BREAKING: THOMPSON AWAKE BEFORE NOON, DENIES RUMORS

After the Politico reported this morning that presidential candidate Fred Thompson would drop out of the race with a poor showing in today’s Iowa caucus, South Carolina voters are asking, “Will he still be in the race when we hit the polls in 16 days?” Well, I guess that depends on who you ask… and what happens tonight.

The Politico sourced their story to “several Republican officials close to Fred Thompson’s presidential campaign” and made it pretty clear that his top advisors have agreed Iowa is make or break.

Thompson’s campaign, which last spring and summer was generating fevered anticipation in the media and with some Republican activists, has never ignited nationally, and there are no signs of a late spark happening here in Iowa, where even a third-place finish is far from assured.

This reality—combined with a fundraising drought—left well-connected friends and advisers of Thompson Wednesday evening predicting that he will pull the plug on hype and hope before the Jan. 8 New Hampshire primary.

Thompson’s departure could shake up the race more than his continued presence. Friends and advisers said they have long considered it likely that if the lobbyist-actor is forced from the race he would endorse John McCain his former Senate colleague who lately has been staging a political revival in New Hampshire.

“Without a solid third-place finish, there’s no point in going on,” a Thompson adviser said Wednesday. “It was an honorable race, and he turned out to be a good candidate. The moment had just passed.”

A Thompson campaign source said there is “a strong likelihood” that if Thompson comes in a distant third in Iowa, with less than 15 percent of the vote, he would drop out soon—most likely before this weekend’s New Hampshire presidential debates.

But my Ruckus colleague Ed Morrissey picked up on an interview given by Thompson to Iowa’s KCCI-TV this morning denying the rumors.

“That is absolutely made up out of whole cloth,” said the former U.S. Senator from Tennessee.

Thompson said a rival campaign was likely the source of that rumor.

“Can you imagine such a thing in politics?” he asked.

Perhaps more surprising than the fact that Thompson was up before noon though, is a post made by Mitt Romney’s campaign — which is banking on a strong third place finish from Thompson today in order to halt John McCain’s momentum going into New Hampshire — on their South Carolina website professing that “Team Thompson better pray to God that Iowa voters don’t read this story.”

If they do, they will probably either not show up for the caucus or switch to another candidate. Either way, if this story gets mass distributed today Thompson’s campaign is over!

These comments, of course, came after they distributed the story. Which is odd because they’re only hurting themselves; something they’ve proven to be pretty good at in the past.