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Fred Thompson's last stand?

He looks to S.C. to put him back in the picture.

ABBEVILLE, S.C. - In the race for the Republican presidential nomination, each primary or caucus has gone to whichever candidate needed it the most.

If that trend continues, the South Carolina primary Saturday might be Fred Thompson's moment. At least, his supporters hope so.

"He needs to cause a commotion," said Andy Price, 33, a sales representative who turned out to see the former Tennessee senator here yesterday. Asked how well he needed to do, Thompson replied: "Pretty doggone well."

Without a win or something close to it, the actor-turned-politician-turned-actor-turned-politician likely will soon depart the contest - without having exerted much impact upon it.

Thus far, he has finished third in Iowa, where he campaigned vigorously at the end, sixth in New Hampshire and fifth in Michigan - two places he barely campaigned at all.

From the outset, Thompson has run a peculiar sort of campaign.

Last spring, when he was mentioned as a possible candidate, he created a stir. He seemed to offer what was missing from the field - a traditional conservative and a skilled communicator, someone broadly acceptable to the various wings of the Republican Party. He quickly rose to second in the national polls.

By early summer, an announcement of his candidacy was said to be imminent. But it didn't come, creating doubts about the level of his commitment to the race.

In September, he did announce. That didn't go so well, either.

He made the move on the

Tonight Show With Jay Leno

, having skipped a debate in New Hampshire the same night. His actual speech, delivered on the Internet, made it sound as though he thought he had first claim to the legacy of Ronald Reagan.

And in his early days on the stump, Thompson, 65, wasn't a big hit. His low-key, laconic, take-it-or-leave-it manner is not exactly the norm for a presidential candidate.

Months ago, his campaign manager, Bill Lacy, explained the strategy: "We have to go into South Carolina viewed by the voters as being a competitive choice."

Now Thompson has come to South Carolina, where he finds himself in the same sort of elimination position that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney had in Michigan, and hoping for the same result. Some polls show Thompson gaining ground, moving to a close fourth.

In getting this far, he has ramped up his campaign over the winter in terms of specificity and vigor.

He has proposed a sweeping tax-cut package, calling for the permanent extension of the 2001 and 2003 tax reductions, the permanent repeal of the federal estate tax, the end of the alternative minimum tax, and a reduction in the corporate income tax.

On Social Security, a subject he says politicians avoid "like the bologna avoids the meat slicer," he wants to address the system's long-term insolvency by calculating initial benefits for future retirees on the basis of a price index instead of the current wage index. This would reduce benefits across the board.

In the recent debates, he has at times commanded the stage, often when criticizing former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, the man whose surge among social conservatives has eaten up a lot of the political space Thompson hoped to occupy.

Thompson remains, though, a candidate who plays by his own rules.

Yesterday morning, in the small town of Laurens, he did a live, half-hour local radio interview in front of an audience of about 100 people jammed into tables and booths at Whiteford's Giant Burger restaurant.

In the course of the show, he didn't deliver a single applause line. Instead, he focused on the limitations of what the federal government can do.

"Those who tell you we're going to achieve energy independence in a few years aren't being straight with you - it's not going to happen," Thompson said. "We just need to start moving in the right direction. We can't solve these problems overnight."

He made similar comments about immigration.

When the broadcast was over, he didn't take questions from the people in the crowd, many of whom had come expecting a town-hall meeting. Instead, he thanked everyone for coming, shook some hands, answered a few questions from news reporters, and was on his way.

"He's a laid-back guy, and I don't mind," said Cindy Moore, 45, a home-schooling mother and a devoted Thompson backer. "He's not afraid to be who he is. And he tells us the truth.

"The rest are giving us the lines they think we want to hear. I don't want to be led on again and again and again."

So Thompson is hoping that the chaos of the Republican race will work in his favor, that this state will be for him what Iowa was for Huckabee, New Hampshire for Arizona Sen. John McCain, and Michigan for Romney.

And he's hoping that the voters of South Carolina will come to appreciate a man who does things his own way, even if the fire and passion don't always seem to be there.

"I am who I am and who I've always been," he told 75 listeners at Yoder's Dutch Kitchen, which had the message "Jesus is Lord" on its marquee. "I don't dance to anybody else's tune.

"It served me pretty well over the years. It's just Fred being Fred."

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