Farewell, Jeri Thompson

You and your husband, Fred, have been, by far, my favorite part of the presidential campaign. It just won't be the same without you.

No one needed Thompson's third-place finish in Saturday's South Carolina primary to realize the man was not going to be the Republican nominee. He was such a hillariously bad campaigner, it was a pleasure to watch.

To wit: Not only did his rambling speech Saturday, available for download here, start at about 7:12 p.m., when the polls closed at 7. (He joked he had to put his two young kids to bed, but why wait an hour when you can hang out in the hotel room?) Not only did he try to make a stand on the "issues" as one does in a concession speech, but then not (forget to?) drop out until sending a one-paragraph e-mail to the press yesterday. But he paused to look down at his notes before thanking people like his mother and top campaign directors! Now, I'm sure Thompson remembers his mother's name, as well as his aides', but the man is so tone-deaf that he pauses in the midst of such a simple sentence to check his notes! Doesn't one learn on the set how to deliver a line?

Yes, I realize I'm ranting about minutiae (though that may describe my personality), but this speech captured Thompson perfectly: Uninspiring. A president's job, among many, many, many other things, is to provide us with a vision about where she will take the country and if he can't do that and motivate, what's the point?

So, Jeri: What did your husband's short-lived presidential run bring you? Among other things, revelations by the New Republic that a Davidson County (Tenn.) court garnished your wages in 1996 to pay a $900 anesthesiology bill, and that you met your future husband in a Kroger supermarket check-out line in Nashville. (Huh? Full, pretty harsh article by Michelle Cottle here. What especially puzzles me is how Thompson, even 20 to 40 years ago, could have been attractive or charming enough to be lady's man.)

Politico.com, my new favorite Web site, was quite rough in its campaign obituary for Thompson yesterday. They have quotes, anonymous and named, saying you, Jeri, were too meddlesome on the campaign trail and that neither your nor your husband's hearts were really in it, you just liked the idea of being a candidate. Here's my favorite excerpt: "And the candidate’s unhappiness filtered down through aides and advisers, many of whom could barely stand to work for an unpredictable candidate who seemed to be hungry some days and barely driven on others." (Though Jonathan Martin and Mike Allen didn't source that, which, even as campaign analysis goes, is way too damning and taunt-like not to be attributed to at least three "campaign insiders," in my opinion.) Even Adam Nagourney of the Times, who, I find, usually plays it straight, wrote of Thompson: "His speaking style swung between folksy and laconic to the point of sleepy."

Maybe Jeri, your husband's exit from the campaign trail means you can return to those plunging neck lines?