The 2008 Republican candidates line up on stage at a debate in Florida before the state's Jan. 29 primary. (AP Photo)

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Remember the Republican race? We know, that’s so three months ago.

The Democratic battle has been so long and so hard-fought that the GOP primary battle seems like a political blip.

But while Washington is in one those rare reflective modes, as Hillary Clinton closes the books on her bid for the Democratic nod, it’s worth recalling how much of a scramble the Republican primary once was.

Presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama summed it up when he described his conversation with presumptive GOP nominee John McCain Wednesday night.

“We … joked about the fact that if you had asked any of the pundits a year ago whether it was gonna be him and me as the two nominees, we wouldn’t have gotten many takers,” he said.

Obama’s and McCain’s campaigns put fresh value on the impact of the first two states on the primary calendar — Iowa and New Hampshire.

Those states served as the gauge, even when the race developed to a point where there was no clear front-runner, for who would be left standing.

And the race was one of the the most crowded in recent history — three candidates scored victories in the first six contests.

But at the start of the campaign, there looked to be four clear candidates in the running.

Rudy Giuliani, an icon for his handling of the Sept. 11 aftermath as mayor of New York City, soon became the odds-on favorite last year. Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson, as a “Law & Order” actor, garnered heavy attention with a late entrance in the race in September, generating hopeful comparisons to President Reagan from his fans.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney built buzz off his win in the summer Iowa straw poll, and poured resources into the first two primary/caucus states.

And McCain, as a 2000 contender and Senate veteran, started with the air of an establishment favorite - but after summertime staff shakeups and fundraising woes, he slipped far behind in polls.

But then came Iowa, and dark horse Mike Huckabee. The former Arkansas governor’s plain-spoken, folksy demeanor, on display at every televised debate, helped him carry the lead-off contest. Romney placed second.

From then, Huckabee’s face was a common sight on the glossy front pages of newsmagazines. The game had changed.

Huckabee surged in national polls, and began to mount a more formal campaign. He signed on former Reagan operative Ed Rollins, at a time when his biggest surrogates were still actor Chuck Norris and wrestler Ric Flair.

McCain saw his opening. He won the next New Hampshire primary Jan. 8, and was again a legit choice for the Republican nominee.

The chiasmus had already started. As Huckabee and McCain built momentum, Thompson faded. He was accused of being lazy on the campaign trail and was unable to command a following for his so-called consistent, conservative message. After he finished third in the South Carolina primary, he dropped out.

Giuliani, too, was basically off-the-radar in the early primaries and caucuses. In Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Michigan and Nevada, he finished in single digits.

His strategy was to score a major victory in the Jan. 29 Florida primary, and use that momentum to snatch up wins across the country on Super Tuesday. Only by the time the Florida primary came around, Giuliani was an electoral afterthought. His strategy tanked.

McCain won South Carolina, and then he won Florida.

Giulaini endorsed him a day later, and dropped out before Super Tuesday.

Giuliani’s past didn’t help either. His former New York police commissioner Bernard Kerik was indicted on fraud and corruption charges in November.

McCain too suffered a blow in mid-February when The New York Times ran a story suggesting he had a romantic relationship with a female lobbyist and did favors for her clients from his position as chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee. He battled the story, and the tables seemed to turn on The New York Times.

As McCain ascended, there was still grumbling in Republican circles. McCain has made foes with his work on comprehensive immigration and campaign finance reform, and his early opposition to the Bush tax cuts.

Huckabee and Romney remained about even in the race, but it was Romney who took on McCain the hardest. He railed against him as a conservative outsider, but McCain traded with charges that Romney was a flip-flopper on social issues.

Romney dropped out of the race Feb. 7, two days after McCain dominated the major states on Super Tuesday.

Though Huckabee dug in his heels, after that the race was basically McCain’s. Texas Rep. Ron Paul, whose supporters were among the most enthusiastic of the campaign, kept up his campaign when everyone else was on the way out.

But McCain clinched it in the March 4 primaries, and began to mend fences with the Republican establishment.

The next day he fielded the endorsement at the White House from President Bush.

“John McCain is the nominee of the Republican Party,” Bush said. “John showed incredible courage, strength of character and perseverance in order to get to this moment, and that’s exactly what we need in a president.”

