To no one’s surprise, Fred Thompson has dropped out of the race.

In hindsight, Monday morning quarterbacking, and all that. . .Remember that six month period of time when Fred was doing a fan dance? Teasing everyone about if and when he was going to get into the race?

Early on, there was a huge amount of excitement among rank-and-file conservatives about the prospect of his candidacy. But by the time he actually got around to making it official, a good number of those people had already become emotionally invested in another candidate–some to Huckabee, some to Romney, even some of Ron Paul’s less “eccentric” supporters should have been Fred peeps.

Fred also never built a deep, organized campaign operation. It was a little like he wanted to be nominated by acclamation. And maybe he will be, yet. It’s extremely unlikely, but if we get a brokered convention, Fred could emerge as a large number of folks second choice.

It’s happened before. Back in 1920. Out of a hastily arranged meeting which gave us the term “smoke-filled room, ” Warren G. Harding emerged from nowhere as the man that nobody hated and therefore everyone accepted.