In political campaigns, as in life, goodbyes are never easy. Anyone who has witnessed an awkward hug between adult men or who has weakly muttered a final “Take care!” can understand the clumsiness that often accompanies a poignant farewell from the campaign trail.  

The last week saw two departures from the 2008 presidential race: former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) last Tuesday and Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) on Friday. The week before, we said goodbye to Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.).

Other candidates, such as former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) and former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) may soon be forced to contemplate departure.  

As ex-candidates have demonstrated, shutting down a campaign and bidding farewell to supporters can be handled in a number of ways. Campaign staffers, political strategists and the candidates themselves say the goodbye process can be as complicated as the actual run for the White House — and even harder to do well.

A graceful goodbye message, they say, involves timing and delivery.

The growing list of 2008 presidential has-beens, apart from Thompson, Kucinich and Hunter, includes Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.), Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D), Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.) and former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack (D). Their goodbyes have included rambling speeches, online video addresses, endless thank-yous, terse statements and posturing about the future.

Take Tancredo. The timing of his goodbye transpired after a sudden flash of thought.

“It was about 11 o’clock at night, I was in some motel in Iowa — I have no idea where — but I was eating dinner that I had gotten from some sort of fast food restaurant, and I was watching the television. It was a commercial being run by Rudy Giuliani, saying, ‘If you elect me, I will secure the border by putting up fences,’ ” Tancredo said. “When the commercial was over, I picked up the phone, I called Bay Buchanan, my campaign manager, and said, ‘It’s time to pull the plug.’ The last domino had fallen.”

Feeling satisfied that he had elevated the issue of immigration in the race, Tancredo let a few days lapse between the time he decided to exit the campaign and his public announcement. During that buffer, he and his advisers debated the congressman’s withdrawal as well as whom to endorse once he left the race (they settled on former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney).

Tancredo then flew to Iowa from Washington to notify Romney of his endorsement and hold a press conference announcing his exit. He also posted a video explanation of his withdrawal online.

“It’s not as if that issue [of withdrawal] never came up before that specific date when I saw that commercial,” he said. “There’d be weeks, maybe — months — that you talk about the possibility of what would it take if you’re going to get out of this thing.”

In the Hunter campaign, by contrast, withdrawal never came up until three hours before the congressman announced his exit.

Even with the short notice, Hunter campaign manager Roy Tyler explained that his boss’s announcement did not come as a surprise. After all, he said, lots of people had already thought Hunter had withdrawn after he was excluded from the televised debate that preceded the New Hampshire primary.

“That was the beginning of the difficulties,” Tyler said. Still, Hunter pressed on with such optimism that he never considered an exit strategy.

“There was no plan,” Tyler said. “The plan was: Win.”

Hunter made the decision to leave on his own, gave his staff a few hours’ notice, and promptly held a conference in San Diego announcing his decision.

However long they take to decide when to abandon their campaigns, candidates have several things to consider, say those with first-hand experience.

Gregory Lebel, a professor at George Washington University and a veteran of the Democratic presidential campaigns of George McGovern, Gary Hart, Al Gore and Howard Dean, put it in the context of message.

Said Lebel: “When you’re not doing very well, the question becomes, ‘Do I have a message that’s worth carrying? Do I have something to say, and do I want to keep saying it?’ ”

Biden and Dodd, who both entered the race as underdog candidates, exited at the same time after sub-par showings in the Iowa caucuses. Both recognized the incredible odds against them and talked about leaving at a time when they could hold their heads high.

Both senators also gave feel-good speeches, effusively thanking all those who contributed to their campaigns.

In his speech, Biden acknowledged his supporters’ sacrifices and addressed another question that experts say is essential for a graceful exit: Was it worth it?

“So many of my fellow Delawarians came out here [to Iowa], hundreds of them came out, gave up their vacation time to come out,” Biden said in his exit speech.

His message to them: “I don’t want anybody walking out of here dejected. I want you walking out proud of what we fought for, and determined. I’ll be going back to the Senate as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, and I will continue to make the case that we make.”

Biden showed no signs of lingering thoughts about his presidential bid, declining to speak on any political matters related to his run in a news conference last week in the Capitol.

“No,” he said when asked whether he had comments on how former President Bill Clinton was doing on the campaign trail. Afterward, he opted not to comment when asked about his race. Dodd has also avoided questions about his campaign.   

From the viewpoint of Teri Goodmann, one of Biden’s chief volunteers in Iowa, the candidate left the race on a high note.

“To say it’s not worth it would be to say that somehow the process is not valuable,” said the Dubuque, Iowa, resident over the phone. She said Biden’s campaign fostered what she considers to be the point of a presidential campaign: to engage in a dialogue with the American public. “I felt his withdrawal was appropriate and the right thing to do, sadly,” Goodman said.

Then there are the not-so-graceful exits.

After a mediocre showing in the South Carolina primary, Thompson gave a speech that alluded to his exit but did not confirm his withdrawal.

Three days later, he posted a three-sentence statement on his website announcing his exit.

“He made that lengthy and awkward speech of the separation of powers and this and that,” said Paul Herrnson, director of the University of Maryland’s Center for American Politics and Citizenship. “[Thompson’s withdrawal] got off late, it had the view of being disorganized, it had the view of the candidate not putting much energy into it. All of those traits characterized his campaign.”

Others disagree. Thompson’s delivery might have been clunky, but his timing showed class, said Eileen Shields-West, author of The World Almanac of Presidential Campaigns.

“It was well-timed for the race,” she said. “It didn’t inhibit the rest of the race, and I consider that a gracious exit.”  

Thompson spokesman Jeff Sadosky said the candidate “took some time with family and friends, mostly family, to come to this decision” and “wanted to communicate it as quickly as possible, so that members of the press and his supporters knew where he stood and where the campaign stood.”

Candidates’ exits in past races have had far more shameful exits. Biden left his 1988 bid under a plume of disgrace after he was accused of plagiarizing a speech from a British politician. In that same race, Hart blew his front-runner chances when his affair with beauty queen Donna Rice was exposed.

Other exit gaffes include poor timing.

“The more awkward moments seem to be the people who don’t know when to get off the stage,” Lebel said, pointing specifically to Democratic candidates Mike Gravel and Kucinich. Gravel is still in the race and will likely go “straight through right to the convention,” said a spokesman, while Kucinich waited until last week to drop out.

Referring to the famed aging diva of “Sunset Boulevard” later parodied by the Carol Burnett character, Lebel said: “It’s the old Norah Desmond thing. You should really go home now.”

In South Carolina’s Democratic primary, Gravel finished last, with 241 votes, among a field that included on the ballot four candidates who have already dropped out.

Gravel spokesman Elliott Jacobson said the candidate is still in the race to carry his message that there’s “no time for politics as usual.”

“There are certain things that have to be fixed that are radically broken,” he said, while conceding that the campaign has suffered from low visibility.

If not for the sake of dignity, a candidate is well advised to execute a graceful goodbye if he or she has aspirations for future campaigns or political appointments, experts say.

“You don’t want to leave grousing,” Lebel said. “It’s your last opportunity to make a pitch,” and “people are going to be paying attention.”