Lindsey Graham’s Futile Campaign

Lindsey Graham announced Monday morning that he is suspending his 2016 bid for the White House.

In a video posted on his Web page, the SC senator, whose support in polls of likely voters was practically at zero, according to the Real Clear Politics Web site, said that he was suspending his campaign.

Graham started out strong in SC polls and raised $1.3 million in the state through the end of September, more than any other presidential candidate.

The Democratic National Committee used Graham’s exit to blast the Republican Party on immigration and take a shot at Donald Trump, the GOP presidential front-runner. Marco Rubio is next at 12 percent, followed by Ben Carson, 9 percent, and Jeb Bush, 7 percent.

Graham, a former Air Force lawyer with decades of experience in government, was one of Trump’s earliest targets and became a cautionary tale for how aggressively Trump would counterpunch at his opponents. “It was much needed during this time of crisis”, tweeted Rick Santorum, who has like Graham been relegated to the lower tier debates in the race.

Graham’s announcement comes after spending the weekend campaigning in New Hampshire with U.S. Sen.

Trump, for his part, routinely mocked Graham for his abysmal poll numbers and once gave out the senator’s cellphone number at a public rally. After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of same-sex marriage, Graham said he “will respect” the decision and wouldn’t pursue a “divisive” effort to amend the U.S. Constitution to reverse it.

Graham is a foreign-policy hawk who has called President Barack Obama “a small-minded guy in big times”.

The day after he announced his run for president, Graham released an impressive 100-person fundraising network in the Palmetto State.

It was a privilege to support my dear friend @LindseyGrahamSC – thank you for all you have done for the country you love & serve so well! (In case you need it, here’s the not safe for work explanation of that term.) And then there were Graham’s always-entertaining appearances in the undercard debates – when his polling was high enough to grant him entry.

Trump, who has turned the race into an insult-tossing reality show, dominates the GOP race, while Graham, a Southern gentleman in the truest sense of that phrase with a charming sense of humor and a solid record of achievement, never even made it to the “main stage” debates in the overcrowded Republican field. That attitude, along with his unorthodox positions, puts him at odds with the conservative base of the Republican party.