Net Results

CQ Politics reporter Marie Horrigan notes that former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson's more recently employed skills as an actor may have been on view tonight, as his primary night speech after losing in South Carolina briefly left the impression that he might be quitting the race:

Republican candidate Fred Thompson -- who fell short of the breakthrough performance in South Carolina that many analysts said he'd need -- had national politics watchers on the edge of their seats with a meandering speech to supporters riddled with so many past tense verbs that it sounded like he was about to announce that he was pulling out of the race. But Thompson ended his speech not with a withdrawal statement, but with a pep talk to his backers.

"We will always be bound by a close bond because we have travelled a very special road together for a very special purpose," Thompson said in comments that he began not long after the polls closed at 7 p.m. eastern time. His talk ran several minutes, during which he thanked his supporters and underscored the central tenets of his campaign — low taxes and full federal funding for programs imposed by the federal government on the states; federalism and a market economy; and an opposition to abortion rights.

"Those are the principles that have made us a successful party over the years ... and if people haven’t changed their minds about them we need to convince them we haven’t changed our minds either," he said.

But just as his speech started sounding like a political farewell, however, he wound up the talk with an exhortation: "We’re called upon from time to time to make our own sacrifices ... to make our own contribution. And my friends, that’s what you’ve done. That’s what you’re doing. And I’m so proud to stand with you in that regard, and we’ll always stand strong together in that regard! We’ll always stand strong together!"

Despite the unclear pep talk Saturday night, CNN reported Thompson had no public schedule Sunday and planned to me with advisers Monday — often a sign of an impending withdrawal. But it may be a little harder to tell with Thompson, the lawyer-turned-actor-turned-senator-turned-actor, who ambled into an already well-established Republican candidate field in September and has run a campaign often portrayed as lacking in energy.

Early returns out of South Carolina’s Republican presidential primary on Saturday indicated that Thompson was jockeying with Yankee Mitt Romney for a third-place finish in South Carolina behind Arkansas' Mike Huckabee and Arizona's John McCain, who were battling for the win. After running poorly in the key early events in Iowa, New Hampshire and Michigan, Thompson campaigned heavily in South Carolina in hopes of winning and at least grabbing the mantle of the strongest candidate from the South.

CQ's Leah Nylen contributed to this report.