Click here to see a timeline of campaign highlights.  

Click here to read more about the 2008 Democratic race. 

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“I’m interested in absolutely nothing else other than doing what I can to help those who are trying to help this country, and be a good citizen … But that does not involve, you know, going to state funerals in faraway places.”

– Former GOP presidential candidate Fred Thompson about why he would not accept an offer to be John McCain’s vice presidential running mate. (Hannity & Colmes, April 24)

John McCain Upper Deck baseball card. (AP Photo)

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BOSTON — Fred Thompson flopped in his bid to become president, but he’s wearing the crown in a new set of baseball cards: He’s Babe Ruth, the original home run king.

And Mitt Romney isn’t waving goodbye to the presidential race, he’s waving the ball fair as Carlton Fisk in the 1975 World Series in Upper Deck’s Presidential Predictors set.

Click here for photos.

Don’t go digging through the store shelves for a Hillary Clinton card, though. She was cast as Morganna the “Kissing Bandit” because, “Like Clinton, she saw something she liked and went after it.” But the card was pulled from the set after an informal focus group raised concerns that it was inappropriate.

“Our goal with the program was to have fun and be entertaining and not to be offensive,” said Louise Curcio, a spokeswoman for the Upper Deck Company. “There was some concern by some of the people that it might be offensive, and we didn’t want to go down that path. So we pulled the card.”

The Presidential Predictors cards are included in one of every eight sets of Upper Deck 2008 Series One Baseball cards. Collectors who find one of the political cards can register for a chance to win a trip to throw out the first pitch at a major league game.

Curcio would not say how many of each card was made. The company tried to pull all of the Clinton versions, but at least one made it out and onto eBay, showing Clinton in green short shorts squeezing tight against a lipstick-smeared ballplayer.

“Hillary Rodham Clinton and Morganna Roberts, baseball’s infamous ‘Kissing Bandit,’ share a similar life strategy: go after what you want and get it!” the card reads. But unlike Roberts, who would dash onto ballfields and kiss players during games, it credits Clinton for generating headlines with “her reforms, initiatives and current bid for the 2008 Democratic Presidential nomination.”

An updated set to be released in May will have a different version of the Clinton card, Curcio said. The company might also add one for Mike Huckabee, who didn’t appear to be a keeper when the set was put together near the end of the 2007 baseball season.

“We looked at the active candidates at the time, and he wasn’t one that was rising to the surface,” Curcio said. “If Huckabee continues to do as well as he’s been doing, we’ll put him in as well.”

John McCain’s card portrays him as a sweet-swinging Ted Williams, a fellow war veteran. Republican dropout Rudy Giuliani is credited with saving New York on his card — just like 12-year-old Jeffrey Maier, who reached over the outfield fence to turn Derek Jeter’s playoff fly ball into a home run.

Chicagoan Barack Obama is Jermaine Dye, the White Sox outfielder who won the 2005 World Series MVP. John Edwards’ card compares him to Archibald “Moonlight” Graham, who followed his one-game stint in the majors with a career caring for children and their families.

A “Wild Card” entry has fake news anchor Jon Stewart as Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan, landing a punch in the face of conservative gabber Bill O’Reilly, decked out as Robin Ventura, in their 1992 dustup.

Al Gore’s 2000 presidential near-miss has a card of its own: Like Red Sox infielder Jose Offerman in the 1999 playoffs against the Yankees, Gore is called out even though George W. Bush, as New York second baseman Chuck Knoblauch, clearly missed the tag.

Curcio said the company did not contact the campaigns.

“We haven’t heard from any of them,” she said. “Do you think we will?”

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As the top tier presidential candidates head for the Super Tuesday primary blitz — 24 states in one day — money is drying up faster than a creek in summertime, leading several of the campaigns to retool in anticipation of the hugely expensive contests to come.

The campaigns keep their financial affairs close to the vest until required to release their year-end financial reports — due to the Federal Election Commission on Jan. 31. While none of the typical indicators are as useful as they once were in this unusual campaign season, money nearly always buys an edge.

That would explain why John McCain’s camp went to New York this week, into would-be Rudy Giuliani territory, to hold several fundraisers. McCain is trying to stomp Giuliani on the former New York City mayor’s adopted turf of Florida, where he has cast his chips in an untested strategy of skipping the early contests to focus on delegate-rich states.

