain finish with (e.g.) 6, 4, and 3 percent?  Thompson’s going to have to get into the teens to gain any attention from third place.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 11th, 2007 at 12:48 pm and is filed under Fred Thompson. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.