I know the last few days have been frustrating. Waiting to learn about the future of your candidate weighed on all of us.

Fred Thompson ran for President with his head held high. He offered conservative ideas that set him apart from all the other candidates.

Politics is a strange affair. The person you think would be the best leader for America sometimes doesn’t win.

We shouldn’t give up. Continue fighting the conservative cause. As Fred said last Saturday, “stand strong” for what you believe in.

I want to thank all of you who left comments on the Fred File. There was passion, fire, and energy here. You made this experience a great one for me.

I’ve been a weblogger before joining Fred’s team, and I’ll continue to be one. You can read me at The American Mind.

You’ve given me memories I will never forget.

Thank you,

Sean Hackbarth

Original post by Sean

Today I have withdrawn my candidacy for President of the United States. I hope that my country and my party have benefited from our having made this effort. Jeri and I will always be grateful for the encouragement and friendship of so many wonderful people.

Original post by Fred

This is an open thread.

Original post by Sean

Original post by Sean

You came out to vote for Fred giving him a third place showing. That means so much.

Fred spoke to his supporters last night.

[via Blogs for Fred Thompson]

Original post by Sean

The polls have closed and Fred spoke to his supporters in Colombia.

What do you think?

Original post by Sean

Two more requests for South Carolina FredHeads:

1. Vote if you haven’t already done so and/or take a friend to the polls. You have two hours left.
2. To to Greenville, SC for the Post-Primary party. It starts at 7:00.

Original post by Sean

I want to hear from South Carolina FredHeads. What’s your sense of the situation? Is the bad weather having an effect? How is turnout?

Original post by Sean

The polls are open until 7:00 ET.

If you need voter information visit SCVotes.org.

If you want to help with Fred’s Get Out the Vote efforts or have questions contact the South Carolina state headquarters:

1703 Gervais Street
Columbia, SC 29201
Office: 803-251-3526
Fax: 803-251-6287
SouthCarolinaHQ@fred08.com

Original post by Sean

Today is the South Carolina Primary. For voter information go to SCVotes.org. Go out and vote!
10 Days until the Florida Primary
17 Days until Super Tuesday

• GoUpstate.com:
  

  Republican presidential hopeful Fred Thompson played up his Southern roots and his conservative resume Friday during a campaign stop at the Beacon Drive-In.

  “It’s so good to be here among folks who don’t think I talk funny,” Thompson said to a crowd of about 300.

  Thompson said curbing illegal immigration, a key issue for voters here, would be a top priority for him.

  “A nation that cannot secure its borders will not remain a sovereign nation,” Thompson said. “We must stop illegal immigration. It’s a fairness issue and a national security issue.”

• Byron York, National Review Online:
  

  If anyone came to the speech to hear specific proposals for any specific problem, they were bound to be disappointed. The right kind of speech for election eve is almost always a broad declaration of principles, mixed with get-out-the-vote exhortations, and that’s what Thompson did Friday night. But he had a more specific message, too, directed to the debate going on inside the Republican party these days. And the message was: Don’t listen to those people who say the party has to change. Stick to the conservative principles that got us here.

  “The Founding Fathers had it right from the very beginning,” Thompson said. “The wisdom of the ages, the fact that our basic rights come from God and not from government, the notion that a government big enough and powerful enough to give you anything is big enough and powerful enough to take anything away from you…respect for the rule of law…the institution of the market economy…[the belief] that if a person earned a dollar, that dollar belonged in the person’s pocket…” Those should be our guiding principles, he said.

  “We’re having a little discussion in the party nowadays about what that means for the future,” Thompson told the crowd. “Some people think we need to get away from the Reagan coalition, because it doesn’t exist any more.” The audience erupted into boos. “Some people seem to think that we need to be a little bit more what they called progressive…Well, I reject that concept with every fiber of my being.”

  After walking through a few issues — “a nation that cannot secure its own borders will not remain a sovereign nation”; “our principles mean that we don’t let a federal government that can’t even chew gum and tie its own shoelaces half the time take over our health-care system”; “the security of our people underlies everything else” — Thompson hit again on the main argument for his candidacy: Unlike some other candidates, he’s always been a conservative, and he always will be. “I’ve always been there,” he said, “I’m proud of my record, what you see is what you get, where I was yesterday, I am today, is where I’ll be tomorrow. I wear no man’s collar, and I’ve never been accused of changing my political opinion about something because of a political consideration.”

  On a number of occasions, the crowd — somewhere between 300 and 400 people jammed into the ballroom — interrupted with chants of FRED! FRED! FRED!

• Erick Erickson, Human Events:
  

  The Fred Thompson in South Carolina this week is the one America saw knock into Mike Huckabee as a pro-life liberal with “blame America first” beliefs whose economic policies would destroy the economy. And the crowds love it.

  Though barely mentioned in the national media, Senator Fred Thompson has been on a barn storming tour crisscrossing South Carolina for more than a week. In a unique approach, he is not just going to major media markets, but to rural areas of South Carolina. On my first day on the trail with Senator Thompson, he drew a crowd of 180 people to a small Mennonite restaurant in Abbeville, South Carolina — population 26,000 with a median income of $15,370. He capped off the day at the Orangeburg-Calhoun County Technical College in Orangeburg, South Carolina with over 200 people braving a rare snow shower to hear him. The day before I joined him on the campaign trail, Senator Thompson’s campaign saw large capacity auditoriums overflowing with people standing outside the buildings waiting to get in.

• The Charlotte Observer:
  

  He touts his endorsements from groups that oppose abortion, his consistent push to crack down on illegal immigration, his pledge to bolster the military and his vow to appoint conservative judges.

  “There are some folks who kind of think the Reagan Revolution is dead,” he said at a rally Thursday in Prosperity, S.C. “I reject that.

  “We’re not going to defeat the Democrats in November by being more like them.”

  Thompson has also been more willing to jab at opponents for being softer on immigration — particularly former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who is vying for the same conservative supporters. “I was walking the walk,” Thompson says, “before they were talking the talk.”

  Thompson says he’s the only candidate climbing in the polls, while the others sink or stay flat. Most surveys still show him running third or fourth.

  The Prosperity event persuaded Curtis Thevalier, 53, to support Thompson over Huckabee.

  “I like his frank approach,” said Thevalier, a retired electronics technician. “America doesn’t need to be sugar-coated. We just need to be told what we need to do to better our country.”

  Overflow crowds filled two more campaign stops Friday. Elaine Masceri said in Seneca that Thompson has her vote.

Original post by Sean