The strategy is on shaky ground as McCain, who just last summer seemed washed up and was working with a threadbare staff and shrunken war chest, recovers his mojo, thanks in part to a McCain-backed surge in Iraq that appears to have lowered the pace of U.S. casualties there.

With early wins in New Hampshire and South Carolina, McCain is beating Giuliani in the latest RealClearPolitics average of polls in Florida, which votes Jan. 29, and he is paying off the debt from his early campaign days. McCain raised a meager $5.7 million in the third quarter but appears on track to spend more freely after working to repay a $3 million line of credit and buy advertising in Super Tuesday states where competitor Mitt Romney is organizing.

Romney is also trying to gain a foothold in Florida, where he’s polling a close third to Giuliani in Florida. Finances are the least of his concerns as the venture capitalist is willing to spend his own money on his campaign.

The former Massachusetts governor won’t say how much he has lent his campaign, but indications are the multi-millionaire Romney is willing to bankroll his effort with as much as $40 million to $50 million of his own money before he puts the checkbook away.

While he has also raised about that much from contributors, Romney has spent liberally in states where he is competitive. The spending has paid off in Nevada, Michigan and Wyoming, where he emerged victorious, but has yet to prove itself in Florida. He spent considerable money in South Carolina, where he came in fourth in last Saturday’s race, though he did pull his advertising in the final week to focus his resources on more winnable contests. Romney plans to spend heavily on advertising in New York, New Jersey, California and other Super Tuesday states, The Hill newspaper reported Wednesday.

Also flush with cash is Ron Paul, the 10-term Texas congressman who keeps a running tally of his earnings on the front page of his Web site. Paul raised $1.85 million on Martin Luther King Day, bringing his total take to more than $3 million since Jan. 1. Estimates are that he raised more than $20 million in the fourth quarter of 2007, which helped him get a second-place showing in the Nevada caucuses. An endorsement from anti-abortion activist Norma McCorvey, a.k.a. “Jane Roe” on Tuesday’s 35th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision, also helped raise his profile, if not his poll numbers ahead of Super Tuesday’s contests. Paul is in single digits in Florida and Feb. 5 states where polling has been done.

Meanwhile, Giuliani’s team has said he will pour $8 million into winning Florida after essentially skipping the early states to save his resources and energy. Whether it will pay off has been the subject of much speculation, but most analysts expect the Giuliani campaign will not be able to continue much further if he does not achieve this critical victory. He is currently running second to McCain in that state.

Mike Huckabee, the Iowa caucuses winner who banked on a strong showing in South Carolina, but came in a disappointing second, has all but conceded the money race. Senior staff have agreed to go without pay and the operation has been and will continue to “live off the land” on a shoestring budget. The campaign has also stopped the costly job of managing its traveling press corps.

Still, Huckabee campaign officials say they have about $2 million on hand and campaign manager Chip Saltsman said the former Arkansas governor and Baptist minister raised $100,000 in Georgia on Tuesday. Huckabee has said he will skip a heavy presence in Florida to concentrate instead on states more amenable to Huckabee’s message, like Georgia and Alabama.

The most recent casualty of the money chase is “Law & Order” star Fred Thompson, who announced on Tuesday his final curtain call on the heels of his poor showing in Saturday’s GOP primary in South Carolina, where reports indicate he spent most of his dwindling war chest. Thompson was reportedly out of cash when he dropped his bid.

“At this point, if you are not emerging as the front-runner and no one is stumbling in front of you, it doesn’t make much sense, and it’s a lot to ask of your donors” to continue contributing, said Monty Warner, director of the Gotham Legal Foundation and former GOP strategist.

“At some point, it gets down to, can you (afford) to travel, can you put up your campaign staff? Unless you want to sleep on someone’s living room floor,” Warner said, noting that “message” candidates like Huckabee, who has a specific appeal to religious conservatives, can continue to raise cash from smaller contributors and grassroots for a little longer than would otherwise be possible.

Meanwhile, the top two Democrats — Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama — appear to have much healthier purses, but they too have the challenge of focusing on the best way to pay the costs of reaching key audiences in more than two dozen states.

