And so it begins. The bottom tier candidates are starting to drop out as they realize that support and money are hard to come by when your chances are slim:

He says, "my campaign was completely shocked. We absolutely thought we were coming in second [at the Iowa Straw Poll]. We had no doubt in our minds. The worst we thought we'd come in was third and it didn't happen that way. Something happened between the 50-yard line and the goal line. They pulled a reverse on us and we didn't see it coming."

So you decided to punt. Enough of the football metaphors already. Tommy Thompson never stood a chance as he has nothing to make him stand out. Tom Tancredo has illegal immigration (and is still struggling), Giuliani has a history of leadership the country knows and Fred Thompson is famous and was a good senator. Tommy Thompson was a non-factor from the beginning.

Really, how could Thompson's campaign be "shocked"? He was polling low everywhere except Iowa and if he did do well at the straw poll, he would've been pummeled in the primaries anyway.

Expect others on both sides to throw in the towel soon as donors assess the landscape and decide who they want to throw their hard-earned shekels at. Come January, I expect six candidates on both sides to still be in it with two or three at most having any shot at winning.

The two toughest questions were asked of Rudy Giuliani and Tommy Thompson. The question to Giuliani was something to this effect: "What is the difference between Sunnis and Shiites?" Giuliani stuttered but answered the question factually. I guess you can't expect a Catholic to know about Islam. I'm Episcopalian, ask me about confession and I wouldn't know anything about it (yet I kind of dig that whole confession, say a few Hail Mary's/Rosaries and you're forgiven aspect).

Tommy Thompson was asked about the amount of troops killed in Iraq. Now this question is a set up, yet Thompson should have known. He was right on those killed, but dreadfully wrong on those wounded. He replied that over 3,000 are dead and several thousand wounded. Again, without a transcript, I'm going from memory. The exact dead and wounded are 3,357 dead and 24,314 according to ICasualty. Those numbers are generally very close to the DoD's numbers. Thompson should have said something innocuous such as "too many have been wounded" if he didn't know the answer. Instead he showed that he has not been paying attention to a number I'd imagine eats President Bush up on a daily basis.

Overall, the candidates made no major faux pas, short of Thompson, and I wouldn't expect the polls to change significantly unless Fred Thompson gets in right quick.

Woe is Tommy Thompson. Fresh off of having his idiocy/bigotry highlighted from his reference to "earning money" as a "Jewish tradition," he's being called out on his statement that he is "earning money" for "the first time in my life." Mark Schmitt absolutely eviscerates him: Thompson's salary for years during his service in government clocked in at six figures. Either he was a deadbeat governor and secretary of Health and Human Services who wasted our tax money or he's lying to somehow put a sheen on his current work.

Only problem is, his current work isn't really hard, isn't really earning, and isn't really work:

And Thompson probably "earned" those salaries, in the sense that he probably put in a full day and made decisions. And now? Well, he's the "president," but not the CEO, of a company called Logistics Health, Inc. which is a government contractor -- we can guess what that job involves. He's a senior partner at the law firm Akin, Gump, where he "focuses on developing solutions for clients in the health care industry, as well as for companies doing business in the public sector," and he's got at least two other "jobs" as well, at none of which do his bosses seem to care that he's out running for president instead of clocking in at 9:00. So in what sense is he now "earning" money when he didn't before?

Tommy Thompson isn't working. He's collecting fat checks to leverage his government connections and turn it into taxpayer-funded contracts for his fellow executives so they can get rich off the system. Legal corruption may pay the bills, but it isn't a value-add to anybody except a narrow set of private interests. Tommy Thompson's maintaining a big lie -- it's good that he's getting called on his whole statement.

It's almost as if there's a competition among the Republican candidates for president to see who can offend their speaking engagement audiences the most. First there came Mitt Romney's flop before a gathering of the Cuban community in South Florida. Then Newt Gingrich wowed a crowd by declaring Spanish a "ghetto language." And now we have Tommy Thompson's turn at the mic. Thompson, who bills himself as the only "reliable conservative" in the Republican field, recently addressed the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, and let fly with what he must have thought was a compliment:

"I'm in the private sector and for the first time in my life I'm earning money. You know that's sort of part of the Jewish tradition and I do not find anything wrong with that."

Imagine his surprise when the audience recoiled. Sensing the discomfort, Thompson hazarded an explanation:

"I just want to clarify something because I didn't by any means want to infer or imply anything about Jews and finances and things," he said. "What I was referring to, ladies and gentlemen, is the accomplishments of the Jewish religion. You've been outstanding business people and I compliment you on that."

Good on you, Jews. You really know how to sock that money away! But by day's end there was yet another apology, this time delivered by a Thompson spokesman:

"He is sorry he misspoke in complimenting the success that Jewish people have had in the United States. It is something that he admires financially and otherwise."

Related Posts on 'The Stump':
- Tommy Thompson: Earning His Living?
- Did McCain Nearly Leave the GOP?
- How to Say 'Oops' in Spanish
- Romney, a 'Lifelong' Flip-Flopper

Describing himself as a "reliable conservative," Tommy Thompson confirms that he is indeed running for president. AP reports:

Asked Sunday whether he was running for president, Thompson said, "That is correct."

Thompson, 65, has focused his strategy on Iowa, which holds the nation's first caucuses for presidential nominees. He has made weekly visits to the state and sought to make the case that it will take a candidate who can carry the Midwest to win the nomination.

Thompson is considered a dark-horse candidates in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, only polling in the single digits.

Yet he brings great experience to the race: He served as President Bush's Health and Human Services secretary during the first term, and spent 14 years as the governor of Wisconsin.

Do you think Thompson can gain momentum in the race? And is his Iowa strategy his best chance? Leave your comments below.

But the big news tonight is that another Thompson appears to be actually entering the race. Tommy Thompson has done some bits in Iowa and is now making a New Hampshire move:

Thompson has hired Meridian Communications, a New Hampshire-based political consulting firm, to set up an organization in the state.

Last year Meridian managed the ill-fated campaign of Jim Coburn, who lost to Governor John Lynch by the widest margin ever in a gubernatorial race in New Hampshire.

Which tells us a couple of things. One is that Thompson is seriously thinking about running, and two is that all the good media firms are already taken. Losers get the scraps. Of course it may not be Meridian's fault either, it just isn't the sort of thing I'd have on my letterhead.

I'm much more excited about Tommy Thompson entering than Fred. Thompson has the right kind of experience for a successful presidential bid, as it's much easier to run from a governor position than from the senate. As governor Thompson has led the way in welfare and education reform and won re-election three times with impressive majorities.

Fred Thompson is from Tennessee which is already a Republican lock. Tommy Thompson would take Wisconsin away from the Democrats and threaten Iowa and Minnesota. He doesn't quite have the gravitas of Fred Thompson But I believe makes up for it in experience.

But the biggest problem is that he starts way behind in an already crowded field.

OK, maybe.

This is a suprise to me.

Former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson said Wednesday he intends to form a committee to explore a possible run for the White House in 2008.

"I intend to do so after the first of the year," Thompson said in reference to creating an exploratory committee.

Thompson served as Health and Human Services Secretary during President Bush's first term. The Republican was in Iowa, where he met with about 100 members of a group called Iowans for Wellness and Prevention.

But it makes sense. Despite all the publicity around Giuliani and McCain, the reality is that the presidential race is completely open and there is widespread dissatisfaction around those two. This dissatisfaction mainly stems from a reaction of "that's it?".