Jan. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Fred Thompson, who pinned his presidential hopes on winning the South Carolina Republican primary, withdrew from the race today after finishing a distant third behind Arizona Senator John McCain and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee.

``Today I have withdrawn my candidacy for president of the United States,'' the former Tennessee senator said in a statement released by his campaign. ``I hope that my country and my party have benefited from our having made this effort.''

Thompson has no plans to endorse any other candidate today, his campaign manager Bill Lacy said. He supported McCain's unsuccessful 2000 bid for the nomination.

Thompson, 65, an actor best known to most voters for his role as a gruff district attorney on television's ``Law & Order,'' was once viewed as a political savior for anti-abortion, evangelical Christians looking for a viable, socially conservative southern candidate.

The former lobbyist and lawyer joined the Republican fray as a latecomer in September, trailing only former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani in national polls. Yet Thompson soon lost momentum amid stumbles on the campaign trail and as Huckabee, 52, gained in popularity among the social conservatives Thompson was supposed to win over.

``He might as well go back to living the easy life,'' said Tony Fabrizio, a Republican pollster who isn't aligned with any candidate.

`Happiest Man'

Thompson himself, responding in September to criticism that his wife, Jeri, was causing tension within the campaign, said that losing his bid for the nomination would merely allow him to go back to being the ``happiest man in the world.''

Four months later, McCain finished first in the Jan. 19 South Carolina primary with about one-third of the votes, followed closely by Huckabee with about 30 percent. Thompson finished with 16 percent.

Thompson is the second candidate to withdraw from the Republican presidential contest after the South Carolina primary. Representative Duncan Hunter of California pulled out on Jan. 19.

From the start, Thompson's campaign sought to capitalize on his southern appeal, and he devoted much of his time to South Carolina.

``As much emphasis as is placed on Iowa and New Hampshire, South Carolina is the real bellwether in the GOP nominating process,'' Lacy said in a fundraising appeal last week.

Announced on `Leno'

Earlier this month, Thompson finished third in Iowa and sixth in New Hampshire, where he skipped a Republican debate in September. Instead, he opted to announce his candidacy on NBC's ``The Tonight Show With Jay Leno.''

Political pundits said that move could prove a critical mistake. ``It's insane that he waited until hours after an essential New Hampshire debate'' to make a formal announcement, said Frank Luntz, a Republican pollster and strategist.

Lacy, a White House political director under Reagan and presidential campaign adviser to Republicans George H.W. Bush and former Senator Robert Dole of Kansas, said in a November interview that he wasn't surprised that Thompson's poll numbers had fallen because voters still needed to move past their expectations and see the real Thompson.

``Fred is one who wears well with time,'' said Lacy, who also oversaw Thompson's successful 1994 Tennessee campaign for the U.S. Senate. In that race, Thompson traveled the state in a red pickup truck, often in jeans and a cowboy hat. He won by 20 points after earlier trailing by the same amount.

No Room for Error

Thompson's error was joining the race late in ``such an unfocused, disorganized way,'' said Charlie Cook, publisher of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report in Washington. The late entry, coupled with the hype surrounding his campaign left him no room for mistakes, Cook said.

``The missteps can be attributed to not having the shakedown cruise, the early phase of a campaign when no one pays much attention to what you say -- when you can get your stump speech down and answers down to potentially troublesome questions,'' Cook said.

Thompson adopted a low-key manner in his presidential campaign and emphasized his belief in federalism, opposition to abortion and support for gun owners' rights. Yet missteps became an early hallmark of his campaign.

He told voters in South Carolina -- a state with a large number of evangelical Christians -- that he wouldn't talk about religion on the campaign stump. He also said he doesn't regularly attend church.

Criticized

The strongest criticism of Thompson was that he was lazy and lacked the motivation to endure a grueling campaign schedule. On the trail, he sometimes came across as unprepared and out of touch with issues important to voters.

On his first campaign trip, he called al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden a ``symbolic'' threat, drawing criticism from Republican and Democratic rivals alike and forcing him to restate his position.

During his first trip to Florida, he said he didn't know where he stood on the 2005 case of Terri Schiavo, a brain-dead Florida woman whose husband sought to remove her from life support. Congress and the White House became embroiled in the case. The then Republican-led Congress sought unsuccessfully to force the federal judiciary to overturn a court order to withdraw her feeding tubes.

To contact the reporters on this story: Kim Chipman at kchipman@bloomberg.net; Jonathan D. Salant in Washington at jsalant@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: January 22, 2008 15:37 EST