In the wake of Clinton’s big win in New Hampshire on Jan. 8, the former first lady raked in more than $1 million in one day. Her campaign continues to e-mail weekly contribution requests.

On Monday, Obama became the first presidential candidate to purchase national airtime, in hopes of reaching the widest audience ahead of Super Tuesday. He launched relatively inexpensive ads on both CNN and MSNBC, a decision that drew fire from the Clinton campaign, which said Obama’s blanketing the nation violates a Democratic pledge not to campaign or spend money in Florida.

The Florida State Democratic Party was stripped of its delegates after it deliberately moved its primary date ahead of the national party’s sanctioned schedule. The Obama campaign responded that it had gotten a dispensation from the South Carolina Democratic Party chairwoman because other ad buys would have left out a portion of South Carolina from seeing his ads.

Clinton and Obama each raised $100 million last year, but have spent it at a “furious rate,” according to a Washington Post report on the candidates’ financial situations.

Click here to read The Washington Post article.

Former Sen. John Edwards, who has been in a consistent third place in the early contests, is also facing a financial quandary, according to The Washington Post. The newspaper points out that Edwards is now relying on an endorsement from the powerful Service Employees International Union and the $1.5 million SEIU’s state councils in 12 Super Tuesday states have pledged to spend on voter turnout and communication.

Edwards, a multi-millionaire like several of the candidates, last year agreed to take federal matching funds, which limits the amount he can raise. His competitors have complained about groups running ads for him, saying it’s an unfair advantage and defies the whole point of public financing.

Advertising is by far the costliest element of presidential campaigning, and the combined total of advertising in this election cycle is expected to reach close to $3 billion, $1 billion more than was spent in the 2004 presidential campaign.

According to TNS Media Intelligence, which tracks political advertising, Iowa television and radio stations sold $50 million worth of airtime to the campaigns and interest groups ahead of the Feb. 3 caucuses. In New Hampshire, Clinton spent $5.4 million on advertising, while Obama spent $5 million. The total for Edwards was $1.7 million. Romney reportedly spent more than his rivals combined on television for the New Hampshire GOP primary. Back in October, he had already passed a 10,000-ad milestone, targeting Iowa, New Hampshire and beyond, according to TNS.

In the Los Angeles market alone, which brings with it a potential 370 delegates for the Democratic contenders, 173 for the Republicans, advertising could cost a candidate upwards of $4.5 million a week.

Washington Media strategists like Craig Shirley, a McCain supporter, said the candidates are going to have to be very savvy as to where they focus their advertising resources in the upcoming weeks.

“You pick and choose your strongholds, and bypass your opponent’s strongholds,’ Shirley said. This might be a good strategy in California, where candidates can target specific congressional districts where they have strong support in hopes of ensuring critical delegates.

What candidates are unlikely to do is drop advertisements into the the Feb. 3 Super Bowl — two days before Super Tuesday.

The annual National Football League championship will feature the New England Patriots and New York Giants this year, and certainly draw viewing audiences from northeastern Super Tuesday states like Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

Pete Snyder, founder and CEO of New Media Strategies, said buying ad time in the Super Bowl is a waste of cash.

“Any media consultant that recommends that a campaign with two million, three million (dollars) on hand spend two million on a Super Bowl ad be sued for malpractice,” he told FOX News. “That’s why you had the dot-bomb craze a couple of years ago … people were spending millions on ads that showed no returns.”

Mitt Romney speaks to supporters in Coral Springs, Fla., Tuesday. He and several other candidates addressed fears over the U.S. economy following a global stock plunge. (AP Photo)

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The 2008 presidential candidate pool rushed to respond to the global stock plunge and fears of a potential U.S. recession, on Tuesday weaving their economic priorities into current events and trying to appeal to voters’ financial concerns.

As the Federal Reserve announced the largest one-time interest rate cut since 1984, Republicans sought to instill confidence in the fundamental strength of the American economy while Democrats blamed the fiscal downturn on the Bush administration’s economic policies.

“I still believe our fundamental underpinnings of our economy are strong, but it’s obvious that we are facing challenges that will require actions like the Federal Reserve took today — low taxes, low interest rates are obviously an important part of any long-term formula of getting our economy back and moving in the right direction again,” John McCain said in Pensacola, Fla., where he was campaigning ahead of the Sunshine State’s Jan. 29 primary.

