Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson is suggesting he won’t be satisfied with a third-place finish in Iowa’s Caucuses. "I’m not going to put a number on it, but you know I’m expecting to finish first or second. Let’s put it that way," Thompson said during a telephone interview with Radio Iowa. "I wouldn’t be happy with anything less."
Thompson intends to spend the few days that remain before the January 3rd Iowa Caucuses campaigning exclusively in Iowa, staying away from the other early states of New Hampshire, South Carolina and Michigan. If Thompson doesn’t finish first or second here, he may not make it to any of those states.
"You know, nobody knows how these things are going to turn out, but I’m expecting a very good result. I want a very good result. I expect a very good result. I need a very good result," Thompson said in his interview with Radio Iowa. "I’m not going to be satisfied with just a decent showing. I want a good result in Iowa and if the people of Iowa think that I’m the guy, then they’ll give me that."
Republican Congressman Steve King endorsed Thompson earlier this month and King suggested he might serve as an "antidote" to complaints that Thompson didn’t have the "fire in the belly" to be president.
"What you see is what you get. I don’t have anything to prove in terms of the extent of my personal ambition or whether or not I work 12 or 14 hours on any particular day, or 14 instead of 12, or whatever," Thompson told Radio Iowa. "I am me. That’s reflected in the positions I’ve taken over the years. I’m the same guy I’ve always been, the same guy I’ll be in the future. What you see is what you get and beyond that, I don’t have anything to prove to anybody."
Read more about Thompson’s conversation with Radio Iowa over at The Blog.