EDITORIAL - Earlier today, former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson formally dropped out of the race for president as he was expected to do after his uninspiring third place showing in the South Carolina primaries. My readers should be well aware of how much I hate to toot my own horn when I am right, but Thompson's historic demise - and his clear disservice to his supporters - was one of the easiest predictions that I have never made.

Before Thompson had announced his candidacy on the Jay Leno show last year, I was already quite skeptical of his ability to campaign effectively. Maybe it was his relatively late entrance into the race, or maybe it was the fact that his remarks to journalists and reporters did not exactly “wow” me with substance, or perhaps it was the fact that Thompson skipped a nationally-televised debate to join Jay Leno in Los Angeles. Everything Thompson did dripped with arrogance and a brass ego.

Or maybe I just have a sick sixth-sense about who will ultimately fail in politics. Whatever the case, Thompson's demise and subsequent departure from the race was utterly predictable. The only thing that I could not predict is when it would happen.

As of this afternoon, it has. "Today, I have withdrawn my candidacy for president of the United States.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," he said.

With all due respect, senator, your candidacy has not benefited anyone or anything since it began several months ago. You took one of the most promising campaigns that I have personally witnessed in my lifetime and effortlessly turned it into one of the greatest failures. I would laugh if it was not so dreadfully sad.

I am unsure if it was your campaign staff giving you formidably bad advice, or if you simply ignored them at virtually every turn, but your lack of any kind of enthusiasm, your dry and mundane voice and your ill-advised joke before an interview with Fox News' Carl Cameron - which seemed to indicate that you will not be the next president of the United States - proved to be one of your many downfalls. Ironically, that joke turned out to be spot on.

You did both your campaign and your supporters a disservice. They campaigned tirelessly on your behalf and donated their hard-earned money to your cause, and you rewarded them with excruciatingly dull speeches - to the point where you actually had to ask your audience for an applause during one of them. While your supporters planted road signs and attended campaign rallies, you joked with Carl Cameron that you would not be the next president of the United States.

You waited weeks before crafting your platform after making your official announcement to run for the White House, which gave potential supporters nothing but hopes, dreams and little fuzzy teddy bears to rely on with you. You banked on your Hollywood celebrity status to propel you through much of the raucous campaign season, but without a script to read from and several takes to get it right, you seem disinterested, ineffectual and strangely uninvolved.

You have a lot to learn when it comes to nationwide campaigning. You sailed into Congress more than a decade ago and naively assumed the campaign process would be similar, but it's not. Campaigning takes time and effort, and perhaps more importantly, the willingness, drive and motivation to win - a concept clearly lacking within your campaign.

And you had more than enough time to improve. Your lackadaisical attitude was exposed throughout both television and radio media. Political junkies harassed your campaign style through Internet forums and email lists. Nothing short of screaming in your face and holding up bright yellow signs could have made you more aware of how your campaign was perceived by the voters of this nation. But yet, you did nothing. You continued to campaign the way you always have. You continued to drive your candidacy straight into the ground.

You did your supporters a disservice, senator. You took a promising political future and destroyed it in short order. My advice is you go back to playing the president in Hollywood, as that seems to be the closest that you will ever get to the Oval Office.