McCain said it’s “obvious” the $150 billion economic stimulus package proposed by President Bush is needed. He said it’s also essential to eliminate “pork barrel projects” — a position he has long held. In debates and on the stump, McCain has pledged to strike such projects from federal budgets and shame their authors.

McCain has recommended cutting corporate tax rates from 35 to 25 percent. That’s similar to Mitt Romney’s proposal of dropping corporate rates to 20 percent by 2009.

State by state, the economy has repeatedly ranked as one of voters’ top concerns when they head to the polls. Romney won Michigan’s primary after pledging to take his home state out of a “one-state recession.” The release of his $230 billion stimulus plan coincided with the Nevada caucuses, which he won, and the South Carolina primary, in which he placed fourth.

On Tuesday, Romney, a former Massachusetts governor and successful venture capitalist, pointed to his stimulus plan as a way to head off a broader recession — but he also took a soothing tone, citing the buy-low, sell-high credo of investors as a call for optimism.

“I can tell you from my own personal experience that every time I’ve seen things really get scary and the markets really collapse that I put aside that fear for a moment and say, ‘Ah-ha, is this a buying opportunity?’ Because my experience has always been what goes down, comes back up,” the former Massachusetts governor said in Boca Raton, Fla.

“It’s only when they’re convinced it’s going down forever, then is the opportunity to become an investor … there will be opportunity for our economic sector to come back. But it is going to require, I believe, action on the part of leadership in Washington to do those things which will convince the world that America is going to come back strong and our economic foundation is secure,” he said.

Rudy Giuliani, who recently rolled out a proposal that his campaign tagged the largest tax cut in American history, said Tuesday he’s “very concerned” about the economy, but that “sound fiscal policy” will be the pathway to recovery. He recommended permanent tax relief, as opposed to the short-term boosts being discussed in Washington, and reducing the corporate tax to 25, or even 20 percent.

Click here to see Giuliani’s remarks on reviving the economy.

He also recommended reducing spending in civilian agencies by up to 10 percent. Polls show McCain with a slight lead over Giuliani and Romney in Florida, a state Giuliani is determined to win to revive his once-robust campaign.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee later released a statement praising the Federal Reserve for reducing the interest rate and calling on Congress to swiftly pass a short-term stimulus package.

“That said, our economy is much more than just numbers. It is people,” he said, again pitching his proposal for a national sales tax known as the Fair Tax.

On the Democratic side, candidates are trying to assure voters of their economic prowess ahead of the South Carolina primary on Saturday. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, on the heels of a tense and caustic debate in Myrtle Beach, each spoke at length about market concerns.

Clinton said the stimulus package needs to be passed immediately. But like Obama she complained the plan would leave out relief for 50 million seniors. And she said the White House needs to better address the mortgage crisis, which played prelude to the current market troubles.

She called for a moratorium on foreclosures for 90 days and a rate freeze for five years to “stabilize this housing market.”

“It’s very important to recognize how the policies of the last seven years have contributed to the situation we find ourselves in,” she said. “Because clearly we have not only spent at extraordinary levels in the federal government … and that I think is coming home to roost.”

Obama, whose campaign has taken a decidedly more anti-establishment tone than Clinton’s, also pointed to failures of the Bush administration.

“For years, we were warned this might happen. But Washington did what Washington does — it looked the other way. It rewarded lenders and lobbyists with whatever they asked for while ignoring the voices of working people who needed help most,” he said in prepared remarks to be delivered in Greenville, S.C. “Well George Bush’s economic plans haven’t worked before and they’re not going to start working now.”

The Illinois senator said he was ahead of the issue when he introduced mortgage fraud prevention legislation two years ago.

He recommended sending each “working family” a $500 tax cut and each senior a $250 “supplement” on Social Security checks.

In South Carolina, John Edwards, who finished a distant third in the Nevada caucuses, released an economic plan geared toward the Palmetto State. The plan stated it would send $1.5 billion to South Carolina, expanding benefits for thousands of unemployed workers and providing relief for the state’s deficit.

Edwards tied the looming economic crisis to his themes of corporate greed undercutting the prosperity of middle-class America.

“We need to end the cycle of leadership that has made decision after decision over the last 25 years that benefit big corporations and special interests at the expense of the middle class,” Edwards said in a statement.

FOX News’ Shushannah Walshe, Malini Bawa, Mosheh Oinounou, Aaron Bruns and Bonney Kapp contributed to this report.

Saturday: Fred Thompson greeted supporters in South Carolina. (AP Photo)

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Fred Thompson dropped his presidential bid Tuesday, after the former Tennessee senator and actor finished third in the South Carolina primary and was unable to score a victory in any of the early primaries or caucuses.

“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,” Thompson said in a statement.

Prior to his public statement, the GOP candidate had begun calling friends, family members and supporters to tell them he was ending his campaign, four months after he formally announced his White House bid, a run that was greeted much more enthusiastically before he actually got into the race.

Thompson left Nashville Tuesday afternoon for McLean, Va., but was not yet expected to visit his headquarters in the city to make an in-person statement about his decision. The McClean office was littered with boxes, signs and campaign clothing, and it looked like staffers had already started packing up.

Aides said Thompson sent an e-mail Monday telling them he was still undecided about whether to stay in the race. But with no plans to campaign in Florida, which holds its primary Jan. 29, or to participate in a Republican debate Thursday, his staffers expected him to withdraw.

The attorney and actor seemed on the verge of bowing out Saturday during his post-election address in Columbia, S.C., after it became evident he would not finish better than third in South Carolina.

Telling his supporters to “stand strong,” he said, “We will always be bound by a close bond, because we have traveled a very special road together for a very special purpose. You know, it’s never been about me. It’s never even been about you. It’s been about our country and the future of our country … And because of your efforts and because of our working together, our party is being required to look itself in the mirror, decide where it’s going, decide who it is.”

Thompson prided himself as a consistent conservative in Ronald Reagan’s image, and stepped up that assertion in the days preceding the vote in South Carolina, where he said he drew “a line in the sand” for his campaign.

Along the way he fielded criticism that he appeared lazy and generally disinterested in becoming president, but Thompson did earn positive reviews for a series of debate performances last fall and earned an endorsement by the National Right to Life Committee.

Rival Mitt Romney said Tuesday Thompson was the only candidate, besides himself, who strove to achieve Reagan’s ideals.

“His leaving the race is sad for those who were big fans of his but probably helps my effort in terms of bringing together those Reagan coalition individuals,” Romney said.

But the momentum behind Thompson’s delayed entrance into the race — and several missed cues on issues from the right-to-life for Terri Schiavo to Usama bin Laden — steadily diminished as his GOP rivals racked up victories in early test states. Poll averages showed the Thompson went from second place nationally in early September to fifth this week.

Thompson came to Washington as a 30-year-old attorney appointed to be minority counsel for his mentor, former Sen. Howard Baker of Tennessee, who was the top Republican on the Senate Watergate Committee.

He earned fame when he asked a question of which he already knew the answer — whether deputy assistant Alexander Butterfield knew that his boss, President Nixon, had been secretly taping White House conversations.

Several years later while practicing law in Tennessee, Thompson represented Marie Ragghianti, the head of the Tennessee Parole Board who was fired after exposing a pardon-selling scheme involving aides for then-Gov. Ray Blanton. Thompson played himself in the 1985 movie “Marie” based on the episode and got generally positive reviews.

The film launched Thompson’s acting career. Among his many characters, he played President Ulysses S. Grant in this year’s made-for-TV movie “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee,” and the fictional President Charles Ross in the 2005 film “Last Best Chance.”

His departure only nominally thins the field in the GOP race, where no breakaway front-runner has emerged. John McCain, Mike Huckabee and Romney have each won at least one major early state contest, and Rudy Giuliani has dug deep into Florida, fighting hard to prosper in that state’s primary.

Thompson did not endorse anybody in his statement Tuesday.

As for Thompson’s future, speculation is rampant that he could be angling for vice president. Such a move would follow the lead of another former Tennessee senator, Al Gore, whom Thompson replaced in the Senate in 1994 after Gore became vice president.

Thompson senior adviser Rich Galen told FOX News Radio Monday, “It may well be that Thompson is a vice presidential candidate, carrying the message to fill whatever hole there may be in the conservative credentials of whoever the nominee is.”

FOX News’ Carl Cameron and The Associated Press contributed to this report.